Business and Sustainability

How do we create new business models, technologies, and production systems to ensure a more sustainable future?

Mitigating and adapting to climate change will require a fundamental transformation of industrialized and developing economies. The decisions that leaders make today will have a profound impact on future generations. Stanford GSB and Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability created the Stanford Initiative on Business and Environmental Sustainability to advance the field of sustainability management with new knowledge and new solutions to address these challenges.

Faculty Leadership

William Barnett

The Thomas M. Siebel Professor of Business Leadership, Strategy, and Organizations

Research Conference Series

We host a series of conferences to share cutting-edge research from Stanford GSB and the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. These conferences cover all of the areas of scholarship across the two schools — from marketing to geophysics.

The series is designed to enhance the dialogue among researchers and those who put knowledge into practice. Each conference is led by Stanford faculty along with selected practitioners and faculty from other universities. In the Stanford Initiative on Business and Environmental Sustainability podcast, faculty leader William Barnett shares key takeaways from each conference.

 

Working Groups

We must understand sustainability first at the local level because environmental problems — and their solutions — vary from place to place. We have created working groups with key organizations across the globe to accelerate teaching, research, and impact on sustainability challenges.

We are working with Chilean fisheries adopting technological solutions to increase yields in the changing climate. We are exploring how government policies support the wind-turbine industry In Denmark and sustainable water and food technology companies in Israel. Finally, we are examining how a changing climate impacts land use and biodiversity in the Philippines.

Curriculum Development

We are developing a new curriculum to meet the needs of leaders and academics, including:

Sustainable Human Behavior

This course discusses pioneering research on the three key pillars that make human behaviors sustainable: health, well-being, and a sense of responsibility for the world we share.

Public Policy for Climate Innovation

This course examines policies and strategies for helping climate tech companies to overcome challenges. We explore regulatory approaches like technology-forcing standards, subsidies, carbon taxes, and choice architecture “nudges.”

Climate Change, Economics, Technology

This course covers the causes and consequences of climate change, the predicted economic impacts, policy modeling, ethical concerns, and the technological pathways the world is likely to follow.

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Stanford Ecopreneurship Program

The Stanford Ecopreneurship Program is built upon Stanford GSB’s robust curriculum and entrepreneurship courses, the Precourt Institute for Energy’s Stanford Climate Ventures, and the TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy, including internships, graduate fellowships, and funding to move innovations beyond the university. It creates new opportunities for sustainability entrepreneurs that fill the gaps between research and climate action through hands-on project-based learning, mentorship, coaching, and grants.