2024 Business for a Better World Impact Report

IMPACT REPORT

Transforming Lives Through Business Education

Committed to Business for a Better World

Our shared vision that business can be a force for positive change provides the foundation for everything we do at Colorado State University’s College of Business. As we navigate the complexities of today's society, I am honored to lead a business school whose values center so authentically on transformation and impact.

Our Business for a Better World vision empowers our faculty, staff, students, alumni and broader community to innovate and positively address social, environmental and economic challenges every day.

This commitment manifests in many forms across our College. Faculty publish award-winning research with practical implications for public policy and business sustainability. Our discipline-spanning curriculum centers on sustainability at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Our graduate students have contributed more than 38,000 hours of corporate sustainability work for 58 organizations globally. We are developing future leaders who are committed to sustainability by imparting the skills and mindset to lead with optimism through complex and uncertain times. Across the board, we are making a difference.

The breadth of our impact is only possible with the collective commitment of everyone in our community, from students and employees to donors and corporate partners.

As an important part of that community, I hope you feel inspired by the stories in this report. As you will read in this report, our College community has made significant strides in advancing “Business for a Better World.” I look forward to seeing these efforts continue to evolve and create meaningful impact as we strive towards a better future together.

Beth Walker, PhD Dean, College of Business

Colorado State University

American

Marketing Association (AMA) Fellow

Financial Times Names College Among Top Five Best Business Schools

Commitment

to responsible business education secures rank of No. 1 in North America

Reflecting its deep commitment to Business for a Better World, the Financial Times named the College of Business a recipient of its Best Business School for Responsible Business Education award.

“To be recognized among the most elite business schools in the world that are committed to using business to create a better world, and by the Financial Times, one of the most prestigious media outlets in the world, is truly an honor,” said College of Business Dean Beth Walker.

Presented as part of the Financial Times’s responsible business awards, only five business schools worldwide received the award; the College was the only institution from North America recognized. Judges, who included CEOs, journalists and academics specializing in the areas of business and sustainability, lauded the College’s success at systemically integrating responsible business management through its curricula, research, operations and community engagement.

Leading

LeadingWay the

A Green & Platinum Campus

College contributes to broader impact and sustainability ecosystem

The deep, authentic focus on Business for a Better World makes the College a visionary in the world of business education. It also places it right at home on the CSU campus, where a broader ecosystem of impact and sustainability exists.

CSU recently became the first university in the world to earn four consecutive Platinum STARS ratings. More than 1,100 academic institutions in 40 countries participate in the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) assessment, the premier reporting framework for university sustainability. STARS tracks commitment to sustainability in areas as widespread as sustainability curriculum, sustainable operations, and equity and accessibility.

This unique accomplishment reflects the efforts of thousands of students, staff, faculty and community partners, all of whom believe deeply in the role of the institution in transforming society and the environment.

“Students study, work, eat, commute and often live on campus,” said Ken Manning, senior associate dean for

faculty and research at the College of Business. “We recognize that sustainability must be integrated through a student’s full experience on campus, not just within the walls and reach of our College.”

CSU holds the fourth-highest score in the United States among nearly 600 participants earning a STARS rating. Further speaking to the University’s dedication to sustainability, it scored 100% in the academics and research categories, as well as 97% in engagement. The College of Business’ initiatives are highlighted many times throughout the reporting and contributed to the data collection necessary for the report.

“STARS helps validate what we know to be true,” Manning said. “From research to curriculum development and our operations, CSU is committed to positive societal impact in all aspects of what we do.”

The tangible takeaways of this ranking are clear to students. They have access to 823 sustainabilityfocused or sustainability-inclusive courses. They may work within

CSU’s 19 LEED-certified buildings, volunteer with impact-focused student clubs or take advantage of CSU’s extensive sustainable commuting options.

Student connection to sustainability efforts can run deeper. Many engage with opportunities for involvement directing campus strategy and funding available. These decisions influence current and future sustainability efforts on campus.

College of Business MBA student Andy Goeke served on the campus Alternative Transportation Fee Advisory Board (ATFAB), which provides guidance on alternative transportation priorities on campus and reviews and directs funding towards sustainable and active transportation initiatives.

“I initially got involved with ATFAB because I was looking for a way to contribute to the community on campus,” Goeke said. “As an avid cyclist and proponent of public transportation, it seemed like a great opportunity to be involved in promoting these and other alternative modes of transportation. “By serving on ATFAB, I became

more aware of the way that sustainability can be effectively embedded into our built environments, which is a key challenge facing communities. If we make more sustainable options accessible to more people, we can promote healthier and more engaged communities.”

ATFAB is only one of many studentadvised funding boards on campus. These opportunities offer chances to get involved and have immediate impacts. They are one of the many

reasons that CSU ranks so highly on the STARS rating.

Students take notice of CSU’s authentic integration of sustainability when they are looking at where they want to spend their educational time and resources.

“CSU’s focus on sustainability was one of the main reasons that I chose to join a program here,” Goeke said. “Working toward a sustainable future is an important part of my life and something that I’d like to

dedicate my career to. Seeing that commitment in practice every time that I’m on campus is something that further motivates me to make my own contribution.”

The College is proud to be a part of this broader ecosystem of sustainability and contribute to the virtuous cycle in which Universitywide and College-level initiatives feed and propel each other.

Earning Accolades for Sustainability

Annual ranking places College’s MBA program among top nationally

In2023, Corporate Knights honored the College with a No. 4 Better World MBA nationally and No. 7 globally. This marks the second year the international publication has recognized the College’s programs among the world’s best.

The ranking evaluated 209 business schools across the world and focused on two metrics: what proportion of the core curriculum addresses sustainable development principles and what percentage of

recent graduates are working in “impact organizations."

