Sustainable operations have developed a strategic role for enterprises’ competitiveness, particularly when they are connected to product and/or process improvement, new markets, and risk management. Some companies are differentiating themselves through sustainability, showing innovative solutions for incorporating sustainable practices. This paper explores identifying patterns in sustainable practices adoption. Three Brazilian companies were studied for characterizing their sustainable operations management models. The results pointed that patterns are emerging but companies are still reaching difficulties to integrated sustainability to their competitive strategies, business models and value chain. Also the results contribute for identifying recommendations that can be followed to establish a sustainable operations management model.