Newswise — To accelerate the development of knowledge on corporate sustainability, a diverse coalition of schools and institutions at leading universities has formed the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability (ARCS).
Founding ARCS members include the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business, Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment, Harvard University's Center for the Environment, the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, and the University of Western Ontario's Richard Ivey School of Business.
"ARCS' mission is to advance rigorous academic research on corporate sustainability issues. As environmental issues have grown in complexity and scope, there is growing recognition that finding solutions will require the proactive engagement and leadership of the business sector. Our members' research will develop greater understanding of the opportunities and limits of public policies and business strategies to create sustainable businesses." says Michael Lenox, Faculty Director of ARCS and Samuel L. Slover Professor of Business at the Darden School of Business.
ARCS' approach is to facilitate interaction between academic researchers investigating corporate sustainability issues and to provide resources to aid their research. One of the signature events of ARCS will be an annual conference bringing together top researchers in the field to share their research. The first annual ARCS Conference was hosted by the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan on May 7-9, 2009. This fall, ARCS will co-sponsor a Sustainability Academy for doctoral students at the Richard Ivey School of Business October 22-27, 2009.
"We are also looking to build a broad portfolio of resources for researchers," says Erika Herz, Managing Director of ARCS. Projects under development include a downloadable database on corporate environmental performance metrics, a searchable database of research articles on corporate sustainability, as well as research news, blogs and video interviews with leading scholars. ARCS is also the home to MapEcos.org, a web tool offering detailed, facility-level data on environmental performance and management.
Interested faculty, doctoral students and researchers are invited to sign up to become ARCS Affiliates through the ARCS web site. They will have the opportunity to create a profile page and share their research, and will be granted access to ARCS' research resources.
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