The highly competitive and growing field included programs accredited by AACSB, AMBA or EQUIS, and also evaluated schools from the most recent Financial Times Top 100 MBA list.

The recognition affirms the power of the College of Business’ vision that business has the responsibility to drive positive social, environmental and economic change.

We’re proud to be equipping students with the skills needed to lead sustainability initiatives and create lasting change.”

Kat Ernst Impact MBA Program Director

Awards honor Impact MBA among elite sustainability programs

The Impact MBA’s Corporate Sustainability Fellowship Program recently earned a silver award for nurturing employability in the prestigious Wharton-QS Reimagine Education Awards for North America. The award was the culmination of an eightmonth process and five rounds of assessment, during which

programs were judged based on their project's approach, engagement and impact. The annual award recognizes innovative approaches that enhance student learning outcomes and employability.

The program has also received the Wharton-QS silver award for sustainability education globally.

Positive Impact Rating

Students rate College a Level 4 ‘transforming’ institution for two consecutive years

Inthe Positive Impact Rating for Business Schools’ 2023 report, CSU was one of only seven U.S. schools rated by students at Level 4, the secondhighest possible rating. It was the second consecutive year it achieved this rating. No U.S. schools were rated at Level 5.

The Positive Impact Rating is the only rating that uses student feedback to assess a school's ability to energize, educate and engage its community. This recognition is a direct reflection of the College’s commitment to its Business for a Better World vision.

“It means that our impact efforts are felt and experienced by students, that our vision of Business for a Better World is embedded in how we educate and collaborate, and that the College is making progress in meaningful ways,” said Grace

Wright, the College’s sustainability initiatives specialist. “There is still a lot of work to be done, and we appreciate students helping to guide the priorities for the College.”

The rating assesses schools around the world from Level 1 (beginning) to Level 5 (pioneering). Level 4 is given to "schools with a positive impact culture, embedded in governance and systems, with visible results and progress in many impact dimensions."

The student ratings and feedback collected in the survey offer valuable insight into the impact staff and faculty are making in classrooms and across communities, allowing the College to build on what’s working while examining how to continue to improve.

Impact MBA students Marie Samson and Hillary Prince, who were responsible for distributing student

surveys for the 2022 report, said they were encouraged to see that students understand the importance of the role business plays in making the world a better place.

In my program, I expect to have sustainability integrated into the courses, but it’s an amazing thing that the undergraduate students feel that way as well.”

Hillary Prince Impact MBA Alumna

Accounting faculty achieve sustainability credentials

As the importance of sustainability accounting and environmental, social and governance reporting grows, the College is developing leaders who understand how to measure, interpret and report on these impacts.

Building on this, the College began offering FSA certification training to MBA students and recently launched an FSA course for undergraduate and graduate students.

College’s expert on data privacy recognized with prestigious award

The marketing department’s Kelly Martin’s research specializes in customer data privacy, studying how marketers use customer information and the impact of firms’ data privacy practices on customer behavior and firm performance.

These topics have dominated headlines in recent years, and Martin’s article, “Data Privacy: Effects on Customer and Firm Performance,” received the prestigious Sheth Foundation/Journal of Marketing Award for its continued impact on both academic and practical understanding of the topic.

Assistant dean among Top Voices in Racial Equity on LinkedIn

Assistant dean of social and cultural inclusion Patrice Palmer doesn’t like to ask students to do things they haven’t done themself. That’s why when it came time to preach the importance of using LinkedIn, Palmer took a hands-on approach and created their own profile.

Now, more than 45,000 people follow Palmer, whose posts detail their experiences as a Black, queer, transgender (non-binary) person working in the world of business and education. Their insight and wide impact earned recognition from LinkedIn as one of the Top 10 Voices in Racial Equity.

Good business takes ambition, a better world takes intention

Developing Tomorrow’s Trailblazers

Tomorrow’s Trailblazers

Impact MBA Fellowships

Students drive real-world sustainable initiatives

Over the past three years, 94 Impact MBA students completed more than 38,000 hours of corporate sustainability work in the Impact MBA's fellowship program.

The fellowships are a key part of every Impact MBA student’s degree experience and offer 400 hours of hands-on learning while guiding partner organizations to adopt sustainable initiatives. Impact students directly translate classroom learning to real-world

applications to meet companies’ actual sustainability needs. Whether conducting risk analysis, analyzing greenhouse gas emissions or measuring a company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives through reporting, the outcomes are meaningful and help organizations move forward.

“The program opened my mind to the opportunities that existed,” said Kameron Hanna, an Impact MBA fellow. “I now see just how

many possibilities there are to work on sustainability and how many industries really need sustainability professionals.”

Implementing sustainability initiatives

Hanna’s fellowship with the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) Markets Institute explored implementing worker- and producer-centered business models. After conducting several interviews with companies outside of the WWF, Hanna identified numerous opportunities for organizations to expand sustainability efforts.

“It has showed me the importance of getting all companies, regardless of the sector, a little bit more on the path to sustainability,” he said.

Another Impact MBA student, Miki Salamon, helped the Denver Zoo conduct a greenhouse gas inventory. Despite the zoo’s well established sustainability practices, it wanted to get a better understanding of its operations to influence future goals.

“A greenhouse gas inventory provides a holistic and accurate understanding of your business operations,” she said. “Then you can identify hotspots for areas of focus to really narrow down on and try to reduce emissions in those spaces.”

Working alongside the zoo, she learned not only how committed its team was to the animals’ wellbeing but about its conservation efforts as well.

“I was really taken aback, because I think I’m just used to sustainability, especially in corporate settings, being so siloed and kind of an afterthought for people,” Salamon said. “So it was really impressive to see how well it was integrated within the whole organization.”

