New Book on Sustainable Supply Chains and RIO + 20

While riding the train back to Gothenburg from Stockholm yesterday afternoon, I devoured my copy of the International Herald Tribune, which had a beautifully written OpEd piece by Gro Harlem Brundtland, Earth Agonistes. To those of you who are passionate about the environment and sustainability, Brundtland needs no introduction since not only is she a former prime minister of Norway but she was also the chair of the committee that produced the UN report published in 1987, Our Common Future, which is now commonly referred to as the Brundtland report and which helped to define sustainability.

Today the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development or RIO + 20 begins.

In her OpEd, Brundtland states that: The proposed Sustainable Development Goals, if aligned with the latest science, offer the prospect for a viable and equitable future for humanity. 

Like no other generation before, we can choose the type of future that we will leave to the next generation. A transition to a safe and prosperous future is possible, but will require the full use of humanity’s extraordinary capacity for innovation and creativity. 

Real leadership is required now to tackle these systemic issues. We therefore call upon world leaders to move beyond aspirational statements and exercise a collective responsibility for planetary stewardship, seizing the opportunity offered by the Rio 2012 summit to set our world on a sustainable path. 

With excellent timing, Springer has announced the publication of a new book, "Sustainable Supply Chains: Models, Methods and Public Policy Implications," edited by Tonya Boone, Vaidyanathan Jayaraman, and Ram Ganeshan and the Table of Contents can be downloaded here.


Our paper on the design of sustainable blood supply chain networks with a focus on medical waste management is the fifth chapter in this volume, which is volume 174 in the Springer International Series in Operations Research & Management Science.

My book with Ding Zhang, "Projected Dynamical Systems and Variational Inequalities with Applications," is the second book in this series.

Let's hope that RIO + 20 results in truly transformative ideas and partnerships.