Sustainable Business Research

Sustainable Business

Director

The Sustainable Business Program at CU Denver is widely respected for its quality, distinguished faculty, and prominent Sustainable Business Advisory Council, which includes sustainability leaders across different industries and for-profit and non-profit sectors. The Sustainable Business Programs (formerly called the Managing for Sustainability Programs) was awarded the Business School’s Laube Community Service Award in 2016. The program prides itself on preparing students to be change leaders for sustainability initiatives, whether serving in a sustainability role at their company or any role supporting such initiatives.

Sustainable Business Faculty have collectively published over 40 journal articles and books in sustainability, corporate social responsibility, ESG, and other sustainable business fields and have been active in joint research with community groups and industry leaders. Past research has included joint government/faculty projects with the City of Denver on the effect of trade wars on sustainability, research on the impact of early-on internal carbon pricing by US companies on future carbon emissions, stranded asset risk, sustainability strategies for small and medium-sized businesses, building local legitimacy into corporate social responsibility, information technology and sustainability, enterprise system capability and corporate emission reductions, and assisting companies and non-profits with key problems that they face in an era of greater climate change risks. Some notable books from the faculty include Sustainable Value Creation by Dr. David Chandler, ESG Investing and Trading: Myth versus Facts by Dr. Yosef Bonaparte, and Managing Financial Institutions: Markets and Sustainable Finance by Dr. Elizabeth Cooperman. A sample of current sustainable business faculty research projects include (1) identifying best practices for advancing corporate water, nature, and climate goals simultaneously and negotiating trade-offs between strategies, (2) a $500,000 National Science Foundation grant in collaboration with Georgia State University to redesign graduate workforce and educational training programs better to prepare sustainability leaders for private and public sector leadership, and (3) a 1.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation to support research that advances climate resiliency and affordable housing in Denver by nurturing the capacity for transit-oriented community development through innovative public-private partnerships and housing policy.

Degrees Offered

MS Sustainable Business MBA Specialization MS Management Specialization MS Marketing
Foundations of Sustainable Business Certificate Environmental Sustainability Certificate Managing for Sustainability Certificate Risk Management and Resilience Certificate Social Enterprise Certificate Sustainable Energy Certificate Urban Sustainability and Infrastructure Certificate

Yosef Bonaparte

Professor • Director of External Affairs in Finance • Director of MS in FinTech

Finance • Managing for Sustainability

David Chandler

Professor • Program Director, Executive MBA

Management • Executive MBA • Managing for Sustainability

Cyrus Dioun

Assistant Professor

Management • Entrepreneurship • Managing for Sustainability

Blair Gifford

Professor Emeritus

Management • Health Administration • Managing for Sustainability

Robert Hobbins

Assistant Professor • Clinical Assistant Professor of Management-Sustainability

Managing for Sustainability • Risk Management and Insurance

Jiban Khuntia

Associate Professor • Director of Health Administration Research Consortium

Information Systems • Health Administration • Managing for Sustainability

Jim Lopresti

Instructor

Entrepreneurship • Management • Managing for Sustainability

Sustainability is a growing field, with job opportunities in the private, public, and non-profit sectors. Despite a wide range of job titles, careers focus on the intersection of environment, economics and social and cultural issues.