It is widely-accepted that a proper balance of economic, environmental and social objectives needs to be managed in organizations’ global operations to survive and remain competitive. This triple-bottom-line perspective is central to organizational sustainability strategies and operations and requires radical changes in the management of all kind of organizations around the world.

After a successful workshop on Operational Research for Sustainability (TAORS) held in Sitges-2015 as part of the Global Cleaner Production and Consumption Conference, the organization of the Second Global Conference on Sustainability GCTAOS (Beijing, September 2017) will have a complementary and broader perspective, including business models, operations management, and management science as well. This global scale event has the primary intention to bring politicians, policy-makers, practitioners and academics from all over the world to discuss the future of the planet based on the collaborative work of all the stakeholders. This should be a unique opportunity to share experiences and move forward the current climate change and sustainability world agenda underpinned on the scientific use of data as an essential source to make better decisions. As it has been widely discussed, (reliable) data is the primary source to design mathematical models and solution methods that could provide smart tools for decision-making on a vast arrange of traditional operations and businesses management problems. In this new sustainable setting, problems have become more complex and difficult to solve. Thus decision-makers are aware of the need for a fresh and new body of knowledge and an improved set of solution approaches that integrate disruptive technologies, mathematical models and solution methods to address a wide variety of business and operations management problems under the climate change and sustainability domain.

In addition to the plenary session and workshops held at the 2nd Global Conference on Theory and Application of OR/OM for Sustainability (GCTAOS), a complimentary Software Exhibition will also take place in parallel. The aim of the software exhibition is to showcase the latest high-tech products and services, provided by global organisations and research centres, that address sustainable problems that arise in manufacturing and service organisations. The exhibition encourages new development, innovation and collaborations in this area; students and scholars that are in an early stage of the software development project are welcomed.