Message from the Dean

Sustainable Commerce matters!

 

The University of Guelph is dedicated to changing lives and improving life through an enhanced understanding of those things that are essential to the quality of life - water, food, environment, health, community, commerce, culture and learning. The University community shares a profound sense of social responsibility, an obligation to address global issues and a concern for international development.

 

Within the College of Management and Economics (CME) we have many talented and dedicated faculty, staff and students who are committed to addressing issues of importance to the world.  CME faculty have been pursuing CSR-related initiatives for some time, and with the recent additions of Profs. Elizabeth Kurucz and Rumina Dhalla, the college is now in an even stronger position to give this important area dedicated focus. Notably, sustainability has become an increasingly important component of our curricular and research activity, and I am personally committed to ensuring that it continues to help define what makes management and economics education at Guelph unique.  We have been working hard at embedding sustainability across our curriculum as well as developing specialized course offerings in our undergraduate (BComm) and graduate programs.  In addition to engaging with the core curriculum, students are encouraged to study sustainable commerce on an independent study basis, under the supervision of a faculty member, helping to address issues of importance to organizations in our local community or much further afield, such as helping establish a successful eco-tourism initiative in the Amazon, a project supervised by our President Alastair Summerlee.

 

Faculty and students also have the opportunity to participate in non-course related activities, such as joining the Net Impact student club or participating in Impact! The Co-operators Youth Conference for Sustainability Leadership which is being held in Guelph in September.  In conjunction with this conference, one of our faculty – Dr. Rumina Dhalla – was recently awarded $100,000 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Council (SSHRC), to support student attendance from across the country.

 

CME faculty are also engaged in research related to corporate social responsibility and sustainability.  Recent examples include Dr. Scott Colwell from the Department of Marketing and Consumer Studies (MCS) who is currently conducting a study that looks at organizational commitment to environmental and social concerns.  Another faculty member, Dr. Marion Joppe, School of Hospitality & Tourism Management and University Research Chair in Tourism is involved in research related to green/eco tourism.  From the Department of Economics, Dr. Ross McKitrick, who specializes in Environmental and Applied Microeconomics, conducts research in the area of global warming and air pollution.  A large cross-campus team of researchers, which includes Drs. Karen Finlay, Vinay Kanetkar, and Jane Londerville, all from MCS,are using state of the art technology in the Gambling Research Laboratory as theyexplore the influence of casino environments and the design of gaming machines on gambling behaviour. We have also been making inroadsonfostering inter-university collaboration on CSR-relatedresearch initiatives.  Most recently, Dr. Elizabeth Kurucz, Department of Business, received a SSHRC grant in conjunction with colleagues from Wilfrid Laurier University for a study exploring organizational factors that influence strategies to achieve CO2 reduction targets.

 

I invite you to browse the following pages to learn more about CME’s sustainable vision and activities.

 

Julia Christensen Hughes
Dean, College of Management and Economics