ETH PhD Academy on Sustainability and Technology 2008
Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Strategic Management
The program is available for Downloaddownload (PDF, 103 KB)
January 27 - February 1, 2008, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich (Switzerland)
Climate change is a major issue facing the world in the 21st century. Drastic reductions of greenhouse gas emissions are crucial for stabilizing the world’s ecosystems. The business sector needs to mitigate the sources of climate change and adapt to its effects even while both its magnitude and economic implications are uncertain. Consequently, the appropriate management of carbon resources becomes a cornerstone of competitive strategy.
The aim of the annual ETH PhD-Academy is to promote excellent PhD research in the area of sustainability and technology and to develop responsible leaders for tomorrow. While the 2008 academy focused on climate change, it was also open to PhD students working on similar challenges with respect to environmental sustainability. The first four days of the academy focused on improving the research design and methodology of participants’ PhD projects. One additional day was reserved for discussions with leading business representatives. We invited PhD students with a background in strategic management, technology/innovation management, or institutional change to participate in the academy. Besides content-related discussions, students got valuable feedback from their peers and three well-respected professors.
Impressions
Pratima Bansal is an associate professor and the Shurniak Professor in International Business at the Richard Ivey School of Business. She is also the Director of the Cross-Enterprise Leadership Centre on Building Sustainable Value, and the Academic Director for the Research Network for Business Sustainability. Both of these Centers aim to strengthen the ties between research and practice. Before joining Ivey in June 1999, she taught at Georgia State University in Atlanta and received her doctorate from the University of Oxford. Her research interests are primarily in the areas of sustainable development and international business. Her research has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, and the Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Business Ethics, the British Journal of Management, and the Journal of Management Studies. Her work has also appeared in practitioner journals, such as the Academy of Management Executive and Long Range Planning. She has co-edited four books, including three in the field of management, and one titled Business and the Natural Environment. Her research has also been cited in the popular press including The Wall Street Journal, The National Post, Globe and Mail and The Independent. She also sits on the editorial board of the Academy of Management Journal.
Andrew Griffiths is an Associate Professor in the UQ Business School and is the academic director of the Corporate Sustainability executive program in the school. Andrew’s areas of research include: business strategy and climate change, corporate sustainability strategy and change. He has published three books, The Sustainable Corporation (1998) and Sustainability (2000) Organisational Change for Sustainability (2003 and 2007) (with Dexter Dunphy and Sue Benn). Andrew is the recipient of the UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award, the UQ Business School Research Excellence Award, and the Academy of Management, Best Paper Award (Organisations and Natural Environment Interest Group). His work has been published in leading international journals, including The Academy of Management Review and the Journal of Management Studies. Along with Nardia Haigh, he has played a role in designing and supporting ONEs information technology and website needs.
Volker Hoffmann is assistant professor for sustainability and technology at the Department of Management, Technology, and Economics of ETH Zurich. Volker Hoffmann received a diploma in chemical engineering and in business administration. He worked as a visiting scholar and scientist at MIT where he investigated uncertainty propagation in large scale process models for the chemical industry. In 2001, he obtained his Ph.D. from ETH Zurich with a thesis on multi-objective decision making under uncertainty in chemical process design. From 2001 till 2004, he was a consultant and, later, project manager at McKinsey & Company where he worked in the chemical and electricity industry. He focused on strategy development for European utility companies, especially in the light of upcoming greenhouse gas regulations. Volker received several scholarships including a German National Merit Scholarship, an Ernest-Solvay-Scholarship, and an Exchange Fellow Scholarship of the Alliance for Global Sustainability. Volker’s work at ETH Zurich centers around the contribution of technology to sustainability and the design of appropriate management methods and tools to support companies on their way to sustainability. Besides his research activities, he serves on several academic steering committees.