The Farmer School of Business recognizes the need for shared responsibility and stewardship of the environment. Conserving natural resources, energy use reduction and protection of the ecosystem are among our most important and passionate endeavors. The effort toward environmental sustainability starts with dedication, commitment and innovative thinking. We strive to instill these values in our educational programs at all levels.
As part of the larger sustainability efforts of Miami University our professors are working on the following research and classroom initiatives to ensure that sustainability remains a topic at the forefront of Miami's educational focus.

• Dr. Robert Dahlstrom (Seibert Professor & Chair, Marketing) established the Center for Green Marketing at the University of Kentucky. This center brings together executives and academics seeking to enhance sustainability in interfirm and business-to-consumer commerce. The connections between interfirm business and sustainability initiatives is an ongoing focus of Bob's research. He published Green Marketing Management last year, which has been adopted for classes at Miami and other universities. His business-to-business research has gradually moved toward sustainability concerns. For information please contact Bob Dahlstrom (http://www.fsb.miamioh.edu/directory/dahlstrf).
• Dr. Lisa Ellram (James E. Rees Distinguished Professor of Distribution, Marketing) devotes significant portions of course work to sustainability and environmental issues in all aspects of the supply chain. She has published many articles and continually researches how sustainability issues affect the entire supply side of business including reverse logistics, purchasing and total cost of ownership. For full details please contact Lisa Ellram (http://www.fsb.miamioh.edu/directory/ellramlm).
• Dr. Raymond Gorman (Interim Dean and Professor of Finance) is the former director of the Center for Sustainable Systems Studies. He has published articles on the link between environmental and financial performance and the role of environmental accounting in translating environmental activities into financial reports. For information, please contact Raymond Gorman (http://www.fsb.miamioh.edu/directory/gormanrf).
• Dr. Jonathan Grenier (Assistant Professor, Accountancy) is examining how sustainability initiatives can be successfully integrated into strategy. For more information please contact Jonathan Grenier (http://www.fsb.miamioh.edu/directory/greniejh).
• Dr. Xiaowen Huang (Associate Professor, Management) is involved in research to understand how environmental sustainability efforts affect the performance within organizations and also what interventions can be used to enable strategic sustainability efforts to take root within and across companies. For details please contact Xiaowen Huang (http://www.fsb.miamioh.edu/directory/huangx).
• Dr. Janice Kinghorn (Lecturer, Economics) is teaching courses focusing on sustainability in Latin America. The course asks students to consider long-term economic, social, and environmental sustainability as goals for society and examine the resources required to attain these goals. Through visits to Costa Rica and Cuba the class develops a hands-on, experiential understanding of some of the more salient issues in sustainability. Please contact Janice Kinghorn (http://www.fsb.miamioh.edu/directory/kinghojr) for more information.
• Dr. Tim Krehbiel (Senior Associate Dean and Professor) has done research regarding the relationships between process and quality improvement and sustainability principles. Please contact Tim Kreihbiel (http://www.fsb.miamioh.edu/directory/krehbitc) for further detail.
• Dr. Jeff Merhout (Associate Professor, Information Systems and Analytics) has published articles on how sustainability issues affect information technology asset disposition and organizational strategy. He ensures that green IT and the triple bottom line are focuses of his MIS courses. Please contact Jeff Merhout (http://www.fsb.miamioh.edu/directory/merhoujw) for information.
• Dr. Rocky Newman (Professor, Management) has devoted large components of upper level management classes to sustainability issues and published numerous articles on how sustainability fits into management, quality improvement efforts and operational decisions. For information please contact Rocky Newman (http://www.fsb.miamioh.edu/directory/newmanw).
• Mike Wallace is a Miami alumnus who is the USA lead of Amsterdam based Global Reporting Initiative. GRI is a non-profit organization that promotes economic sustainability and provides all companies and organizations with a comprehensive sustainability reporting framework. GRI is the most widely used sustainability reporting framework in the world, with over 80% of the Global 250 using GRI when they report on sustainability. Mike will be a panelist at the 2012 Center For Business Excellence conference, held on April 19 at the Farmer School. Get more info on the Global Reporting Initiative (www.globalreporting.org).

Center for Business Excellence Sustainability Efforts
The Center for Business Excellence (CBE) (www.fsb.muohio.edu/cbe):, co-directed by Dr. Brian Ballou and Dr. Dan Heitger, has a vision of creating generations of leaders focused on long-term value. Accordingly, it advances business sustainability using several initiatives:

The KPMG/CBE Curriculum Development Initiative has funded two courses developed by Ballou and Heitger as well as five additional four-class session modules, to incorporate social, environmental, political, economic, regulatory, financial, and legal sustainability challenges and opportunities into the FSB curriculum. FSB faculty Skip Benamati , Doug Havelka, Jeff Merhout (featured on this page), Rocky Newman (featured on this page), T.M. Rajkumar, and Melissa Thomasson, along with Anthropology faculty Mark Peterson all have developed or co-developed modules within this program.

The CBE's Annual Executive Conference for practitioners, students, and academics examines various sustainability-oriented risks and opportunities and their role in executive decision making to manage key stakeholders and create consistent, long-term shareholder value. The 2012 Conference features expert panelists Mike Wallace (U.S. Director of the Global Reporting Initiative) and Lisa Ellram (FSB faculty featured on this page) to incorporate sustainability perspectives at the event.

Ballou and Heitger also conduct research regarding the role of business professionals in the future of sustainability-oriented risk activities and reporting.

Ballou and Heitger also have been involved in the Prince of Wales' Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) Project, which works with the world's leading accounting standard setting bodies to help determine how best to place quantitative financial measures on organizations' various sustainability activities. The A4S Project also is a part of the emerging International Integrated Reporting Committee that works closely with numerous business bodies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Learn more about campus-side sustainability plans and progress (http://www.units.muohio.edu/sustainability/)

Last modified on 1/3/13 | Content maintained by External Relations