DURHAM, N.C. – 91ÉçÇø¸£Àû today announced the establishment of the new Duke Corporate Sustainability Initiative (CSI), an interdisciplinary initiative designed to examine corporate environmental practices from the perspectives of both business strategy and public policy.

The initiative pools the resources and expertise of The Fuqua School of Business, the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, and the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.

CSI was established to develop greater understanding, through rigorous academic research, of the opportunities and limits of policies and strategies to create sustainable businesses. Among other things, the initiative’s research will examine:

  • Policies and strategies to encourage innovation in sustainable technologies and production;
  • The impact of nongovernmental stakeholders on corporate behavior;
  • The role of information disclosure in leveraging the public sector; and
  • The effectiveness of trade association-sponsored self-regulatory initiatives.

Michael Lenox, associate professor of business at Fuqua, will serve as the initiative’s faculty director. A leading expert on business strategy related to environmental issues, Lenox holds a secondary appointment as associate professor of environmental policy at the Nicholas School.

Bill Chameides, dean of the Nicholas School, and Tim Profeta, director of the Nicholas Institute and senior associate dean of the Nicholas School, will help Lenox lead the initiative.

They have begun a national search for an initiative director. The new director will sit in the Nicholas Institute and work with the initiative’s faculty directors to leverage Duke’s expertise to explore novel business strategies and public policies.

Faculty members from the Nicholas School, Fuqua and other research units across Duke’s campus will provide scholarly expertise on CSI projects. For example, Michael Lenox and Lori Bennear, assistant professor of environmental economics and policy at the Nicholas School, have already begun work on an Environmental Protection Agency Star Grant-funded project examining private and public environmental disclosure programs.