The heightening impacts of social and ecological crises make sustainability an increasingly urgent imperative for business, requiring a fundamental rethink in how we organise and conduct business and economic activities.
Our work at the UTS Business School situates business activities as being dependent on and interrelated with the Earth system and communities. We acknowledge the work of leading scientists who have identified the planetary conditions within which humans need to operate to thrive for generations to come.
Planetary boundaries
For over a decade an international team of scientists has been working on a suite of key indicators showing the dramatic acceleration of human impacts on the Earth system through the last two centuries.
Their work provides sobering evidence that, in the words of Oxford University geographer Professor Andrew Barry, humankind's “impacts are now connected, and systemic”.
The UTS Business School Hub for Sustainable Enterprise is a community of practice supporting the work of diverse researchers, educators and business professionals who share a focus on sustainable enterprise.
Many of today’s business priorities relate to society and the environment. Resource constraints, demographic change, disruptive technologies, bio-physical crises such as climate change and bio-diversity loss and other transformative trends, emerging risks, and shifting expectations are challenging business models and the notion of business itself.
Scientists tell us we are transitioning into a period where humankind has become the dominant earth-shaping force - a new geological and cultural era which they have called the Anthropocene. (For more information on the Anthropocene visit the Age of Transition website.)
What does it mean to do business in a time when our species is disrupting the life support systems of the planet? How can we refashion our institutions and our professional practice to face a period of environmental and social upheaval and profound uncertainty?
Our response is to rethink and remake business in a time when 'business-as-usual' is no longer a viable option. Through our research, teaching, professional engagement and networks, we want to accelerate the transition to sustainable enterprise within the challenging context of the Anthropocene. The Hub's objective is to improve human and societal wellbeing and to maintain and restore stocks of natural capital. We support businesses that are restorative, circular and regenerative.
Our approach
We extend the Business School’s practical and integrative approach by:
- Connecting research centres and disciplines within the Business School, across UTS and beyond, including supporting excellence in tertiary sustainability education via sustainability.edu.au
- Equipping the leaders of today and tomorrow to think differently by making design-thinking and innovation a central concern and building sustainability, ethics and creativity into all our degree programs
- Supporting best practice through our roundtables, and relationships with leading intermediaries and professional consultancies, and networks including sustainability professionals, non-executive directors, institutional investors and NGOs
- Demonstrating sustainability in action through the Dr Chau Chak Wing Building and broader city campus master plan, and strong governance via a faculty-wide working plan
Our focus
Our research interests are diverse but share a common change agenda:
- Accelerating the shift to sustainability within established enterprise through longstanding research on the complex organisational change required
- Providing policy recommendations and other practical solutions for the most pressing substantive sustainability issues
- Encouraging transformational change by exploring emerging business models, including new corporate forms like B Corps, and emerging macro-models like the Circular Economy
- Exploring the risks and opportunities of scaling up beyond the single organisation, with research on global supply chains, local and City-level initiatives and other connected communities
- Designing the institutional and governance arrangements required to support sustainable enterprise including the role of investors and asset owners and non-executive directors
- Mobilising the power of capital markets to drive change, with research on impact investing and other new models
Click on the link below to download a PDF of the content of this page:
Hub for Sustainable Enterprise | University of Technology Sydney.pdf
Contact
Dr Melissa Edwards, Associate Professor and Director of the Executive MBA program, UTS Business School
Email: melissa.edwards@uts.edu.au
Phone: (02) 9514 3319
