The work of organizations joining forces in win-win, pre-competitive ways to bring about massive, impactful shifts away from business as usual
As California’s devastating drought enters its fourth year and local organizations are appealing to residents to rein in their water use, a diverse coalition of companies with skin in the game — food and beverage giants General Mills, Driscoll’s and Coca-Cola North America, Gap Inc., Symantec and home builder KB Home — are coming together to launch a new campaign urging companies to enact more aggressive measures to maximize California's local and state water resources.
This is the final question from a roundtable discussion with the directors of sustainability research centers at six top business schools.Through Georgia Tech’s new QEP (Quality Enhancement Program), we will develop very deep educational partnerships with a few key institutions, be those NGOs or local government or corporations.
This is the fifth of six questions from a roundtable discussion with the directors of sustainability research centers at six top business schools.So there are a couple different ways that we support the research process as an Initiative.One is that we bring in funding and then disperse it to faculty for research on sustainability. We’ve done that with some corporate funding, as well as philanthropic individual donors or foundations. We put out those calls for proposals, and it helps us to identify who among the faculty is doing research and sustainability.
If the ideal business has sustainability embedded throughout, why not embed the same lens throughout an MBA program?That’s what faculty members had in mind for the Sustainable MBA program at Duquesne University’s Palumbo Donahue School of Business.
Within a few years, every undergrad at the Georgia Institute of Technology could understand what it means to create sustainable communities.That’s the goal of a new institute-wide initiative called Serve•Learn•Sustain.
This is the fourth of six questions from a roundtable discussion with the directors of sustainability research centers at six top business schools.We have a big opportunity to influence curriculum within the entire university right now. And in the context of that we’ll have the same opportunity within the College of Business.In a nutshell, as part of reaffirming its accreditation every 10 years, Georgia Tech needs to put together a five-year Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) that touches undergraduate education across all colleges.
Tom Catania’s role at Whirlpool Corporation wasn’t specifically to shape the company’s sustainability efforts. But in more than 25 years with the appliance manufacturer, the last 14 as Vice President for Government Affairs, Catania’s job called on him to help identify public policy conflicts and bring together diverse interests to find consensus.His role at the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise is much the same. “My focus had always been on trying to identify public policy issues and turning them into business opportunities, and I think we were pretty successful at doing that,” Catania said.
I held a roundtable discussion with the directors of sustainability centers and institutes at six top business schools to learn more about how they engage with industry. One of the questions was: What are your expectations for funding or engagement time when working with industry?For curriculum-based projects, we don’t lead the discussions with anything that involves a fee for services.
How do companies deal with mushrooming sustainability data requests coming in from all directions – raters, investors, B2B customers? In Part 1 of this dialogue, Bridgestone Americas’ Director of Environmental Affairs, Tim Bent, discussed the company’s Sustainability Hub, developed with the help of PivotGoals project manager Jeff Gowdy to interface Bridgestone’s environmental, social, governance and economic data with incoming questionnaires.
Howard Connell, managing director of Georgia Tech’s new Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business, points to the panel of presenters at the Center’s inaugural event as an example of how it plans to address the systemic complexities of sustainability.
A growing number of companies are turning to collaborations — with suppliers, NGOs, industry alliances, governments and even competitors — to become more sustainable, according to new research by MIT Sloan Management Review, The Boston Consulting Group and the UN Global Compact.The study, Joining Forces: Collaboration and Leadership for Sustainability, found that, as sustainability issues become increasingly complex, global in nature and pivotal to success, companies are realizing that they can’t make the necessary impact acting alone.
How do companies deal with mushrooming sustainability data requests coming in from all directions – raters, investors, B2B customers? Bridgestone Americas’ Director of Environmental Affairs, Tim Bent, decided to get systematic about it – working with PivotGoals project manager Jeff Gowdy, they created a Sustainability Hub to interface the company’s environmental, social, governance and economic data with incoming questionnaires.
This is the second of five questions from a roundtable discussion with the directors of sustainability research centers at six top business schools. See part one here.When we think about relationships with industry, we think of three key success factors.
I held a roundtable discussion with the directors of sustainability centers and institutes at six top business schools to learn more about how they engage with industry.The first question was: Do you view industry more as a partner or client?I may get us off to a bad start, because I want to say “both.” I would say as a partner, because we rely on industry to give us insights into what knowledge and skills our students need to learn. But then as a client, when we’re doing consulting projects for companies.
Dock to Dish, a New York-based community and restaurant supported fishery, has announced plans to open Florida’s first community supported fishery in Key West next month in conjunction with Key West restaurateur Chris Holland and the Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association.The goal of the new enterprise is to bring the health benefits of locally harvested fish and seafood back to local consumers while helping to strengthen the in-state commercial fishing industry, Dock to Dish says.
FCF Fishery Company (FCF) has announced that its joint investment, Nambawan, and its associated fleet, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with PNAO/Pacifical as a commitment to maintaining Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) sustainability standards while trading tuna harvested from Pacific Island Nations (PNA) waters.Under the agreement, FCF will work with the PNA and Pacifical on criteria for certification and ensuring traceability and reporting from fish harvested to transportation, and processing into its semi-finished and finished products.
World leaders, activists and celebrities have descended on Davos, Switzerland this week to discuss everything from Ebola to climate change and the future shape of the world economy at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2015.
Royal HaskoningDHV has partnered with Dutch water supply company Vitens to help other drinking water companies around the world recover humic acid, an organic fertilizer.Humic acid is often discharged as a waste product during the drinking water blanching process. However, it can now be reclaimed sustainably in its pure form, providing an organic soil improver.
Mars, in partnership with UC Davis, launched the Innovation Institute for Food and Health, part of the university's World Food Center, at a day-long symposium on Wednesday. Laureates and other leading scientists discussed major challenges relating to improving global food security, sustainable agriculture and health for a growing world population.The Innovation Institute is being supported over the next 10 years with a pledge of $40 million from Mars and $20 million from UC Davis and aims to advance new discoveries in sustainable food, agriculture and health.
57 companies, including BASF, Boeing and Ford, have joined the Department of Energy’s new Manufacturing Innovation Institute for Advanced Composites. A consortium of companies, nonprofits and universities led by the University of Tennessee-Knoxville are investing more than $250 million to launch the Institute, focused on cutting-edge research on advanced fiber-reinforced polymer composites, which combine strong fibers with tough plastics that are lighter and stronger than steel.