Matching fellows and hosts

The Impact team partners with host companies that propose specific sustainability projects, connecting students with opportunities to put their knowledge to use. Similar to medical residency matching, students submit their preferences and are

connected to host organizations based on their submissions.

The Denver Zoo landed on Salamon’s list of matches. “I saw Denver Zoo and I just thought, ‘Wow, that’s so interesting,’” Salamon said. “Who would ever be able to say they had the opportunity to work at a zoo?”

The Denver Zoo was looking to do a greenhouse gas assessment. It was a match made in heaven.

Lasting impact

The fellowship program is making an impact on its students, but its influence goes far beyond the work they’re doing in the field and in the classroom.

The network and community coupled with real-world work experience drives students to discover just how capable they are of becoming leaders of change. Choosing to invest in a program that positively affects its students, community and environment is part of the reason the Impact MBA is a true leader in sustainable business education.

The fellowship program has multiple layers of impact: student impact, company impact and environmental impact. It’s creating meaningful change for our stakeholders, and it will only continue to grow. Business for a Better World is in our DNA.”

Grace Wright Sustainability Initiatives Specialist

Curriculum innovations prepare students for a complex and changing world

For more than a decade, the College has been one of only a handful of business schools that require a core sustainability course for all undergraduate students. At the graduate level, the Impact MBA has been driving curricular innovation since 2007.

In the spirit of innovation, the College analyzed the depth and breadth of sustainability curriculum

at all levels and made efforts to continue transforming how it integrates sustainability and social impact into curricular offerings.

The College has made a significant investment in new impact-focused curricula. It launched an Impact MBA and Master of Finance dual degree as well as an Online MBA Certificate in Sustainable Business, which includes new courses in ESG finance, corporate social and sustainable responsibility, and sustainability ethics and business practice. The College also developed and approved a new undergraduate All-University Core Curriculum (AUCC) course called Fostering Sustainable Organizations and launched two experimental

courses: a Fundamentals of Sustainability Accounting class and a Fostering an Inclusive Workplace Climate class

To further integrate the Business for a Better World vision into graduate programming, the College added a better world flex core category to the Online MBA as well as Business for a Better World competencies to all Online MBA core classes.

In addition, significant efforts were made by faculty to integrate greater depth of social and sustainable content into existing courses. These efforts are tracked through the College’s annual survey for sustainable curriculum integration.

Undergrads partner with real-world ventures for sustainable projects

Social enterprises and the College collaborated to provide undergraduates with hands-on experience on improving the impact of businesses.

Professors Paulo R Borges de Brito and Jaewoo Jung teach the undergraduate Social and Sustainable Venturing course, which partners with social enterprises to help improve their business operations and enhance impact. In their course, students worked with small companies that produce upcycled rain barrels, provide economic opportunity to sex

trafficking survivors, use fly larvae for waste management and resell slightly used clothing.

The real-world element of the course not only offers students a chance to put their classwork into practice, but also exposes them to the pressures and oftentimes muddy scenarios of operating a business.

“Engaging with actual companies allows students to see that business challenges are not as unidimensional as textbooks might suggest,” Jung said. “In the business environment, problems

are multifaceted, intertwined and often more complex than theoretical scenarios.”

Students aren’t the only ones who benefit from this learning experience. Partner organizations are also exposed to students’ fresh perspectives.

“This impacts our community in so many ways,” Borges de Brito explained. “Collaboration with real companies can lead to long-lasting relationships between students and community organizations.”

First-Gen Business Summit

Summer summit gives high schoolers a taste of campus

From real-life university lectures to visits with CEOs to TikTok dance parties in the residence halls, 43 young people had the opportunity to see firsthand what defines a great college experience and a vast majority of them hadn’t even graduated high school yet.

This experience was part of the First-Generation Business Summit, which brought high school students and recent graduates from Colorado and beyond to campus. Many of them were from underserved or rural communities, and all of them will be the first person in their families to attend college.

“I’ve had multiple students tell me that they didn’t think college was in their fate, but after attending the Summit, they realized they really wanted to go,” said David Ferree, an undergraduate recruitment coordinator for the College of Business.

During the Summit, students were assigned teams and tasked with coming up with ideas for businesses they believe would create a better world. They presented their pitches to a panel of judges on the last day, and the winners received CSU

scholarships up to $2,500 funded by CSU’s Green and Gold Foundation and FirstBank.

While the scholarships are contingent on whether students attend CSU, this wasn’t the entire mission of the Summit. Organizers hope that by offering a taste of campus life, they’ve inspired firstgeneration students to persevere and set a goal of attending college –even if it’s on a campus other than CSU.

We’re

a land-grant institution,

and

if someone who wasn’t planning on it decides to attend college – wherever that is – we did our job.”

David Ferree Assistant Director of Resident Recruitment

Student-managed investments raise $80K in scholarships

In just one year, two studentmanaged financial funds valued at $1.1M raised nearly $80,000 in scholarships, ultimately making college more affordable for their peers and reflecting the College’s Business for a Better World vision.

The Summit and Veterans funds place students at the helm of significant portfolios. Just like in the real world, students can experience market fluctuations with the potential for large-scale losses and learn that beating the market is not easy. Whether the funds beat the market or underperform, students gain distinctive experience managing funds' real-time market conditions.

The benefits when the funds perform well go far beyond the students directly managing funds and support scholarships for others.

Using the same Bloomberg terminals commercial fund managers run, students access real-time news, verified data and other trading tools as part of their analysis. After research into their stock picks, students present to their peers, defending their analyses and polishing the leadership and communications skills essential to business professionals.

“Managing a real-world portfolio makes classwork much more

tangible,” said associate finance professor and advisor of the Summit Fund, Hilla Skiba. “The funds’ success speaks to the rigor of our students’ investment analysis and has contributed to the College’s land-grant mission of extending access through financial aid.”

