As environmental issues have grown in complexity and scope increasingly crossing international boundaries and the control of individual nation-states, there is a growing recognition that to gain ground on our most pressing environmental issues will require the proactive engagement and leadership of the business sector. At the same time, firms themselves have begun to recognize the value in proactively addressing environmental concerns and consequently have become much more sophisticated in their management of their environmental impacts. Under pressure from consumers, community groups, activists, and other stakeholders and recognizing that eliminating pollution and waste often improves efficiency and lower costs, leading firms are adopting a set of advanced management practices to lessen their environmental impact.  Increasingly, firms are finding that attention to environmental issues may lead to the discovery of profitable new ways to create value.

The Corporate Sustainability Initiative (CSI) brings together leading scholars, students, and practitioners both from within Duke and beyond to explore novel public policies and business strategies that have the potential to create sustainable businesses, i.e., viable business enterprises that do not consume resources or impact the natural environment in such a way to harm future economic and societal development.  The Corporate Sustainability Initiative is a joint venture between Duke’s Nicholas School of Environment, Fuqua School of Business, and the Nicholas Institute of Environmental Policy Solutions.  Our goal is to develop greater understanding through rigorous academic research of the opportunities and limits of policies and strategies to create sustainable businesses.  We endeavor to develop novel solutions to pressing environmental problems and to break free of the politics-as-usual debates that dominate environmental policy discussions. We believe that creative solutions emerge from engagement of government, corporations, and the larger public sector.