Interdisciplinary Research

Sustainable Business

The Sustainable Business Research Cluster (SBRC) is an interdisciplinary initiative designed to encourage and promote research in sustainable business practices. Activities of the cluster include hosting conferences and seminars on aspects of sustainable business research, encouraging interdisciplinary research among Miam Herbert faculty on sustainable business, and promoting research by graduate students in sustainable business.

Research and Publications

2024

2022

2021

Past Speakers & Events

Engaging with professionals across different industries to promote a more planet-friendly business culture.
Chief Sustainability Officer Summit & Symposium (CSOSS)

7th Annual CSO Summit & Symposium

Chief Sustainability Officer Summit & Symposium (CSOSS)

6th Annual CSO Summit & Symposium

Chief Sustainability Officer Summit & Symposium (CSOSS)

5th Annual CSO Summit & Symposium

Distinguished Leaders Lecture Series

Nancy Mahon

SVP Global Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability, Estée Lauder
December 13, 2022
Nancy Mahon, Senior Vice President, Global Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability is a transformational, collaborative leader with deep global experience in enterprise-wide management as well as leading Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy, operations, marketing, reporting and risk reduction. In the increasingly disruptive ESG arena, Nancy is a trusted and sought-after advisor, speaker and enterprise ambassador. She is committed to taking the long view on building sustainable and inclusive companies, teams and communities. Nancy is an influential and effective company liaison with investors, ESG rankers and raters, government officials, NGOs, employees and customers. .
Beyond COP26: What Businesses Must Do

Lisa Jackson

Vice President, Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives, Apple, and former administrator of EPA under President Obama

December 8, 2021
Lisa Jackson, vice president for environment, policy and social initiatives at Apple, explained the company’s business model that safeguards planetary concerns while producing consumer electronics..

Helias picture at Lecture Series
Beyond COP26: What Businesses Must Do

Virginie Hélias

Chief Sustainability Officer, Procter and Gamble
November 9, 2021
Hélias, named in 2012 to develop and operationalize Procter & Gamble’s sustainability strategies and goals, highlighted a range of product innovations—from reduced-weight diapers and cold-water detergent to reduced packaging and digital watermarks to improve recycling identifications—that have supported revenues and simultaneously lessened environmental impact.
Suni Hartford, President of UBS Asset Management
Beyond COP26: What Businesses Must Do

Suni Harford

President, Asset Management, UBS
October 27, 2021 
Suni Harford is the President of Asset Management, UBS, talks about her role at UBS, the state of the global "build back better" agenda as it relates to climate, and how asset management can help in the fight against climate change.
HRH Prince Charles

Chief Sustainability Officer Summit

March 24, 2021
The fourth annual Chief Sustainability Officer Summit, a virtual full-day conference attracts chief sustainability officers from a cross-section of industries and countries to share their experience promoting sustainability in the field. This year, Prince Charles, who for decades has been an advocate for environmental concerns, delivered a five-point road map to conference attendees during a nine-minute address.

Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever

Paul Polman

Co-founder & Chair of IMAGINE, former CEO of Unilever
February 25,  2021
Paul Polman, co-founder and chair of Imagine, a social venture accelerating business leadership to achieve sustainable development goals,  addresses the global shift toward green energy technologies—such as the production of batteries to power electric cars— and how it is motivating executives to pursue more holistic performance priorities.
Paul Polman

How Can Business Save the World?

 March 5, 2020
Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever, and co-founder and chair of Imagine, shared how business strategies that foster inclusion, diversity, and green business practices are the most likely to succeed in the changed world economy.

Purpose-Driven Leadership

The following is a list of members of the Sustainable Business Cluster, all of whom are from the University of Miami community. Clicking on a member's name takes you to their curriculum vitae.

David L. Kelly, Co-Chair: Environment
David L. Kelly is a professor of economics, Co-chair of the sustainable Business Research Cluster, and academic director of the Master of Science in Sustainable Business at the University of Miami. Professor Kelly has published in leading journals including Science, Nature, the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, and the Journal of Economic Theory.

Khrystyna Bochkay
Khrystyna Bochkay teaches advanced managerial accounting in the undergraduate program and joined the faculty in 2014 after completing her PhD in Accounting at Rutgers University. Khrystyna holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and a Master's of Science in Statistics from Ivan Franko National University in L’viv, Ukraine.