Four College faculty receive University’s sustainability curriculum innovation grants

For two consecutive years, four College faculty have been selected to receive highly competitive sustainability curriculum innovation grants from CSU to introduce sustainability concepts into coursework.

CSU’s School of Global Environmental Sustainability and the President’s Sustainability Commission award the grants annually to expand and improve interdisciplinary sustainability content across the University curriculum.

“The University’s dedication to sustainability further empowers College of Business faculty to develop our courses and to keep

our students at the leading edge of sustainability education,” said finance professor Harry Turtle, one of the grant recipients. “Students benefit by the College and CSU amplifying each other’s enthusiasm.”

Two grants focused on enabling finance and real estate department faculty to meaningfully integrate ESG curriculum into their courses. Tianyang Wang received funding to develop curriculum that introduces students to new advances in ESG frameworks and sustainability in the business world, and Hilla Skiba and Turtle were awarded a grant to develop an ESG graduate studentmanaged investment fund. Skiba and Turtle also used their updated

ESG investment modules in multiple classes and introduced an ESG investments course as a component of the College’s graduate Sustainable Business Certificate.

The marketing department’s Chris Berry also received a grant to redesign a course on marketing and societal well-being to focus on sustainable marketing and consumption. It provides students with an understanding of how marketing and consumption practices relate to the broad domain of sustainability.

CSU team wins humanitarian competition involving 130 students from 16 countries

A team of four CSU students won an international competition designed to offer solutions to countries grappling with natural disasters and the supply chain issues that ensue.

Impact MBA students Emily Bergman, Tess Lapray and Blerinda Veliu teamed up with Julia Choolwe Munsaka – a PhD student in the political science department – to share their proposal to build “resiliency kits” for people in Mozambique.

Team CSU received $5,000 for winning the Hanken School of Economics HUMLOG Challenge, which attracted 37 teams of 130 students drawn from 21 schools in 16 countries.

Munsaka, who’s from Zambia, wanted to focus her research on Mozambique because the African country’s many miles of coastline have made it vulnerable to the

natural disasters that have become more frequent due to climate change.

Food insecurity is a major issue that arises after disasters, she said. Distributing the kits would require partnerships with the nonprofits and non-governmental organizations already on the ground.

Bergman said their goal was for the kits to cost $1 each and to include evacuation materials to lessen human impact during the next disaster. The people building the kits would be from Mozambique, creating additional jobs in one of the poorest countries in the world.

“We’re really trying to step back and allow space for communities to create and lead their own disaster response initiatives, with support from the government and other NGOs,” Bergman said.

$600K grant supports gender diversity in computer information

Building on its history of developing programs that increase gender diversity, the computer information systems department received funding to continue recruiting and retaining women into its program. The grant of $600,000 provided by the Center for Inclusive Computing at Northeastern University was shared with the College of Natural Sciences' computer science department.

The award is used to support evidence-based approaches to creating educational opportunities for all students.

“As one of the first CIS programs in the country and among the top 50 in the nation, we are honored to receive this gift to support advancing the next generation of diverse leaders,” Leo Vijayasarathy, chair of the computer information systems department in the College of Business, said. “In particular, we see women taking a more active role in shaping the future of technology and its applications – ultimately connecting business and technology in innovative ways to move our society forward.”

With information technology becoming more important across virtually all industries, the department is focused on developing the next generation of tech worker. The grant enables the department to continue its pursuit of expanding access to high-tech positions and will help ensure that its programs remain within reach, regardless of a student’s background.

LEAP Scholar

New partnership provides pathway for Indian students to earn degree

Apartnership with Leap Scholar created a unique hybrid learning program that allows students in India to complete the College’s STEM-designated master’s degree in computer information systems (MCIS) at a much lower cost than typical international students.

This program trains workers for careers in in-demand fields ranging from cybersecurity to data analytics – helping meet the need for technical professionals well versed in business applications.

“After these students graduate, they will fill a much-needed niche,”

Leo Vijayasarathy, the chair of the Department of Computer Information Systems said. “Clearly tech jobs are plentiful, so producing business graduates coming out of a STEM program is definitely beneficial to the economy.”

The LEAP Scholar partnership program allows students to complete the first semester of their MCIS degree in India before coming to Colorado for their final two semesters on campus in Fort Collins. The hybrid approach helps students save approximately $25,000 over the course of the program compared to starting the program on campus.

The first class of students from India began the MCIS program in Fall 2022. Vijayasarathy said many of these students have had previous experience working with global tech companies like Amazon or Accenture, meaning they’re already acclimatized to how businesses in the U.S. operate before they start at CSU.

The program also allows international students to receive up to three years of practical training authorization to work in the U.S. after graduation.

“One of the University’s goals is to have a diverse population of students, and that’s what we’re trying to do here: make our program attractive, affordable and accessible,” Vijayasarathy said.

Depending on the success of the partnership, Vijayasarathy said the College of Business could begin offering similar pathways to students throughout southeast Asia and the Middle East, truly making the mission of Business for a Better World a global endeavor.

Whether it’s international students or domestic students, we want to make sure that we provide access to a high-quality degree for everyone interested in a CSU education.”

Leo Vijayasarathy, PhD Chair, Department of Computer Information Systems

Creating Real-World Impact

Case competitions develop Business for a Better World ethos

Testing knowledge and skills using real-world scenarios is a time-honored tradition in business education, and College of Business case competitions amplify those experiences while also giving students the chance to flex their command of Business for a Better World thinking.

Three Business for a Better Worldfocused case competitions – the Deloitte Women in Business Case Competition, the Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Case Competition and the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative (DFEI) Video Case Competition – extend the opportunity for students to unknot corporate challenges while developing a stronger understanding of how their values can guide important business decisions.

