Distinguished Seminar - Time Matters to Business Sustainability

WBS Distinguished Seminar Series

Abstract
Business sustainability has moved from the marginal to the mainstream. Businesses claim to be managing their triple bottom line -- environmental, social and financial performance. Yet, the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED, 1987) defined sustainable development, not as the triple bottom line, but development that meets the needs of present generations without compromising the needs of future generations.

In a world of increasing short-termism, businesses may be espousing sustainability, but I argue that few are practicing it.

In my presentation, I will discuss ‘time’ in organizations and how it relates to sustainability, specifically its ontology and epistemology.

Drawing from my own research and that of others, I argue that the pressures for short-termism and the epistemological bias of organizational studies is producing a countervailing force to sustainability. Sustainability is becoming an ever more elusive ideal in a short-term world. To advance sustainable development, organizational studies need to embrace the temporal aspects of sustainable development and consider their implications on business practice.

Biography
Dr. Bansal is a professor at the Ivey Business School. She is also the Director of the Centre on Building Sustainable Value and the Executive Director for the Network for Business Sustainability. She has received several significant accolades, signaling her significant contributions to scholarship in business sustainability.

In 2017, she was presented with the Distinguished Scholar award by the Organizations and Natural Environment division of the Academy of Management; in 2012, she was awarded the Canada Research Chair in Business Sustainability; and, in 2008, she was awarded the Aspen's Institute title of Faculty Pioneer for Academic Leadership.

Her research interests are at the intersection of sustainability and strategy. Her TedX talk describes some of her recent ideas.

She has published in the Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, and the Journal of International Business Studies, among others. She has co-edited two books in Business and the Natural Environment. Her research has also been cited in the popular press including The Globe and Mail, National Post, Wall Street Journal, and The Independent.

She is currently a Deputy Editor for the Academy of Management Journal and was an Associate Editor from 2010 to 2013. She has also sat on eight other editorial boards in the past. Since 1999, she has successfully raised over $10 million in government grants and $2M in corporate funding for sustainability-related research.