The Sustainability of Operations: Past, Present, Future

Abstract

Joris van de Klundert has unearthed a truly astounding collection of fact, implications, and insights, and assembled these into an impressive manuscript. I am sure that any reader will find something new in the book.This book is original, thought-provoking, and a pleasure to read! Frits Spieksma Eindhoven, October 9, 2023Many people have contributed to this manuscript, most unintendedly and unknowingly. Especially the many students who sincerely and politely expressed their lack of understanding while I was introducing them to the 'obvious' principles of operations management have been a source of inspiration. I am indebted to them and to anyone else who allowed me to spend time on developing this book and/or listen to incoherent intermediate updates on the content while I was trying to grasp the essence of operations, operations management, and sustainability.My gratitude also goes to Now Publishers, in particular to Alet Heezemans, Mark de Jongh, and Zac Rolnic, for their commitment and support to write this book, which is only remotely related, if at all, to Zac's original request.I am also grateful for being generously allowed to reuse images. To Susan Allison, Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, University of Chicago, USA, for support with Figures 6.1 and 6.2. To Nima Nezafati and Thomas Stoellner from the Bergbau Museum, Bochum, Germany, for permission to reuse Figure 5.2. To the IPCC to grant permission for using Figures 2.4, 11.2, and 11.3. Lastly, to Paul Koch and Tony Barnoski for their support and co-creating Figure 4.4, which updates Table 1 of their 2006 publication [139].