News

Sustainability

Inspiring the Transformative Synergy of Entrepreneurship: Opportunity Fest 2023

Dec 8, 2023

The entrepreneurial spirit continues to thrive at Simon Fraser University, as seen at Opportunity Fest, which brought over 250 community members together on November 23, 2023 at SFU’s Surrey campus. SFU’s largest showcase of student entrepreneurial projects is hosted annually by Beedie School of Business’ Charles Chang Institute for Entrepreneurship. This year  it was held in-person for the first time since 2019, filling the SFU-Surrey mezzanine to capacity in celebration of interdisciplinary and intergenerational innovation. […]

More...

SFU MOT MBA students help Harbour Air’s ePlane project take flight

Aug 31, 2023

A team from SFU Beedie’s Management of Technology (MOT) MBA program is playing a pivotal role in developing the world’s first fully electric commercial aircraft by recently completing an industry consulting project with Harbour Air Seaplanes. Starting in early May 2023, the students delved into the business case for ePlanes to analyze the potential market, regulatory environment, and strategic directives necessary for the ePlane project to realize the HAAS (Harbour Air Aerospace Services) electrification vision. […]

More...

Industrial waste solutions company founded by SFU Beedie alumni named 2022 Canada’s Sustainability Changemaker

Jul 28, 2022

The planet’s dwindling freshwater supply is a major global 21st century problem—and it’s little surprise, considering it takes 2,700 litres of water just to make one T-shirt. That’s enough water for one person to drink for almost three years. And that’s not considering the environmental impact of processing the wastewater resulting from these industrial productions. In 2015, $9 billion dollars were spent trucking polluted water to holes and pumping it down, a process both costly […]

More...

Navigating sustainability: SFU Beedie professor steers organizations to success in corporate governance

May 3, 2022

Stephanie Bertels, W. J. VanDusen Professor of Sustainability at SFU’s Beedie School of Business, is a regular thought partner for the executive teams and boards of global companies interested in improving their sustainability performance. Through her work with SFU’s Centre for Corporate Governance and Sustainability and the Embedding Project, Bertels’ research examines how companies embed sustainability across their operations and do their part to support communities and the planet. As the director for SFU’s Centre […]

More...

SFU Beedie alumnus Amanda Chor on a mission to embed sustainability into corporate culture and communities

Apr 19, 2022

When Amanda Chor saw that SFU offers sustainability-focused business courses, she decided to embark on SFU Beedie’s Corporate, Environmental and Social Sustainability (CES) certificate program, anticipating that its courses would be interesting and helpful for learning new perspectives. What she did not expect, however, was for the program to kickstart a passion for sustainability that would bolster her career and give her a personal mission. Now, Chor is the sustainability manager for one of the […]

More...

SFU entrepreneurs named Changemakers by The Globe and Mail for innovative startups in tech and sustainability

Feb 25, 2022

Two SFU alumni have been named in The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business Magazine‘s 2022 Changemakers, an annual list of emerging leaders transforming business today. Rene Blanco and Sumreen Rattan, entrepreneurs from The Charles Chang Institute for Entrepreneurship, are two of 50 Canada-wide award recipients comprised of entrepreneurs, academics and executives who are striving to find innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing issues. Both Blanco and Rattan developed their startups through SFU’s Coast […]

More...

Tech e@SFU start-up wins third place in global sustainability competition

Jun 18, 2019

The SFU student founders of technology start-up Novion have won third place in the global Enzen Hackathon after competing against more than 650 companies. The three-phase hackathon sought solutions for tackling worldwide energy, water and environmental challenges. Novion grew out of the Technology Entrepreneurship@SFU program (Tech e@SFU), where John Nguyen, who is graduating from SFU’s Beedie School of Busines, Devpreet Bhullar, who graduates this month from mechatronic systems engineering, and mechatronic alumnus Refayet Siam teamed […]

More...

Trail-blazing innovation in clean tech sparks start-up

Jun 10, 2019

Growing up in Metro Vancouver, Ben Britton dreamed of one day starting his own business. But he never imagined he would realize his dream by making a breakthrough in renewable energy while working on his SFU PhD project. This month Britton, the co-founder and chief strategy officer of start-up Ionomr Innovations Inc., graduates with a PhD in chemistry and a wealth of experience in business commercialization garnered during his SFU journey. Ionomr, a clean-tech, advanced […]

More...

SFU Beedie-founded sustainability initiative wins two major awards

Sep 27, 2018

The Embedding Project, a global sustainability initiative founded and led by SFU Beedie Associate Professor Stephanie Bertels, has won recognition with two major global awards. The Embedding Project is housed within SFU Beedie’s Centre for Corporate Governance and Sustainability, of which Dr. Bertels is also Director. In August, the project was presented with the inaugural ‘International Impactful Collaboration Award’ by the Academy of Management at its Annual General Meeting in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The Academy […]

More...

Self-sufficiency the goal of SFU Beedie MBA grad’s work as CEO of Kanaka Bar Indian Band

May 3, 2018

As more communities seek ways to become more sustainable, they might look for inspiration at a small B.C. First Nations band moving towards self-sufficiency, thanks in part to an SFU Beedie School of Business MBA graduate. Zain Nayani is the CEO of economic and business development for the Kanaka Bar Indian Band located near Lytton, northeast of Vancouver. The band has about 200 members, with 60 or so living onsite year-round. “We are trying to prepare the […]

More...