ETH PhD Academy on Sustainability and Technology 2009
Organizations and Climate Change
The program is available for Download download (PDF, 156 KB)
February 1 - 6, 2009, 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 and alternatives 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 2009 academy again focused on climate change, it was also open to PhD students working on similar challenges with respect to environmental sustainability. The five days of the academy concentrated on improving the research design and methodology of participants’ PhD projects. 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 professors with research experience on climate change from around the globe.
Impressions
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.
Monika Winn is an Associate Professor for Business Strategy and Sustainability at the UVic Business School. Monika’s research and teaching interests focus on the many aspects of sustainability strategy. Her primary research focus is on organizational and institutional change related to the challenges of sustainability. Recent research streams focus on (1) climate change impacts for business; (2) implications of sustainable “Base of the Pyramid” approaches for marketing to the poorest of the poor; (3) transformation of social into business issues deserving strategic attention and action. Her research has been published in such journals as the Academy of Management Review, Organization Studies, Business and Society, Journal of Business Venturing, British Journal of Management and others. She is actively collaborating with colleagues in several international research networks, spanning Europe, North America and Australia. She has been an active contributor to the Greening of Industry Network since its beginnings, and co-founded and chaired the international Academy of Management’s “Organizations and the Natural Environment” group.
