The Embedding Project garners more international accolades

The Embedding Project, a global sustainability initiative founded by SFU Beedie School of Business professor Stephanie Bertels

An SFU initiative that helps companies integrate social and environmental factors into their decision making is reaping more acclaim.

SFU Beedie’s pioneering Embedding Project, the global sustainability initiative founded and led by SFU Beedie Associate Professor Stephanie Bertels, is being recognized by The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB), the world’s largest business education network.

The Embedding Project is housed within SFU Beedie’s Centre for Corporate Governance and Sustainability, where Bertels is also director.

AACSB accredits more than 800 business schools worldwide. Each year, AACSB recognizes institutions across the globe that serve as champions of change in the business education arena through its Innovations That Inspire challenge.

The 2019 Innovations That Inspire challenge invited members of AACSB’s Business Education Alliance to identify ways they are inspiring new approaches to thought leadership and increasing its impact through the co-creation of knowledge. This year, 21 business school collaborations were recognized by the AACSB, including the Embedding Project.

“I think there is a general recognition that business schools need to be engaging in research that is meaningful and relevant, and making contributions to society,” Bertels says. “It’s exciting to see AACSB shining a light on different initiatives and we are delighted to be included among those they chose to highlight.”

“There are a lot of business school professors who are really starting to think about how they can engage externally with others to support rigorous research that benefits society. That is very much the aim of what we try and do at the Embedding Project: work with dozens of global companies on trying to understand how they are embedding sustainability and creating the resources and tools that enable others to do the same.”

The Embedding Project brings together academic researchers from six institutions (SFU’s Beedie School of Business, Cambridge University’s Judge School, MIT’s Sloan School of Management, Rotterdam School of Business, HEC Montreal and University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business). It also partners with dozens of global companies, including local sustainability leaders Teck Resources, the Port of Vancouver, and QuadReal, to help companies integrate social and environmental factors into their core decision-making.

The Embedding Project has also received other accolades in the past. It received the 2018 Academy of Management’s inaugural International Impactful Collaboration Award for its practical and scholarly impact, and it has also been recognized with two Clean50 Top Project awards (2016 and 2018), which annually recognize leading Canadian projects with an impact on sustainability.