Businesses and not-for-profit organizations are increasingly pursuing partnerships to address complex challenges – particularly sustainability. So what’s working? Why do some partnerships fail and others succeed? How do you build a partnership that leads to success for both parties?
Surprisingly a secret ingredient is often missing – collaboration.
So what makes a successful collaborative partnership?
A good example is the partnership between Hewlett Packard (HP) Canada and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Canada to create the Living Planet @Work program. The Living Planet @Work program offers hands-on help to anyone interested in championing more sustainable business practices and/or encouraging employee giving to world-changing conservation projects. It was a tremendous success, engaging hundreds of companies and raising over $1 million through workplace initiatives.
Join Ivey Associate Professor Oana Branzei, Network for Business Sustainability (NBS) researcher Barbara Gray, and Living Planet @Work’s two key champions, HP’s Frances Edmonds and the WWF’s Adrienne Lo, to discover the benefits of partnering for sustainability. Learn from the experts how you can master collaborative partnerships to achieve sustainability in your organization and create extraordinary impact.
REGISTRATION CLOSED
Event Details
June 4, 2014, 8:00-9:30 a.m.
7:30 a.m. Breakfast and registration
8-9 a.m. Presentations from Oana Branzei and Barbara Gray and Q&A with Frances Edmonds and Adrienne Lo
9-9:30 a.m. Q&A with audience
Location - Ivey's Tangerine Leadership Centre (King & York St.), Toronto
Tickets - $30, $25 alumni rate, $20 student rate
EARLY BIRD SPECIAL! Two tickets for $30 (register by April 18)
Presented in partnership with Network for Business Sustainability (NBS)
About the Event
When it comes to sustainability, many organizations expect that change is strategic and slow. But collaborative partnerships are increasingly helping organizations get ahead of the game. When sustainability partnerships are successful, organizations are able to share resources, gain access to new markets, and do more than they could do alone. This interactive session offers advice and tools for creating successful collaborative partnerships to advance sustainable business. It will also include insights and lessons from organizations that have already achieved extraordinary impact through partnering for sustainability.
Topics You Will Explore
- Benefits of partnering for sustainability
- Best practices in creating a truly collaborative partnership to achieve your firm’s sustainability goals
- Recommendations on what type of partnership you should pursue and how to pursue partnerships effectively
- Examples of companies that have created successful collaborative partnerships
About the Speakers
OANA BRANZEI, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, IVEY BUSINESS SCHOOL
Oana Branzei is Associate Professor of Strategy at Ivey. She is also Director of the Sustainability Certificate program and the founder, convener and host faculty of the Ivey PhD Sustainability Academy, an annual event of the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability. Branzei holds a 2012/2014 visiting appointment with the Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship and the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. Her research focuses on the intersection of strategy and sustainability, including the pro-social foundations, forms, and functions of business as agents of positive social change and the relational micro-processes of value creation, capture and distribution. She leads major research initiatives on positive social change, social enterprise, sustainable communities, and cross-sector partnerships.
FRANCES EDMONDS, DIRECTOR, ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMS, HEWLETT PACKARD (HP) CANADA
Frances Edmonds oversees HP Canada's partnership with World Wildlife Fund (WWF), one of her many duties as director of environmental programs for HP Canada. Through a project called WWF Living Planet @ Work, championed by HP, the two organizations are helping to give small and medium businesses free tools they need to raise the visibility of sustainability issues within the workplace, pinpoint the most effective ways to shrink their environmental footprint, and engage employees to become advocates for change. HP and WWF are striving to enroll 1,000 companies in Living Planet @ Work and raise $1 million in charitable donations through workplace giving by 2014. The contributions will be used for WWF research and conservation projects. Companies that sign up benefit from HP expertise in responsible IT purchasing, sustainability reporting, and employee engagement.
BARBARA GRAY, NBS RESEARCHER, EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND DIRECTOR OF THE CENTRE FOR RESEARCH IN CONFLICT AND NEGOTIATION, PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
Barbara Gray is a trained mediator and consults with organizations about conflict and collaboration. She has published three books and over 70 publications. Her research interests include interorganizational relations, multiparty collaborative alliances, organizational and environmental conflict, and team dynamics and sense-making. She is an expert on conflict and negotiation, public-private partnerships, cross-sectoral collaboration, environmental and diversity-related disputes, interorganizational relations, and team conflict.
ADRIENNE LO, MANAGER, EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT, WORLD WILDLIFE FUND (WWF)
Adrienne Lo leads the Living Planet @ Work program, championed by Hewlett-Packard (HP). Living Planet @ Work is designed to help both corporate Canada and WWF harness the collective desire and power of employees for the good of business and the future of the planet. Prior to joining WWF, Lo worked in healthcare research at Baycrest and the Rotman Research Institute. She has a combined academic background in human biology, psychology, and business. Her understanding of behaviour change and organizational design supports companies through the process of engaging employees and integrating sustainable practices in the workplace.