The International Business University of Toronto (IBU) based in Toronto is excited to announce the launch of its Center for Sustainable Business, which will foster research and knowledge-sharing on ethical sustainable business practices.
In support of the national goal to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions, the Center will empower collaboration between among students, academics authorities, experts and business leaders. Led by IBU Dean Dr. Artie Ng, the mission of this organization is to help engage students and other stakeholders through a range of research and knowledge-sharing activities to build up sustainability competence
The winds of change
The end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 could not be a better example of why responsible leadership is necessary in business: the economic crisis, health issues, supply chain and labour challenges are pervasive and have been exacerbated recently by extreme weather events.
Managing a company is no longer just about competing in the market, it is a much more complex task. It’s about creating value for customers, employees, communities, and countries, but it’s also about taking a high level of responsibility. Because the companies of the future cannot afford to be green only in their slogans, they have to create formulate real and implement innovative sustainability strategy for the sake of today, tomorrow, and the day after.
Empowering future business leaders
With this goal in mind, IBU created the Center of Sustainable Business, whose main objective is to give students the interdisciplinary knowledge and experience necessary to become successful leaders in the future.
Through collaboration and interaction with many stakeholders, the Center provides IBU students with a unique opportunity to learn from and interact with leaders in academia and business. Students will be exposed to an interdisciplinary approach to social and environmental sustainability, including topics such as environmental science, and green finance and social entrepreneurship. This will encourage them to look at business performance and change from new angles.
The studies Centre will organize activities covering the following research areas:
- Entrepreneurship and Social Enterprise
- Responsible Business and Finance
- Technological Innovation for Sustainability
- Digital Transformation for Sustainability
- Sustainability Management
- ESG Investing, Finance, and Reporting
- Implementation of UN Sustainable Development Goals
Current and previous activities
After many months of preparation, the center was officially opened in early January 2023. In the meantime, IBU Dean Dr. Artie Ng and his team have organized a series of presentations since the summer of 2022 to show students what exciting and forward-looking courses they can expect.
- In July 2022, IBU joined the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP) – a global network of universities focused on helping students nurture synergies of a wide range of educational organizations. Fostering international collaboration and network building, while also offering access to a vast amount of up-to-date materials will help students greatly expand their knowledge of sustainable development.
- In August 2022, the Sustainability Center’s team organized a guest lecture on “My Ways to Google AI Development and Its Future”. The event was led by Marcus Chiam, a highly qualified bioinformatics graduate from the University of Toronto with a passion for AI and a strong background in data science. He shared with the IBU students the potential applications of AI in enhancing sustainable businesses. After working for He has worked at a major Canadian bank RBC for three years, he has and recently accepted a new position as a machine learning software engineer at Google.
- In On the 28th of September 2022, students got the opportunity to learn from guest lecturers Jessica Stuart, Wendy Stuart, and Ron Stuart, who are all experts when it comes to the cross-section of arts, music and business. This was the first step in their knowledge-sharing series that fits into the Arts and Contemporary Studies class., a general education subject that links arts with social sustainability.
And these are only the first few initial steps taken to in ensuring that the International Business University of Toronto provides its graduates with up-to-date, ever-expanding, and truly future-ready knowledge. To learn more about the opportunities offered by the Sustainability Center, sign-up for our newsletter
