Business for Better World Center (B4BW)
The Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE) recently discussed the work of B4BW with its co-directors, Dr. Lisa Gring-Pemble and Dr. Anne Magro. Drs. Gring-Pemble and Margo highlighted the central goals of B4BW, the ways in which B4BW contributes to research-based action towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and how B4BW engages stakeholders and communities.
The Business for a Better World Center (B4BW) in George Mason University’s School of Business believes that business has the potential to be a tremendous force for good in the world. To this end, B4BW partners where possible, but also challenges businesses to take a leadership role in solving our world’s most pressing problems. The Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE) recently discussed the work of B4BW with its co-directors, Dr. Lisa Gring-Pemble and Dr. Anne Magro. Drs. Gring-Pemble and Margo highlighted the central goals of B4BW, the ways in which B4BW contributes to research-based action Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and how they engage stakeholders and communities.
What are the central goals of the Business for a Better World Center?
We believe that business has the potential to be a tremendous force for good in the world. However, we realize that it doesn’t always deliver on that promise. So, at the Business for a Better World Center (B4BW) in the School of Business, we strive to change the expectations society has for what business can achieve and how business behaves. We partner with business where possible, and we challenge business where necessary, to take a leadership role in solving our world’s most pressing problems.
In this way, B4BW is a natural outgrowth of Mason’s mission – to produce the graduates, scholarship, and service-oriented action that best serves society. With the United Nations’ 17 Global Goals as our North Star, we shape business education into a force for positive change, foster knowledge generation for the common good, engage leaders from every sector, act to effect positive change, and lead from within a coalition of like-minded business educators. In recognition of our efforts, in 2019, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) recognized B4BW with one of its Innovations That Inspire awards.
How does the work of the Business for a Better World Center contribute to research-based action towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? And in what ways is the center engaging stakeholders and/or communities?
SDG 4 (Quality Education): While talent may be equally distributed, opportunity is not. Impact Fellows, a two-year, cohort-based undergraduate program, serves students from populations typically underrepresented in business and provides a unique learning environment designed to support students’ development as changemakers. Impact Fellows take courses together, experience speakers and activities outside the classroom, complete a residency where they learn and apply social enterprise concepts in practice, and engage in internships within the responsible business space. Impact Fellows was recognized this year with a gift to create the Sally and Albert Kaider Impact Fellows First-Year Experience.
SDG 3 (Health and well-being), SDG 8 (Decent work and economic growth), SDG 10 (Reduced inequalities): Supported by the Kaiser Permanente Foundation, we are working with the Mason and Partners Clinics in the College of Health and Human Services to improve health outcomes in the Bailey’s Crossroads/Culmore neighborhood. Mason serves as the lead anchor institution in a collaborative place-based initiative with a community coalition to improve health access and economic outcomes for local residents who live in one of the most under-resourced communities in Northern Virginia.
SDG 1 (No poverty), SDG 5 (Gender equality), SDG 10 (Reduced inequalities), SDG 15 (Life of land): The Honey Bee Initiative is a university-wide effort supported by B4BW to empower communities through sustainable beekeeping. Students from across campus are able to engage in scientific research, design art projects, connect with the community, and even study abroad. Partnerships with government, for-profit businesses, non-profit organizations, and community members are vital to the success of the initiative. In Colombia and Perú, we work with partners to develop social businesses with a particular emphasis on achieving sustainability indicators and seek the economic empowerment of woman, school-age children, and their communities. Here an O’Shaughnessy Hurst Foundation grant supports our expansion of HBI into a self-sustaining business, and an NSF Future of Work Grant supports our work with the College of Education and Human Development to upskill the beekeeping industry.
Center Co-Directors
Lisa M. Gring-Pemble
Co-Executive Director, Business for a Better World Center
Associate Professor, Foundations, School of Business
Anne M. Magro
Co-Executive Director, Business for a Better World Center
Associate Professor, Accounting, School of Business