The mission of the Institute for Sustainable Development is to democratize triple bottom line sustainability by making it accessible to smaller employers and their communities, fostering a new generation of sustainability leaders, and developing a common understanding of sustainability principles across cultures. The Institute strives to be a model of the triple bottom line principles it espouses – conducting a financially sustainable operation with a positive environmental impact that fully engages its employees and stakeholders in its success.
The Institute seeks to educate, motivate, and recognize smaller enterprises for their efforts toward greater sustainability regardless of their means, and to extend practical knowledge and expertise in sustainability by developing new leaders in the field.
Green Plus: Green Plus, the Institute’s flagship program, helps smaller employers improve their competitiveness, environmental and social performance, , gives them access to a North American network of potential clients, peers and mentors, and helps them distinguish themselves in a competitive marketplace.
North American Sustainable Enterprise Awards: At this annual event, the Institute recognizes exemplary smaller enterprises and business leaders for their commitment to sustainability.
Sustainability Fellows Program: The Institute’s Sustainability Fellowship is a competitive, interdisciplinary program that recruits and trains bright university students to help smaller enterprises in the field. Engaging graduate and undergraduate students from different disciplines from UNC, Duke, and other universities in direct service learning with small businesses and non-profits from their communities enables the Institute to help equip a new generation of leaders in sustainability.
AICPA Undergraduate Sustainability Challenge: A partnership of the American Institute for Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Institute for Sustainable Development, the Sustainability Challenge is a national case competition of accounting and other undergraduate majors designed to teach students about the intersections between business, environmental, and social issues.
Low Wealth Community Demonstration Projects: The Institute is conducting rural and urban demonstration projects in North Carolina to develop expertise and insight into low wealth, North American communities and the relevant applications of sustainability therein.
Global Dialogues: The Institute is actively building on relationships with the UNC Center for Global Initiatives, the Duke University Sanford Institute for Public Policy, the World Chamber of Commerce and others to expand a substantive dialogue about what environmental and social sustainability means across cultures.
The Institute partners with business, academic, and community leaders to achieve its mission.
American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE): The Institute partners with the ACCE to make Green Plus available to the ACCE’s 1,300 U.S. and Canadian Chambers of Commerce and their 1.2 million business members.
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA): The Institute’s partnership with the AICPA provides U.S. accountants and their clients with business tools to improve their bottom lines through sustainable practices. The AICPA has 350,000 U.S. members.
Academic Partners Include: The Duke Center for International Development; Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke, University; University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill; The Center for Global Initiatives, UNC Chapel Hill; UNC School of Social Work.
BrownFlynn: The Institute partners with Cleveland-based sustainability consulting firm BrownFlynn to collaborate on content for informational webinars for Green Plus participants as well as research studies in topical areas of sustainability.
North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center (NCRC): The Institute has partnered with the NCRC to develop special sustainability tools for rural businesses and entrepreneurs – to educate individuals about sustainable practices and opportunities for new enterprises in the Green Economy – in order to create new jobs and increase the competitiveness of existing businesses.
Regional Chambers of Commerce: The Institute creates partnerships with chambers of commerce committed sustainable business and community development. Click here to see the full list.
Key Funders Include: The Fenwick Foundation; the Educational Foundation of America; the Park Foundation; the Redwoods Group Foundation; the Z Smith Reynolds Foundation.
The non-profit was founded in the North Carolina Research Triangle in 2007 by a unique partnership of academic, business and philanthropic leaders. Early partners included Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro and Greater Durham Chambers of Commerce, and the Fenwick Foundation.
Institute founders recognized that while many large companies were integrating sustainability into their operations, saving money and improving their reputations, most Americans were employed by businesses with 50 or fewer people, and these smaller employers had neither the time nor the financial resources to pursue sustainability. In the fall of 2007, the Institute engaged the Center for Sustainable Enterprise at UNC Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School to develop a business plan to address this problem. This plan led to the development of Green Plus, a program that provides training, networking, and recognition for small businesses and non-profits working toward becoming more competitive and sustainable.
A vital part of Green Plus is providing real-life experiences to university students in the area of business and sustainability by connecting the students with real organizations engaged with these issues. The Institute trains interdisciplinary teams of graduate students and professionals to provide practical, affordable tools and assistance to help smaller enterprises and their communities become stronger, healthier, and more competitive. To date, over 100 small businesses and non-profits in more than twelve U.S. states have benefited from the Green Plus program.