During the 2022-2023 school year, competition participants vied for nearly $35,000 in cash prizes and scholarships provided by partner institutions such as Deloitte, FirstBank and New Belgium Brewery that align with the competitions’ mission to promote diverse thinking.

“Addressing real-world implications of our Business for a Better World vision provides additional dimensions to classwork,” said Andrea Karapas, Women in Business Case Competition organizer and director of the Career Management Center. “These events provide that perspective and raise the stakes with competition that brings out the best in our students.”

The DFEI competition prompted competitors to discuss a major

ethical crisis or decision they faced in life, then submit a video essay describing the challenge. Because of the universality and importance of ethics instruction, students from across campus were eligible to enter the competition.

During the Women in Business and JEDI competitions, students addressed problems based on gender and equity issues pulled from industry. Teams analyzed the situation, collaborated to develop solutions and presented their approach to judges drawn from sponsors and partner institutions. The experience offers opportunity to directly interact with executives before entering the job market.

You’re never going to get better without feedback. You

can give yourself as much feedback as you want, and it’s important [to do so], but it’s not going to take you to the next level unless you’re also getting outside feedback.”

Miranda White Women in Business Case Competition Winner

Undergraduate Research Fellowships

Fellows receive hands-on experience in academic research

For many undergraduates, “research” means digging through the stacks in the library, but for a handful of business students, it means helping to generate the big ideas from which future papers will draw.

The Business for a Better World Undergraduate Research Fellows program matches academically curious undergraduates with research faculty, employing students to support select research. The program addresses the challenges of getting undergraduates involved in business research.

Without the need to complete repetitive lab work often offloaded onto undergraduates, the College had to develop a program that incorporated students deeply into research design and analysis.

“At CSU, there’s a strong norm for providing undergraduate students with research opportunities,” said Ken Manning, College of Business senior associate dean for faculty and research. “How could we do that in the College of Business? There’s a lot of social science in business research, and more than

half the work is just the cognitive effort that goes into it.”

As students work with faculty on their respective projects and receive hands-on experience in developing tools and analyzing data, they also meet weekly as a community with Manning and other research faculty to talk about what it means to be an academic researcher. Faculty also meet one-on-one with students to discuss their projects as well as academic and career ambitions.

As the students materially contribute to their research projects, they’re also engaging in topics about which they’re passionate, such as diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in hiring or the role of gender in organizations. As they explore these topics, they see how short the line between academic research and empowering businesses to build a better world can be.

Postgraduate plans vary for students active in the Business for a Better World Undergraduate Research Fellows program. A handful of fellows are considering continuing in academia. Others plan to take the experience with them into their first jobs in industry. When they do,

Working on these research projects has really opened my eyes. We should be questioning why there are disparities in society. We should be looking at why those things are happening.”

Molly Peek Undergraduate Research Fellow

they’ll also take the Business for a Better World mindset with them.

“It just makes me more aware of the problems that are out there,” undergraduate research fellow Molly Peek said. “I’m reading all of these papers that have solutions and ways that we can move forward.”

World-Class Research Impacting Business Today

Impacting Today

Tackling Illegal Wildlife Trafficking

Advancing interdisciplinary science for disrupting wildlife trafficking networks

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

What if we could reduce illegal wildlife trafficking by disrupting the illicit supply chain that enables protected wildlife species to be carried across borders and into the hands of buyers?

ACollege of Business professor, John Macdonald, is part of a unique interdisciplinary team examining illegal activity through the lens of supply chains.

Macdonald, an associate professor in the Department of Management, spent the first 15 years of his academic career studying how companies can prevent and recover from supply chain disruptions. He was focused on the kinds of disruptions that we saw during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, from toilet paper shortages to furniture delays.

Until a few years ago, he had never considered using his expertise to research how to intentionally disrupt a supply chain – but that’s exactly what he and his colleagues are doing.

“By analyzing the characteristics of illicit trade from a business and logistics perspective, we’re aiming to stimulate the kind of research needed to reduce illegal wildlife trafficking around the world,” Macdonald said. “We believe that disrupting a supply chain could be a powerful crime-fighting tool.”

In “Advancing interdisciplinary science for disrupting wildlife trafficking networks,” published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Macdonald and his coauthors use the example of illicit ploughshare tortoise networks in

Madagascar to advocate for a multidisciplinary approach to eliminating illegal wildlife trafficking.

As one of the rarest tortoises in the world, ploughshare tortoises have been protected by law in Madagascar since 1960, but they continue to be poached and sold as pets. By examining the case of the ploughshare tortoises through an interdisciplinary lens, local officials could discover vulnerabilities in the wildlife trafficking network’s supply chain and determine how resilient the supply chain would be in the face of disruption.

“Research journals often publish work focused in one umbrella discipline, such as conservation or business,” Macdonald said. “One outcome of the research work is the call for journals to be willing to publish work using an interdisciplinary approach, as this will signal to researchers that such approaches are welcome. The example of ploughshare tortoises showed that interdisciplinary efforts may be more effective than singlediscipline efforts.”

Funded by an $809,666 grant from the National Science Foundation, Macdonald has coauthored a total of four articles on the topic of illegal wildlife trafficking over the past academic year.

In addition to the PNAS research, his team published “Quantitative

Investigation of Wildlife Trafficking Supply Chains: A Review,” in Omega; “Illicit Activity and Scarce Natural Resources in the Supply Chain: A Literature Review, Framework, and Research Agenda,” in the Journal of Business Logistics; and “A Data Directory to Facilitate Investigations on Worldwide Wildlife Trafficking,” in Big Earth Data

“The PNAS article advocates for the aforementioned interdisciplinary approach,” Macdonald said. “This approach is then used as a framing in several subsequent articles: first, to look at the current knowledge state and gaps between illicit activity and scarce natural resources, such as certain minerals; second, identifying appropriate operations research techniques to answer important questions about the structure, operations and drivers of illicit networks; and third, to further break down communication barriers with a directory of available data resources for other researchers around the world to utilize.”

