Business Sustainability for Practitioners

What is the benefit of a lot of great thinking in the pursuit of business sustainability if it can't be put into practical application? We asked ourselves the same question and decided that the ability to take what is known and learned and put it into action, needs to be a crucial part of what the Erb Institute is about.  In this campaign we will share specific examples of where faculty, partners, researchers (and students) have turned science into action in order to move the needle on business sustainability.

Videos from this campaign

Content from this campaign

Research, Reports & Publications

Do People Cheat When No One’s Looking? Implications for Environmental Management
Many environmental management programs offer people incentives to engage in conservation activities. But these activities, carried out on a local level, often are difficult to monitor. Are people inclined to cheat to get the incentives? Research led by Rohit Jindal of the MacEwan University Business School in Edmonton, Alberta and Erb Institute Faculty Director Joe Árvai set out to answer this question. Their research, entitled “To Cheat or Not? Results From Behavioral Experiments on Self-monitoring in Vietnam,” by Rohit Jindal, Joe Arvai, Delia Catacutan and Dam Viet Bac was published in Strategic Behavior and the Environment.

Research, Reports & Publications

Appeal of Residential Solar Photovoltaics – Does Framing Matter?
If residential solar photovoltaics (PV) were adopted more widely in the United States, they could significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But consumers balk at high up-front costs, even if energy savings would later offset those costs. A group of researchers led by former Erb Research Fellow Kimberly Wolske set out to study how different framing strategies affect PV’s appeal.

Responsible Production & Consumption

The Future of Business Sustainability: Pushing Sustainable Consumption Toward the Mainstream

Research, Reports & Publications

Report: How Business Can Measure the Impact and ROI of Corporate Sustainability
In partnership with the Erb Institute, Innovation Forum recently hosted a conference in Detroit that delved into the best ways to assess materiality, build a business case and deliver impact at scale.

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

Taking Off at Boeing | Erb Institute Alumni Kelsea Ballantyne on Leadership and Positive Impact
Kelsea Ballantyne earned her MBA/MS in 2016, as part of the Erb Institute and the Tauber Institute for Global Operations. She’s now in an executive development program at Boeing, working on the 777 and 777X airplanes, and she talked with Erb about her work there.

Social Impact & Volunteering

Women’s Entrepreneurial Empowerment in Ecuador | Erb Institute Impact Project
Earlier this year, Erb Institute student, Chris Owen, MBA/MS 2020, worked with Casa María Amor in Cuenca, Ecuador via an Erb Institute Impact Project. This video features such a project. Casa María Amor is a women’s shelter on the outskirts of Cuenca in the Andes Mountains. Chris conceived, developed and launched an Erb Impact project to help the women of Casa María Amor develop skills aimed at achieving economic independence after leaving abusive relationships.

Sustainable Development Goals

Video: The Erb Institute Talks Business Sustainability at the Global Climate Action Summit
This September, a delegation from the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute traveled to San Francisco to attend the Global Climate Action Summit. The Erb Institute also hosted an Affiliate event: Developing Climate-Business Strategies: Partnering with Universities for Science-Based Impact.

Research, Reports & Publications

Shining a Light on Government Support of Emerging Industries – New Research by Former Erb Postdoc Panikos Georgallis
Emerging industries depend on government support to grow, but they may be seen as threats to an incumbent industry, and they need to prove their technical feasibility and market promise. So how do emerging industries garner government support? A group of researchers led by former Erb Institute Postdoctoral Fellow Panikos Georgallis set out to demystify the conditions under which emerging industries get government support.

Sustainable Development Goals

Kellogg’s Amy Senter Sits Down With the Erb Institute Ahead of Innovation Forum Detroit
When I was going into undergrad, I wanted to do something in the sciences and had always had a strong affinity for the environment. I can remember back to my elementary school days when we had a “cans for critters” campaign, where we collected soda cans, and all the money from the recycling went to the San Diego Zoo.

Research, Reports & Publications

Erb Featured Business Sustainability Case Study | What is Water Worth?: Nestlé Walks a Fine Line
Paul Bulcke, CEO of Nestlé S.A., is confronted with an Internet firestorm after a comment made by his predecessor, Nestlé Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, in a 2005 interview resurfaces. In the interview Brabeck-Letmathe calls the human right to water an “extreme solution.” Bulcke must make recommendations to lay the foundation for the company’s future direction relevant to water use at its shareholder meeting the next day.

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