The 4th annual conference of the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability (ARCS) was held May 16-18, 2012, bringing together scholars from a variety of disciplinary and methodological perspectives interested in advancing research on corporate sustainability. It was hosted by Professor Marian Chertow at Yale University and the organizing committee listed below. The conference was generously sponsored by the Yale Center for Business and the Environment. This event follows the 3rd Annual ARCS Conference hosted by The Wharton School. The Call for Papers [PDF] sought submissions of unpublished working papers focused on business and sustainability issues (both social and environmental) from all disciplines and methodologies.

The Conference was preceded by the first ARCS Sustainability Teaching Summit – From Classrooms to Boardrooms: Embedding Sustainability Research in Curriculum and Corporate Strategy, which showcased and discussed the latest available pedagogical approaches, tools and materials.

ARCS CONFERENCE COMMITTEE

	Marian Chertow Associate Professor of Industrial Environmental Management, Yale Conference Chair
	Tima Bansal Professor, General Management, U Western Ontario
	Lori Bennear Assistant Professor of Environmental Economics and Policy, Duke
	Glen Dowell Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations, Cornell
	Andy Hoffman Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise, U Michigan
	Andrew King Professor of Business, Dartmouth
	Michael Lenox Samuel Slover Professor of Business, U Virginia
	Tom Lyon Dow Professor of Sustainable Science, Technology and Commerce, U Michigan
	John Maxwell W. George Pinnell Professor, Indiana
	Dylan Minor Assistant Professor of Managerial Economics & Decision Sciences, Northwestern
	Eric Orts Guardsmark Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics and Management, U Pennsylvania
	N. Craig Smith INSEAD Chaired Professor of Ethics and Social Responsibility, INSEAD
	John Sterman Jay W. Forrester Professor of Management, MIT
	Michael Toffel Associate Professor of Business Administration, Harvard
	David Vogel Solomon P. Lee Chair in Business Ethics, U California-Berkeley

Program

The 4th annual ARCS Conference took place May 16th-18th, 2012.

Conference Program [PDF]

Conference papers made available by authors [PDF]

Conference Keynotes

James E. Rogers, Chairman, President and CEO of Duke Energy, was the keynote speaker for the Conference opening dinner on Wed. May 16th. Rogers has served as a CEO in the utility industry for over 23 years. During that time he has advocated investing in energy efficiency, modernizing the electric infrastructure, and pursuing advanced technologies and nuclear energy to grow the economy and transition to a low-carbon future. He also serves as vice chairman of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

In addition, Ma Jun, Executive Director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a leading expert on supply chains in China, and the author of China’s Water Crisis, was the dinner speaker on Thurs. May 17th by video from Beijing. Ma Jun recently received the Goldman Environmental Prize, the world’s largest prize honoring grassroots environmentalists. Ma Jun is also a Yale World Fellow, and was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2006.

ARCS Conference luncheon speakers were Commissioner Dan Esty of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection on May 17th, and Mark Vachon, Vice President of Ecomagination at GE on May 18th.

Esty advances the Governor’s energy strategy for the state, focusing on cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable electricity, energy efficiency, streamlining the state’s pollution control and regulatory processes, and restructuring the state’s approach to waste disposal. He is the author with Andrew Winston of the book, Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage. Vachon, a 29-year GE veteran and Corporate Officer, and member of GE’s Corporate Executive Council, leads Ecomagination, GE’s business strategy that has invested $5 billion in clean tech research and development and generated $106 billion in revenues through 2011. Most recently, Mark served as President & CEO of GE Healthcare’s $9 billion Americas Region.

The ARCS Conference each year brings together scholars from a variety of disciplinary and methodological perspectives interested in advancing research on corporate sustainability. The 2012 conference was preceded on May 16 by the first ARCS Sustainability Teaching Summit – From Classrooms to Boardrooms: Embedding Sustainability Research in Curriculum and Corporate Strategy, which showcased and discussed the latest available pedagogical approaches, tools and materials. The Teaching Summit also took place at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Teaching Summit Agenda [PDF]

Many thanks to the Yale University team led by Stuart DeCew, Program Director for Yale’s Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY), for another successful ARCS Conference. This year’s event brought together 120 scholars from fifteen countries.

Participants

View the participant list for the Sustainability Teaching Summit and ARCS Conference. [PDF]

Contact

GENERAL QUESTIONS ABOUT THE CONFERENCE PROGRAM AND ARCS

Erika Herz
Managing Director, ARCS
Ph 434-982-2656

CONFERENCE LOGISTICS

Stuart DeCew
Program Director, Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY), Yale
Ph 203-432-3736