John Macdonald, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Management

‘A pervasive and global problem’

Illegal wildlife trafficking is an extremely profitable crime, with an estimated value between $5 to $35 billion per year, according to a citation in Macdonald’s Omega article. The crime is driven by strong demand for wildlife and wildlife products, which have a wide range of uses, including fashion, food and traditional medicine.

It can be difficult to crack down on wildlife crime, in part because it spans more than 150 countries and more than 37,000 species of animals and plants. But the scale of the problem only makes it more important for researchers to understand how supply chains are used for criminal activity.

Through their work, Macdonald and his colleagues are hoping to encourage social and environmental sustainability in areas beset by illegal wildlife trafficking.

“The illicit wildlife trade is a pervasive and global problem that has far-reaching impacts on both society and the environment,” the Omega article explains. “Aside from threatening numerous species around the world and acting as a potential disease transmission vector for several zoonotic diseases, including the COVID-19 pandemic, this complex system is often linked with other illicit

networks such as drugs, weapons and human trafficking.”

Research into illegal supply chains is also becoming increasingly important as countries begin to pass laws that deal with sustainability and supply chains, Macdonald said. These new laws – and increased social awareness – are pressuring companies around the world to better understand their operations.

The power of an interdisciplinary team

Wildlife crime has often been researched from a conservation biology perspective, but it has only recently gained visibility as part of an integrated supply chain, criminology, operations research and artificial intelligence problem, Macdonald said.

In the PNAS article, he and his coauthors demonstrate how examining illegal wildlife trafficking networks’ supply chains could be key to stopping them, specifically signaling that different interdiction and disruption strategies could be tested on empirical data through machine learning and computational modeling.

The team’s very existence is a testament to the power of an interdisciplinary approach, uniting several logisticians — Macdonald included — as well as conservation criminologists and computer science researchers.

The beauty of this kind of approach is that each researcher approaches the problem with a different perspective, Macdonald

said. Academics have been researching how to stop illegal wildlife trafficking for decades — just not through the lens of logistics. But with this effort, researchers from different disciplines are coming together to combine their ideas.

‘The building blocks of synthesis’

Because this type of interdisciplinary research into disrupting illegal wildlife trafficking hadn’t been done before — and because the nature of illegal activity means there isn’t readily available data on the subject — the researchers essentially had to start from the beginning, building a foundation on which to do further study.

“These multiple efforts don’t represent quantitative analysis that allows you to predict the next piece – instead, they represent the building blocks of synthesis,” Macdonald said. “We wanted to analyze what else was out there already so we could learn how to build on it.”

Despite significant research and increasing awareness around the importance of wildlife conservation and the dangers of illegal wildlife trafficking, little is known about the supply chain structures and operations of these illicit networks. That makes this research an essential step toward better understanding wildlife crime. By analyzing the obstacles to eliminating illegal wildlife trafficking, Macdonald and his colleagues have laid the groundwork for future developments in how to detect, reduce and hopefully, eliminate it.

Menus Fighting Climate Change

Examining the effects of carbon emission information on restaurant menu items: Differential effects of positive icons, negative icons and numeric disclosures on consumer perceptions and restaurant evaluations

Journal of the Association for Consumer Research

Ifpeople had more information about the carbon footprint generated by the food they eat, would they make different decisions when ordering in restaurants? About a third of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions are produced by the global food system — and some restaurants have begun taking steps to mitigate their climate impact by providing information about the emissions associated with specific menu items. Chris Berry and his coauthors examined consumers’ reactions to three different menu labels that restaurants could use to show the carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions required to produce a particular meal. The researchers found that while these labels successfully influence consumers’ choices, they can also have unintended consequences.

Studies show that if one of the menu labels is an icon that flags items below a specific emission threshold, that could drive perceptions in an unhelpful direction for products that barely miss the threshold. For example, if two menu items are very similar in their environmental impact, but one is eligible for the icon and the other isn’t, consumers could find themselves debating various types of salads instead of focusing on the value of ordering a salad instead of a hamburger. Simply adding numeric information about a meal’s CO2 emissions to a restaurant’s menu may be the most objective and least likely to mislead consumers, the research shows.

Chris Berry, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Marketing

Tragedy, Truth & Technology

The 3T Theory of social media-driven misinformation

Journal of the Association for Information Systems

The algorithms social media platforms use to share content prioritize keeping users engaged on the platform, but they’re also central to the spread of misinformation. Drawing comparisons from classic Greek and Shakespearian tragedies as well as insight into user experience, Hamed Qahri-Saremi developed a theory that explains how users’ decision-making processes may be hijacked by algorithms when evaluating false claims, ultimately leading to unfavorable real-world consequences. Algorithms that select content surfacing on social newsfeeds exploit these processes. By prioritizing content similar to

and undermine users’ abilities to evaluate the claims. Display of comments and “likes” related to false claims further complicates evaluation of false claims, as they leverage social influence responses that imply credibility through peer approval.

As users work to evaluate the truthfulness of claims, these algorithmic functions often magnify misinformation’s impact on the assessment process. By continually dripping falsities to users, social media platforms follow the same playbook as villains in classic tragedies, undermining users’ decisions and directing them to take

Hamed Qahri-Saremi, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Information Systems

Auditor Shopping

Don’t make me look bad: How the audit market penalizes auditors for doing their job

The Accounting Review

When lawmakers passed the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which requires companies to use a different audit firm to perform audits for shareholders required by law, they intended it to provide additional oversight and security into publicly traded companies’ accounting practices. Twenty years later, Elizabeth Cowle and her coauthor discovered that on average, audit firms that provide more strict internal control opinions have lower client and fee growth than less critical auditors. These effects were more pronounced for firms that issued critical opinions of high-profile companies. Cowle also found that once audit firms with a reputation for

stringency start issuing fewer strict opinions, they’re able to recoup some of their lost growth.

