New centre to advance sustainability and social innovation in business

The University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business has launched the Centre for Sustainability and Social Innovation (CSSI) to help the business community address global issues and educate the next generation of green entrepreneurs.

CSSI will develop new approaches to social enterprise, including social marketing, venture philanthropy and corporate social responsibility and micro-credit initiatives. The centre will also advance sustainable business practices in such areas as carbon markets, renewable energy, transportation, food security, aquaculture and open-source drug development.

“Universities have a crucial role to play in addressing the global challenges we face,” says James Tansey, CSSI Executive Director and Associate Professor, Sauder School of Business. “By applying UBC research and learning to business challenges in the area of sustainability, the centre will be an incubator for market-ready green solutions.”

CSSI researchers, staff and students will work with industry and government to address social and environmental needs in Canada and internationally. As the centre evolves, it will seek partnerships in the private and public sectors, as well as with not-for-profit groups. CSSI builds on the UBC MBA specialization in Sustainability and Business.

Key CSSI pilot initiatives to date include: VANOC’s carbon management program, green development strategies focused on the Great Bear Rainforest with Coast Opportunities Fund and Turning Point First Nations, and an inner city green economic development program with Building Opportunities for Business, a Vancouver non-profit organization.

The establishment and ongoing work of the CSSI have been made possible by two B.C.-based founding families: the Swift family (ARC Financial) and the Lalji family (Larco Group of Companies). CSSI has also received support from Viewpoint Charitable Foundation.

“We are deeply grateful to our founding families and donors, whose support has enabled us to move into our next phase of growth,” said Tansey. “Their leadership and continued involvement as advisors will have significant impact on the centre’s ability to tackle the pressing social and environmental challenges facing the globe.”

For more information about the Centre for Sustainability and Social Innovation, visit: www.sauder.ubc.ca/cssi. For more on UBC’s leadership in sustainability, visit www.sustain.ubc.ca.

Dr. James Tansey: Bio

James Tansey is the Executive Director of the Centre for Sustainability and Social Innovation and Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business.

Research by Tansey covers a number of areas, including the social impacts and acceptability of new technologies including stem cells and biobanks. He has written extensively on the role of public consultation in the governance of industrial societies, industrial ecology, scenario methods and climate change. His recent research has focused on emerging international markets for carbon exchange, social determinants of health in developed countries and the governance of biotechnology and genomics in Canada.

Tansey is co-founder of the Canadian carbon offset entity Offsetters. He has taught on MBA, EMBA, Executive Education, MSc and Undergraduate programs in the UK and Canada.

He has worked as an advisor and contributor to the World Economic
Forum, the UK National Audit Office, Oxford Analytica, Cisco, ISIS Innovation (Oxford), Environment Canada and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.

Tansey received his PhD from the University of East Anglia in 1999. After a number of years in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at UBC, he returned to the UK as a lecturer in Science and Technology Studies at the Said Business School in Oxford, where he was also deputy director of the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization. He returned to UBC in 2006, joining the Sauder School of Business.

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