Watch a 5-minute interview with Ivey Professor Tima Bansal and James Larsen, president of the Ivey MBA Sustainability Club, discussing new sustainability initiatives at Ivey.
Whether through
research, teaching or a new campaign to promote
sustainability as a concept that can be applied
to both business and individual lifestyles, Ivey
is leading the way in promoting vital social and
environmental change.
According to Tima Bansal, Director of Ivey’s
Centre for Building Sustainable Value and
Executive Director of the
Network for
Business Sustainability, Ivey is well on its
way to becoming a global sustainability leader.
More than one-third of Ivey’s faculty are
researching and/or teaching sustainability and
the Centre for Building Sustainable Value is one
of the four major research pillars at the
School. Additionally, the Network for Business
Sustainability, founded by the Centre and housed
at Ivey, now has more than 1,000 managers and
600 academics involved.
“If you google business sustainability, the
Network would be listed as number two or three.
We’re very proud of that and the fact that we’re
an international network,” said Bansal. “We’re
changing the discourse of the field and it’s
happening at Ivey.”
James Larsen, MBA 2011, has also lent support to
the cause. Larsen founded a new
MBA Sustainability Club to educate Ivey
students on career opportunities in the
sustainability field. He also spearheaded an
electronics and battery recycling program at
Ivey and a new annual campaign,
Ecological Footprint Reduction Challenge, to
encourage people to make small lifestyle
adjustments to reduce their ecological
footprints.
The campaign, initiated by a team of
representatives from the MBA, HBA, MSc, and PhD
programs as well as staff and faculty at Ivey,
will run March 1-8. During that time, the Ivey
community will receive sustainability tips and
will pledge to incorporate some of these tips
into their lifestyles. This week will culminate
with the
“Steering into the Storm” conference on
sustainability in business on March 9, 7-9 p.m.
Guest speakers will include Adrienne Clarkson,
former Governor General of Canada; Mark
Jacobson, Professor, Stanford University; Nick
Parker, Executive Chairman of Cleantech Group;
and Ron Dembo, Founder and CEO of ZeroFootprint.
“We want this to be a legacy. If we can put our
School on the map in some way with such a great
cause as building sustainable value that will be
a great legacy to leave,” said Larsen.
(For more information on the upcoming Ivey
Sustainability Conference and Eco-Challenge,
please click here. For more on the Centre for Building
Sustainable Value, please see the new
BSV Annual Report.)