The findings indicate that companies may gravitate to audit firms with a reputation for leniency, and that market forces may undermine some portions of Sarbanes-Oxley designed to provide oversight to accounting practices. Cowle’s research adds to calls to reform the 20-year-old act. Reforms would more effectively protect individual investors who rely on audits to make informed investment decisions and help avoid accounting scandals similar to those that cost stakeholders billions of dollars in the early ’00s.

Elizabeth Cowle, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Accounting

Busting Negativity Bias

Negativity bias and perceived return distributions: Evidence from a pandemic

Journal of Financial Economics

Humans aren’t always good at evaluating risks, a weakness that Harry Turtle and his coauthors’ research ties to lack of participation in the stock market. By drawing on historical data gathered during the 2009-2010 swine flu pandemic as a yardstick to measure the tendency to over-estimate risks, a psychological process known as negativity bias, Turtle found that people who overestimated their chances of dying from

swine flu were also more likely to overestimate their chances of losing money in the stock market: Pulling information from the RAND American Life Panel, Turtle found people estimated their chance of dying from swine flu as 270 times higher than actual risk. Those people’s negativity bias also translated to their outlook on the market, with respondents estimating the likelihood of yearover-year gains at 39%. Historically, investors actually experience yearover-year gains 74% of the time.

Turtle also found that lowereducated and lower-income individuals displayed higher degrees of negativity bias. The research has important implications for fighting poverty and helping lower-income families build wealth by identifying a root cause for stock market avoidance and suggesting the

development of alternative financial products such as defined-benefit plans that reduce the perception of risk and combat negativity bias.

Harry Turtle, PhD Tinberg Business for a Better World Professor, Department of Finance and Real Estate

Managing the Double Bind

Women directors’ participation tactics in the boardroom

Organization Science

Even when operating at the highest levels of corporate America, women face the challenge of balancing stereotypes of femininity and authority. This struggle is known as the double bind, and successful female directors adopt several strategies to navigate this tension. Tiffany Trzebiatowski and her coauthors investigate how women on corporate boards of publicly traded companies gain the trust of their board members while weighing in on matters outside their areas of expertise as an executive. Depending on their goals, women adopted communication styles that uphold warmth-based stereotypes of women and competency-focused expectations for directors. When seeking to diversify opinions on the

board, successful female directors drew on behaviors associated with warmth, asking questions and building connections with other directors. When facing competencybased expectations, they directly asserted their opinion or referenced outside research. Two other strategies, waiting and checking with others, addressed both warmth and competency concerns.

The glimpse inside the boardroom – traditionally a difficult place for researchers to access – confirms that gendered structures and ways of doing business persist at even the highest levels of management. Businesses that encourage different means of expression on boards may benefit more from diverse directors’ experiences.

Tiffany Trzebiatowski, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Management

Fostering Community Connections

Community Connections

Institute for Entrepreneurship

College offers free business resources for students, community

The College’s Institute for Entrepreneurship serves as a hub for innovation, taking a zero-barriers approach to entrepreneurship by offering free programming for CSU students and employees as well as community members in Fort Collins and across the state.

“The incredible thing about being Colorado’s land grant university is that the entire state is our campus — and we’re laser focused on ensuring that we’re there to support all of Colorado’s innovators and entrepreneurs,” said Scott Shrake, assistant vice president for strategy and executive director of the Institute.

“We’ve intentionally built bridges internally at CSU and with incredible partners across the state to be able to support those entrepreneurs at every crucial step of their journey.”

From hosting weekly lunches that allow students and faculty to discuss innovation and entrepreneurship to helping community members take their business ideas and make them into a reality, the Institute’s programs and resources were designed to develop an entrepreneurial mindset.

“We have pushed all of our programming on campus and throughout the community with the belief that when communities are empowered to remove barriers, innovative ideas can flourish,” said Sarah Rhodes, the Institute’s entrepreneurship business resident.

“That’s our mission: providing all programming free or as close to free as possible for anyone from any background. As long as they have a computer to log in or they can show up on campus, we welcome them and their ideas.”

Although the College of Business houses the Institute, its staff aim to unite a campus-wide community of people who share an interest in business or entrepreneurship. Faculty representatives in colleges across CSU’s campus promote the Institute’s programs, which are open to all students, not just business majors.

“It’s a matter of being able to help students — no matter what their background is, no matter what their major is — come together and ask, ‘What are you interested in? What are you passionate about?

And how can we help you take that to the next level?’” said Aubrey Kruse, the Institute’s marketing and events coordinator.

A tiered approach to venture development

Through the Venture Development Pathway — a series of free programs open to students, faculty, staff and community members — the Institute gives aspiring entrepreneurs all the tools they need to get their ideas to market.

With the support of seasoned mentors and coaches, participants conduct customer discovery and market research, create a business model, analyze their competitive landscape, and prototype products with the goal of launching successful ventures. The result is a tiered approach to pursuing an idea and bringing it to life.

The first stage is Venture Validator 1.0, a cohort-based program that takes participants through all the steps to get their ventures off the ground and figure out if there’s a real opportunity there. The two-week, four-session program

serves as the starting blocks for an entrepreneurial venture.

The second stage, Venture Validator 2.0, is a continuation of the customer discovery journey, offered in four sessions over two weeks. The third stage is Venture Jumpstart, a self-paced, modified accelerator where entrepreneurs learn about – and take – the concrete steps needed to begin their business operations. After successfully completing Venture Validator and Venture Jumpstart, entrepreneurs can become part of the Venture RAMS mentorship program.

