On April 16-18, 2012 the Network for Business Sustainability (NBS)convened an inaugural Workshop for sustainability related centers designed to allow the centers to identify synergies and best practices.
Dr. Tima Bansal, Executive Director, NBS, and Director, Building Sustainable Value Research Centre, Richard Ivey School of Business, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada, hosted the Workshop. Her vision brought together academics, experts and practitioners from sustainability centers in order to more effectively integrate sustainability into research, teaching and communities of practice.
The Workshop, entitled “Putting Sustainability into Business Practice: Improving the Global Reach and Impact of Sustainability Centres” had four major objectives, namely to:
- Increase research capacity;
- Find efficiencies;
- Identify partnership opportunities; and
- Improve sustainability centres’ joint and individual impact (both research and outreach.)
The 57 participants in the Workshop represented sustainability centers from Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
During the Workshop, participants presented their work and debated issues in specific areas, including: managing a sustainability center; sustainability research; teaching sustainability; translating and promoting research; and developing as well as measuring impact.
The agenda and presentations may be found on the NBS website.