With the ongoing growth of international trade between developed and developing countries the environmental, social and economic performance of supply chains is constantly under the spotlight, with reviews by academics (see a sample for the controversial textile and apparel industry in Ngai et al., 2014) and emphasis on practice (Zhou et al., 2014) to the fore. Focal companies are challenged to manage risks of media coverage often focusing on discovering social and environmental problems in the supply chains. The safest way to manage these risks is to prevent undesired sustainability problems. However, for modern brand leaders and focal companies managing sustainability performance has exceeded the stage of mere risk management.

In practice, moving towards sustainability in supply chains involves a complex set of performance issues relating to social, environmental, technological, political and economic aspects and their integration as the recent clothing factory fires in Bangladesh illustrate.

In this ebook of Supply Chain Management: an International Journal these matters are raised, as we move towards addressing the complexity of measuring and managing sustainability performance of supply chains.