Sustainability in Business (SUB)
Research areas
Energy transitions
Renewable energy production and storage technologies change the way we produce and use energy, do business with it, and innovate.
Innovation for poverty alleviation
Frugal innovations by businesses in resource-scarce environments are one promising approach to poverty alleviation.
Innovation for sustainability
The innovation of new sustainable products, services, business models and forms of consumption can help tackle big problems like climate change and resource depletion.
Circular economy
Circular economy keeps materials in use longer using strategies like reuse, remanufacture, recycling, and replacing ownership with rentals
Corporate responsibility
Ethical issues are urgent in our globalized world where the public and civil governance of businesses is often underdeveloped and firms are located in different national regulatory systems.
New economy
Broader descriptions of economy, work and money are being developed that can help our economy function better.
Publications
The latest publications from SUB researchers
Sustainability teaching
Sustainability course offerings in the School of Business
SUB seminar series
The SUB lunchtime seminar series provides a monthly forum for all interested to discuss topical research in social and environmental issues in management.
Seminar schedule 2019-2020
Fall 2019
Friday 6.9, 9.30-11.00
Aalto Business School (Ekonominaukio 1), room TBC
Ioannis Ioannou, Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, London Business School. Corporate Sustainability: A Strategy?
Co-hosted by the Department of Management's Organizations and Management unit.
Awards and highlights
Minna Halme
HSE Support Foundation Societal Impact Award, 2019
Elizabeth Miller
Thesis "Trash to Treasure: A Multiple Case Study of Finnish Companies That Create Economic Value from Waste Materials" received award for top university master's thesis, Association for Environmental Management (Ymparistöjohtamisen yhdistys ry), 2018
Samuli Patala and Minna Halme
Article "Polycentric Governance of Privately Owned Resources in Circular Economy Systems" received Carolyn Dexter Award for international papers, Academy of Management 2018
Jouni Juntunen, Minna Halme, Angelina Korsunova and Risto Rajala
Article "Powering sustainable innovations: Strategies for collaborating with deviant partners" won Best Academic Paper at R&D Management Conference 2016, University of Cambridge
Minna Halme, Sara Lindeman and Paula Linna
Article "Innovation for Inclusive Business: Intrapreneurial Bricolage in Multinational Corporations", Journal of Management Studies, 2012 received the Emerald Citations of Excellence for 2015
The latest from SUB
Dive deeper into SUB's work through our blog posts and news articles.
SUB researchers to present at the Academy of Management conference in Boston
From August 9-13, several members of the SUB research group will participate in the 79th annual meeting of the Academy of Management in Boston, USA. They will join scholars from across the world to share and discuss the latest research on the conference theme Understanding the Inclusive Organization, examining how organizations impact communities on many different dimensions, from the psychological to the ecological.
SUB researchers lead new sustainable textiles consortium
Researchers from the Sustainability in Business (SUB) research group are leading one of Aalto’s three consortia funded in the latest round of grants from the Academy of Finland’s Strategic Research Council.
Many Shades of Cocreation: Research Designs for Collaboration
When academics and practitioners work together on research, there’s no standard template to follow. Aalto researchers provide a model.
'The solutions for circular economy are not achieved alone'
A circular economy workshop series develops new collaborations between engineers and business researchers.
How to accelerate the circular economy
It sounds simple — one business’s waste becomes another’s input. But the reality is challenging. Three case studies provide best practices.
Aalto sustainability news
Since cooling demand is primarily driven by the sun, could it also be powered by the sun?
The International Energy Agency has dubbed increased global cooling demand as one of the most critical blind spots in today’s energy debate. A new study entitled - Meeting Increased Global Cooling Demand with Photovoltaics during the 21st Century - yields critical new insight to a fundamental question: How much photovoltaics (PV) would be needed to power the world sustainably?
EIT Festival - 2nd October @Aalto
Welcome to the EIT Festival to discover EIT Innovation Communities in Finland!
The trip to Venice—in the words of the students
Contemporary design students spent a week in Venice setting up the exhibition and gathering soil samples for the research.
The water we eat
Food production accounts for up to 70% of the global consumption of fresh water, the substance that is so essential to life. We need to change our diets to keep the Earth’s water from running out as its population increases rapidly.
Events
New Silk - What can we learn from spiders?
How to produce new types of silk-like materials in the context of synthetic biology
Circwood: Recirculating wood within the built environment
In Finland, more than one-third of construction and demolition waste is wood.
Urban transitions for cooler futures: Imagining Malminkartano in 2050
Cities are critical intervention points when addressing climate change and there is an urgent need to transform both how we live in cities and how cities support our needs.
Nordic Rebels: Goose bumpifying learning for societal agency
How might we create learning experiences to enable anyone to see what role they play in creating a more sustainable future for our societies and planet?
Who we are
Jouni Juntunen
Get in touch
Address
Väre, Otaniementie 14
02150 Espoo
Contact
Elizabeth Miller
[email protected]