Ithaca College Directs Business School Toward Sustainable Leadership

Ithaca College announced a new sustainability initiative to drive changes throughout the school and the region.

The College plans to build a $14 million home for its business school, host a national summit on sustainable development, lead a regional sustainability effort in upstate New York, assess how the College can incorporate sustainability into the curriculum of all five of its schools, and incorporate sustainability practices in its own day-to-day operations.

"It is our goal to become one of the nation's leading proponents of sustainability, to practice what we preach, and to produce leaders in many fields who will find solutions for meeting the needs of their generation without shortchanging future generations," said Ithaca College president Peggy R. Williams. "Enlightened corporations realize that if they hope to remain competitive they must use natural resources wisely, be responsive to the concerns of the public, and serve as good stewards of the environment."

The campus-wide initiative will officially kick off April 6-7, 2004, when the college will host a national summit on sustainable development at its campus in Ithaca, New York.

The new School of Business building will be designed to exceed the highest level of Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) standards of the U.S. Green Building Council.

The college has been involved in sustainability efforts for some time, using a National Science Foundation research grant to develop and revise courses to address sustainable principles. The School of Business curriculum incorporates sustainability in such areas as business ethics, law, management systems, and global investment.

The campus has garnered national attention for successfully integrating resource management programs such as office paper recycling and state-of-the-art composting of dining hall food wastes.

The College and the Park Foundation have provided critical seed funding to support a feasibility study for a regional sustainability initiative in which it would partner with the City of Ithaca, Tompkins County, Cornell University and other public and private sector organizations in the region. The initiative will build on the success of similar efforts in Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco, among other communities.