A professor in Waterloo’s School of Environment, Enterprise and Development, Olaf Weber will co-lead the university’s new Centre for Sustainability & Business, which was given the go-ahead by the senate in November. It’s a decision destined to have major, positive impacts both on and off campus.
The University of Waterloo has long been famed as an engine of new, innovative technologies that are transforming how humans live in every way. But it deserves to be better known for its vital role in shaping a future that is also sustainable in every way —environmentally, economically and socially. The Faculty of Environment has emerged as a vibrant hub for research that is training the talent to do this. It’s a case of where thinking locally initiates action globally. Businesses that embrace sustainability can minimize organizational risks and create long-term business value. But the benefits can be counted in more than just dollars and cents: They’re environmental and social, as well.
Weber, who also holds the university’s Research Chair in Sustainable Finance, is passionate about how issues involving sustainability must be factored into every business, indeed every economic decision. “Sustainability is connected to everything,” he explains. If you get up in the morning, the first
decisions you make can have an impact on the environment. Moving forward, we should be asking: What does it mean to invest sustainably? How does that influence financial performance, and what risks are there to businesses in the shift to a low-carbon economy?”
To be sure, an economy that respects and protects the environment is crucial because of the urgent need to combat climate change and other environmental risks. But a truly sustainable economy will also promote equity, diversity and social justice. Weber envisions the Centre for Sustainability & Business as a place that brings together students and researchers from a broad spectrum of disciplines and backgrounds who share a common interest in sustainability and business. Then it would encourage an exchange of ideas — collaboration — between the academy and the business world.
“One way to collaborate will be to organize academy-industry conferences and workshops,” Weber says. “During these events, industry partners can let us know their needs with regard to sustainable business practices. That might involve research in how to address the data gap in sustainability reporting. Meanwhile, our academics will talk about their newest research. During these workshops, plans for future research will be developed. Furthermore, we will create opportunities for industry to connect to faculty and graduate students to address their own research needs.”
The centre would complement, and build on, other Waterloo initiatives that promote sustainability. The university's BA in Sustainability and Financial Management is a unique program that combines knowledge of accounting and financial management from Waterloo's School of Accounting and Finance with the Environment Faculty's expertise in sustainability. It aims to train finance experts who can integrate people, profits and the planet into the bottom line.
A concrete example of how the program can achieve this would be in training professionals who can help businesses account for the many risks associated with carbon emissions. According to Weber, students in the program “should be able to come up with the right accounting indicators to assess corporate performance in sustainability or climate change.”
Meanwhile, the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development offers a host of undergraduate and graduate programs that fuse business and development activities with environmental and social objectives in order to create a sustainable world. Today, graduates from these programs are working in Canada’s financial capital — Bay Street — as well as in major corporations, consulting companies and start-ups around the globe. Wherever they are, they’re making sustainability part of every business plan. And in so doing, Weber says these efforts advance UW's strategic plans.
Waterloo at 100 challenges the university to imagine a bold future that addresses humanity’s most pressing challenges. Designed to “find solutions to major global challenges and renew a sense of with bold ambitions for our future,” Waterloo’s Futures Framework aims to co-ordinate Waterloo’s efforts and investments to shape economic, health, technological, societal — and sustainable — futures.
“It's not just enough for corporations to make money or the university conducting research and training people, but what is the purpose?” Weber says. “The university has the capacity to address these vital questions. And fortunately, it is."
