Welcome to the third issue of the Journal in which we are publishing a selection of papers that reflect the growing importance of reverse supply chains in sustainable engineering practices. Reverse supply chains reflect a business response to pressures from legislation and customers to extract value from products that reach the end of their lives. We hope that the extensive review of the literature by Sasikumar and Gannan, which is to be published in 3 parts (Part 1 is included in this issue), will provide a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners alike as they seek knowledge in this rapidly growing subject of increasing importance.
This issue carries a ‘call for papers’ to support a Special Issue on ‘Materials and Sustainable Engineering’ which we plan to publish in the Autumn of 2009. We are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Mark Jolly as the Guest Editor for the Special Issue. Mark has chaired the Sustainable Integrated Manufacturing Committee of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IoM3) and he is a member of that Institute's Sustainable Development Group. He organised and chaired the successful ‘Materials Congress 2008 symposium on Eco‐Design: Materials for a Sustainable Society’ on behalf of the IoM3. We plan to invite selected contributors to the symposium to develop their papers for submission to the ‘Special Issue’.
We have also invited contributions from other forthcoming conferences and strongly encourage our readers to submit papers appropriate to our broad remit.