Center for Sustainable Business Launches

The University of Pittsburgh announced launched a new Center for Sustainable Business in October 2019, which will engage leading global and regional companies to integrate environmental and societal concerns into their business models.

 The University of Pittsburgh launched its Center for Sustainable Business and will engage leading global and regional companies to integrate environmental and societal concerns into their business models.

The Pitt Center for Sustainable Business (CSB) established in the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and College of Business Administration (CBA) will work with companies managing the “triple bottom line” of people, planet, and profit.

“We aspire to make the Pitt CSB a world-renowned hub for applied research on sustainable business,” said Arjang A. Assad, Henry E. Haller Jr. Dean of the Katz School and CBA. “In collaboration with corporate partners and world-class scholars across the University, Pitt Business is committed to investigating the crucial questions that will enable new models and inform best practices in sustainable business. We also feel that this is a pivotal component of our educational mission.”

CB Bhattacharya, the H.J. Zoffer Chair in Sustainability and Ethics and a globally recognized author and researcher in the field of sustainable business strategy, leads the center.

“Attention to the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profits has never been more important in business, but companies often fail to reap the full value of their investments in sustainability and corporate responsibility because sustainability is not well integrated throughout the organization,” said Bhattacharya. “Sustainability can’t be viewed as ‘someone else’s job.’ It’s only when individuals are trained and empowered as sustainability generalists that a culture of sustainability can take root and begin to yield benefits for all stakeholders both inside and outside of the company. Our mission is to help companies tackle that all-important question of ‘how’ to best embed sustainability throughout the organization.”

Established with seed funding from The Heinz Endowments, the Pitt CSB will be self-sustaining through the support of sponsor members — local, regional, national, and international companies committed to learning how to integrate more sustainable practices.

Inaugural corporate members of the Pitt CSB are BASF Corp., CONSOL Energy Inc., Enel North America, IBM Corp., Peoples Natural Gas, PITT OHIO, and PPG.

Through their membership, Pitt CSB sponsors contribute to:

  • Collaborative, cutting-edge thought leadership in the field of sustainable business strategy.
  • Partnership in groundbreaking research that has positive environmental, social, and financial impacts.
  • Investments in innovative approaches to training and educating a new generation of sustainable business leaders.

In addition to research and training opportunities, Pitt CSB members will convene in twice-yearly Sustainable Business Forums, the first of which is scheduled for February 2020.

Read the full press release.

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