Center for Sustainable Business Practices

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Overview

Sustainability at the University of Oregon is not a new concept. It's why we have a Center for Sustainable Business Practices that supports our top-ranked Green MBA program.

Here, we take sustainability seriously. It's why we teach our students to identify innovative ideas and better materials and to think about sustainability from a business perspective—and a human one. We’ve been teaching and practicing sustainable business for almost three decades, creating leaders who know how to balance social, environmental and financial responsibilities.

For us, the market demand for transparency, sustainability, and business responsiveness just makes sense. And Oregon—with its natural beauty, array of outdoor opportunities, and appreciation for the environment—continues to be a nexus of sustainable business management practices and innovations.

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Academics

Oregon has an international reputation for environmental quality, social stewardship, and innovative sustainability policy. The UO Lundquist College of Business leverages this distinctive quality of Oregon through the Center for Sustainable Business Practices.

At the undergraduate level, the themes of sustainability are interwoven into most of the core courses you will take at the Lundquist College, and we are currently investigating options for adding an undergraduate concentration.

At the MBA level, the center supports the sustainable business practices specialization, giving students hands-on learning experiences that cannot be matched by other programs. The Oregon MBA's sustainable business curriculum provides students with tools and knowledge actively used—and sought out—by today’s leading companies in the area of sustainability. Coursework includes: sustainable business development, supply chain operations and information, principles of industrial ecology, project and operations management models, life cycle analysis, and more.

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Strategic Planning Project Program

Faculty and Staff

Research

As the dimensions of sustainability change so too do the areas of study, but there are four major areas that occupy the center’s faculty members' research:

Sustainable supply chain and operations management: Assess and design scalable and value-creating global supply chain processes that meet emerging standard for sustainable operations and leverage the entire value chain from sourcing, logistics and manufacturing to marketing, distribution and customer relations.
Organizational change for social and environmental stewardship: Articulate strategic aspirations, engage internal and external stakeholders, manage interactions of organizational systems and interfirm relationships, and develop effective change programs to help guide organizations, executives and teams on implementation of strategies.
Performance measurement and governance: Develop corporate social responsibility performance metrics and feedback processes to lead performance, ensure transparency, link operations with overall strategic goals, and support management as it adjusts to and plans for risk and maintains its competitiveness.
Measurement and analysis for the life cycle: Assess, design and adjust the life cycle of goods and services to maximize environmental stewardship, minimize cradle to grave impacts, and support ongoing improvements and standards compliance.