Sustainable Enterprise Partnership announces 2012 Fetner Sustainable Enterprise Fellow

Michael Lenox will be on campus April 9-12 to speak about business strategy, innovation and sustainability

The Sustainable Enterprise Partnership (SEP) announces that Michael Lenox, Samuel L. Slover Professor of Business at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business Administration, will be the SEP’s 2012 Fetner Sustainable Enterprise Fellow.

As the Fetner Sustainable Enterprise Fellow, Lenox will be on the SU campus April 9-12 to work and meet with faculty, students and the business community and share his internationally recognized expertise in the intersection of business strategy, public policy and the natural environment.

On Monday, April 9, Lenox will discuss sustainability-related research trends and opportunities with SU and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) faculty and graduate students. Later in the week, he will lead a luncheon discussion for faculty and Ph.D. students on “Sustainability in the Curriculum,” based on his leadership experience with this topic at Darden and Duke University. There will additionally be presentations from Whitman sustainability-focused curriculum innovation grant recipients.

During his time in Syracuse, he will also meet with graduate students enrolled in the SEP’s Certificate of Advanced Study in Sustainable Enterprise (CASSE) program and will guest teach the CASSE course “Managing Sustainability.”

On Wednesday, April 11, at 8 a.m., Lenox will share his research on trends in green tech entrepreneurship and innovation with the business community at a breakfast in the Whitman School’s Milton Room.  To register for this event, contact Carolyn Hilleges at clhilleg@syr.edu.

The Fetner Sustainable Enterprise Fellow is made possible through a gift by Hal Fetner ’83, president and CEO of Durst-Fetner Residential, and his wife, Nina. This recognition is given annually to an academic expert in sustainable enterprise whose three- to four-day residency involves direct, in-depth work with faculty and students.

“We are so pleased that Dr. Lenox is this year’s Fetner Sustainable Enterprise Fellow,” says Fetner. “Michael Lenox is recognized internationally for his expertise in innovation and entrepreneurship. Our students and faculty, as well as the business community, have much to learn from his perspective on the importance of sustainability to economic growth and competitive success.”

Lenox’s recent work explores firm strategies and non-traditional public policies that have the potential to drive “green” innovation and entrepreneurship.

Lenox’s research has appeared in more than 25 refereed academic publications and he is often cited in national media outlets. In 2009, he was recognized as a Faculty Pioneer by the Aspen Institute’s Center for Business Education for his leadership in integrating social and environmental issues into his teaching and research. Also that year, he was named as the top strategy professor under 40 by the Strategic Management Society.

Lenox serves as the faculty director for the multiple-university Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability.  He is the executive director of Darden’s Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Prior to joining Darden in 2008, he was a professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, where he was the founder and faculty director of Duke’s Corporate Sustainability Initiative.

The SEP is a collaborative initiative of the Whitman School of Management, L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems (SyracuseCoE), and provides world-class education and research on sustainable enterprise by leveraging the academic, public and private sector resources of Central New York and beyond to address this significant and growing area of concern for businesses and other organizations.

The Aspen Institute’s 2011-12 Beyond Grey Pinstripes report recently ranked the Whitman School of Management among the top in the world for integrating environmental, ethical and social issues into graduate business education. This first-time Beyond Grey Pinstripes Top 100 ranking recognizes Whitman’s M.B.A. program and the SEP as major contributors to SU’s leadership in teaching and researching issues pertaining to sustainability in business and society.