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 11.10, 12.00-13.00
Aalto Business School (Ekonominaukio 1), room U213
Tulin Cengiz, Alliance Mancester Business School.
Organizational Value Frames and Sustainable Alliance Portfolios
The literature on sustainable alliances and partnerships mostly focused on dyadic relationships between firms and non-profits, NGOs, social enterprises, research institutes, governments, communities or other firms (Lin and Darnall 2010, Lin and Darnall 2014, Wassmer, Paquin et al. 2014). While helpful, research on a single issue or a single alliance can only provide us with a limited view of a firm’s engagements about sustainability issues (Wassmer, Paquin et al. 2014). Recently, to provide a more vibrant picture of a firm’s sustainable alliances and partnerships, scholars have adopted a network or portfolio approach (Schmutzler, Gutiérrez et al. 2013, Gutiérrez, Márquez et al. 2015, Ashraf, Pinkse et al. 2019). Alliance portfolios are commonly studied in the broader strategic or inter-firm alliance literature, even though the scholarly attention is rather new in the sustainability context (Wassmer 2008). This paper brings this portfolio approach forward. It does so by building a bridge between organisational value frames and sustainable alliance portfolios. It offers paths for future research for scholars that study sustainable alliances and partnerships with a lens of organisational value frames.
Friday 4.10, 12.00-15.00
Aalto Business School (Ekonominaukio 1), room V001
The doctoral dissertation of Inês Peixoto, MSc, “Organizing for Sustainability in Transnational Market Reforms: Studies of the EU biofuels market” will be publicly examined.
Opponent: Professor Frank den Hond (Hanken Svenska Handelshögskola and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Custos (Chairperson): Professor Liisa Välikangas (Aalto University School of Business)
For more information: https://www.aalto.fi/en/events/defense-of-dissertation-in-organization-and-management-ines-peixoto-msc
Friday 6.9, 9.30-11.00
Otakaari 1, U149
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.
Kicking off the "Better Business - Better Society" series
Researchers and partners from the Finix sustainable textile system project, co-led by SUB scholars, kicked off the Aalto Business School "Better Business - Better Society" seminar series.
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
Aalto University presents six concepts on renewable biomaterials at Dutch Design Week
CHEMARTS exhibition showcases fascinating recyclable prototypes which are toxic-free, recyclable and don't release micro-plastics.
More renewable energy on campus
Renewing Aalto Works block increases the energy effiency on campus
Sustainable energy and advanced energy solutions
As part of the national Energy Awareness Week, we collected examples from Aalto University's multidisciplinary energy research
Maria Intscher of the fashion house Vera Wang got excited about wood-based glitter and bacterial cellulose
There is a lot of potential in new material innovations also in fashion. The more you can control the material the better.
Events
Workshop: The Dilemmas of Disassembly
Learn how to sort materials into different streams through a hands-on device disassembly workshop.
Workshop: Building Circular Economy Language Skills
Bringing the technical and business sides together to learn how to understand and speak each other’s “circular economy language”.
Sustainability Science Days 2020: Destruction & creativity
The Sustainability Science Days is a two-day conference organised jointly by Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science and Aalto Sustainability Hub. The conference will concentrate on radical changes that are indispensable for creative solutions to the present sustainability crisis.
Who we are
Get in touch
Address
Väre, Otaniementie 14
02150 Espoo
Contact
Elizabeth Miller
[email protected]