UW-Green Bay announces Institute for Environmental Management and Business

GREEN BAY — At the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Faculty and Staff Convocation Tuesday (Aug. 26), Interim Chancellor David Ward announced establishment of the UW-Green Bay Institute for Environmental Management and Business.

With creation of the institute, UW-Green Bay will build on one of its founding ideas—being a leader in the promotion of environmental awareness and eco-friendly initiatives.

“I get excited thinking about this institute’s great potential for teaching, research and community outreach,” Ward said. “Imagine the possibilities of undergraduate and graduate degree programs that effectively intertwine science, policy and business.”

The new institute will look to work with public- and private-sector partners throughout the New North region to make Northeastern Wisconsin synonymous with sustainability and environmental leadership, Ward said.

“Being good stewards of the environment is good business,” said Fritz Erickson, dean of the College of Professional and Graduate Studies. “This institute will also be about helping businesses develop opportunities to reduce environmental impacts while at the same time increasing profitability.”

The institute will provide a focal point for learning and research across UW-Green Bay’s academic programs with regard to local, regional, and global environmental problems.

Organizers are planning a campus/community symposium on business and the environment, to be held during the 2008-09 academic year, as the first public event. Professors Kevin Fermanich and John Stoll will initially lead the institute as interim co-directors.

“This institute continues our historic mission of studying environmental issues and developing solutions to problems,” said Scott Furlong, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “It recognizes the critical interconnections between science, policy and business.”

Key goals of the institute include:

• Strengthening and connecting academic programs that analyze environmental problems and seek practical, cost-effective solutions to these problems.
• Providing outreach services to businesses and agencies that seek options for addressing environmental problems. Whenever possible, students will be enlisted to participate in these campus/community collaborations.
• Promoting research by faculty and students aimed at solving local, regional, and global environmental problems.
• Serving as an academic resource for improving environmental sustainability of the UW-Green Bay campus.

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