The Marquette University Sustainability Lab is a cross-disciplinary project that aims to research and disseminate knowledge, foster and develop managers around effective sustainability and stewardship practices increasingly demanded across industries globally. Our lab aligns with the university’s commitment to the Laudato Si’ papal encyclical and furthers our Catholic, Jesuit mission to care for our common home. Through instructional opportunities that span business, the STEM fields, the humanities and more, the Sustainability Lab provides students with the knowledge they need to Be the Difference.
Housed in finance and the college of business, the S-Lab is interdisciplinary across the university including the Office of Economic Partnerships, supply chain management, communications, engineering, the natural sciences, the Women’s Leadership Institute, the law school and the Center for Peacemaking.
Its purpose: to research, educate and bring together this generation of sustainability leaders.
Marquette has long been recognized as a leader in sustainability. The university hosts the “Sustainability 2.0” Conference every fall, bringing together business leaders and executives from investment firms, public and private companies and NGOs for the largest regional conference on the issue. Our ESG (environmental, social and governance) courses are, likewise, unique among Midwest universities, designed with the future of corporate behavior in mind. Finally, the university itself is a recipient of the Princeton Review’s “Green College” designation and is recognized as one of the country’s most sustainable campuses.
Co-director, Dr. Christopher K. Merker, had this to say on the Lab and the critical importance of sustainability on present and future business performance: “Our goal is to help people understand and adapt to the world that’s changed around them. Those who undertake this successfully will be prepared to handle the strategic issues around sustainability, whether as an investor or as a business manager.”