Vidhi Chhaochharia, Co-Chair: Governance
Vidhi Chhaochharia is an associate professor of finance and co-chair of the Sustainable Business Research Cluster at the University of Miami. Professor Chhaochharia’s research focuses on corporate governance. Research by professor Chhaochharia has appeared in leading finance journals such as the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Financial Economics, and the Journal of Finance.

Marie T. Dasborough: Social
Marie Dasborough is a Professor of Management. She is a member of the Academy of Management, the Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology (Division 14 of the American Psychological Association), the Network of Leadership Scholars, the International Society for Research on Emotions, and is an invited member of the Emotional Intelligence Consortium. Her research aims to promote human sustainability in organizations, by focusing on employee emotional wellbeing. She has published in the top management journals, including Academy of Management Review, Journal of Business Ethics, The Leadership Quarterly, and Journal of Organizational Behavior. Her publications focus on leadership, teamwork, emotions, emotional intelligence, mindfulness, and authenticity.

Fabrizio Ferri: Governance
Associate Professor Fabrizio Ferri’s research focuses on corporate governance issues, with particular emphasis on shareholder activism and executive compensation, and has been published in leading accounting, finance, and law journals, including the Journal of Accounting Research and the Journal of Financial Economics.

Silvia Garrigo:  ESG Strategy and Governance
Silvia Garrigo serves as assistant professor of professional practice at Miami Herbert Business School where she focuses on Sustainability/ESG: the intersection of business, society and the environment, and critical analysis and effective communication. She has 30-plus years of experience developing and executing Sustainability/ESG strategies and plans, and providing legal advice to publicly held companies, as Royal Caribbean Group’s Senior Vice President and Chief ESG Officer; Vice President of Corporate Responsibility at Millicom International; and through executive and senior legal positions at Chevron Corporation. Working with cross-functional teams, she developed best practices for ESG, including governance, shareholder and stakeholder engagement, reporting, crisis communications, enterprise risk management, climate change, supply chain management, diversity, equity and inclusion, environmental stewardship, and human rights.

Rong Hai: Social
Rong Hai is an assistant professor of economics. Rong Hai’s research focuses on inequality and labor economics. Her research has been published in leading economics journals including the Journal of Monetary Economics and Economic Journal.

Daniel Hicks: Sustainability
Daniel Hicks is an economics professor, professional journalist, former network tv news producer, management consultant & talent coach. While covering Hollywood and West Coast business news in 2004, he created CNBC's first-and-only, multiyear corporate sustainability series sponsored by Japanese carmaker Toyota Motors, oil giant British Petroleum and General Electric.

Uzma Khan: Social
Uzma Khan is an associate professor of marketing. Her research focuses on risk perception,  prosocial behavior, DEI, and decision-making. Her work has been published in leading marketing, management, and psychology journals including the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Management Science, and Psychological Science. She is an associate editor for the Journal of Consumer Psychology and is on the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Marketing Research. She has won several awards for her research, teaching excellence, and service.

Renato Molina: Environment
Renato Molina is an engineer and economist specializing in environmental and resource economics. His work focuses on topics at the intersection between game theory, sustainability, and institutional settings. His current research explores the role of property rights in the economic impact of natural disasters, the use of conservation for strategies to control for competitive incentives in the commons, and how global trade is affected by criminal activities in the ocean.

Christopher Parmeter: Environment
Associate Professor Christopher Parmeter’s research focuses on statistically estimating the value of providing environmental goods. Such valuations allow firms to prioritize their efforts towards environmental activities that have the largest impacts. Professor Parmeter has published in leading environmental economics and econometric journals including Journal of Econometrics, Ecological Economics, and Resource and Energy Economics.

Sammi Yu Tang: Environment
Sammi Tang is an Associate Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at the University of Miami Herbert Business School. Her research addresses issues related to supply chain risk management, outsourcing and procurement strategies, sustainable supply chains, and topics in the interface of operations management and marketing, and healthcare operations. Her research has appeared in top journals such as Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, and Journal of Marketing Research.

Claudia Townsend: Social 
Claudia Townsend is an associate professor of marketing. Her research focuses on visual presentation and how to nudge prosocial behavior. Her research has been published in leading marketing journals. She is an associate editor for the Journal of Marketing and the Journal of Marketing Research and is on the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Consumer Research. She teaches Sustainable Marketing among other courses.