Student-focused programs, including the annual Venture Rams Business Showcase, allow teams of entrepreneurs to hone their business ideas, sharpen their pitches and compete to win cash prizes that can be used to start their businesses.

In addition, the Institute also offers a three-month immersive summer program, Student Venture Accelerator.

“We took 11 entrepreneurial student teams from start – wherever they were at with their business – all the way to where all of them had the soft launch in some way,” Kruse said.

Building community and fostering innovation

The Institute’s effort to offer resources to entrepreneurs and build a community of innovative thinkers extends far beyond Rockwell Hall and CSU’s Fort Collins campus.

Its community-facing programs include Pivot Jumpstart, an initiative borne out of the COVID-19 to help businesses build resiliency. Institute staff worked with faculty to develop a curriculum for businesses facing an unexpected challenge.

The Institute also helped launch the Colorado Collision Food Pitch Competition in Denver.

Business owners from across the state including Sterling, Durango, Grand Junction, Hayden and the Front Range participated in the competition, pitching products such as coffee, camel’s milk and glutenfree flour.

Supply Chain Management Forum cultivates green practices

More than 80 students and industry partners engaged in workshops and presentations focused on cultivating green practices and building stability at the Fall 2022 Supply Chain Management Forum. With a theme of “The New Normal: Integrating Resilience and Sustainability,” the semi-annual event bridges the gap between industry and academia. Attendees learned how organizations remain resilient and agile to ever-changing business needs, including stakeholder expectations around environmental responsibility and stewardship.

Doctoral students receive $18K in grants to support impactful research

The Business for a Better World Dissertation Proposal Competition provided research grants to doctoral candidates to nurture the next generation of academics who conduct research with the potential to drive positive social change. Recent recipients were from the Gies College of Business, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington; and Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota.

In the three years since its inception, the competition has awarded $54,000 to nine PhD candidates. Although the disciplines and methods of research vary among winners, each winner is positioned to drive positive societal changes through their research.

College sets donation records to help community fight hunger

Since 1986, CSU has had an annual tradition called C.A.N.S. Around the Oval focused on rallying the CSU community to fight food insecurity through cash and food donations. For 17 years running, the College of Business has been the top contributor to the cause.

In 2022 and 2023, the College has contributed $45,739.63 to the Food Bank of Larimer County through the C.A.N.S. Around the Oval food drive. In 2022, the College raised $21,999 – accounting for over a third of the total donations – and collected 287 pounds of food, and in 2023, the College raised $23,739.87, making up nearly half of all donations.

More than 40,000 Larimer County residents – including 32% of CSU students – face food insecurity of some kind. Donations to C.A.N.S., which stands for “cash and nutritious staples,” help feed the College’s neighbors and address a critical community need.

The College of Business is committed to supporting researchers who share our vision that business can transform our world for the better.”

Ken Manning, PhD Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research

EPA Pollution Prevention Grant

Funding helps Impact MBA students champion green business innovations

Inthe hierarchy of environmental protection and pollution prevention strategies, the first step in mitigating harmful waste is simple: address the problem at the source by not creating it at all.

Each year, five to seven Impact MBA students help local businesses achieve that goal. As a part of the required 400-hour corporate sustainability fellowship that’s a signature piece of their degree, select students partner with Colorado companies and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to advance new sustainable source reduction initiatives.

“These projects result in meaningful work experience for the students, benefit the environment,

and often result significant benefits and cost savings for local companies,” said Grace Wright, sustainability initiatives specialist.

Students have worked on projects ranging from updating refrigeration systems to implementing solar arrays to making adjustments to fleet usage.

The effort is supported by a twoyear grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), awarded to CDPHE for pollution prevention. The Impact MBA received a sub-grant to pair students with businesses that need assistance on active sustainability initiatives.

In addition to analyzing and implementing pollution prevention efforts, students are also mentored by a sustainability consultant and

create a case study documenting their initiative to submit to the EPA.

The EPA shares students’ insights with other business leaders and professionals looking to drive change in their organizations.

[With the EPA grant], there’s a focus on identifying and sharing innovative practices. That’s what we’re going to be looking for the CSU students to take on.”

Derek Boer CDPHE

Accounting students offer free tax prep to community members in need

For the eight weeks leading up to Tax Day each year, accounting students and community members volunteer their weekend mornings to help locals while also learning valuable career skills.

These students and volunteers are part of the College’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. In 2024, the group completed 208 tax returns with an average refund of $2.1K, an increase from 2023 when it completed 197 returns with refunds averaging $1.9K.

Community members, CSU students and employees who had an annual

income of $60K or less or were older than 60 were the main beneficiaries of the free tax service.

“It’s been so gratifying to give back to the community,” said Austin Henderson, a senior business student and one of the two student coordinators who help spearhead the program.

Community volunteer Mike Werner helped bring VITA to CSU and now serves as the site coordinator, a position in which he’s had the opportunity to mentor students and ensure that people in need receive the largest tax refunds possible.

Not only are we providing a service to our community, but we’re also helping students learn the real-world interviewing and tax preparation skills that will help them excel in their careers. It’s truly part of the Business for a Better World vision.”

Mike Werner Community Volunteer

HR Edge Network provides students with industry connections and real world experiences

The College’s Human Resources Edge Network is a collaborative partnership between executives and faculty who jointly solve realworld business problems through cutting-edge research, sharing of best practices and networking with fellow leaders in the HR field.

At the network’s two annual meetings, attendees share their expertise and discuss the latest thinking in strategic HR areas such as organizational culture, teams, leadership, diversity and inclusion,

employee health and wellness, conflict and negotiation, and talent management practices.

Together, industry professionals, faculty and students discuss current challenges and create solutions that have real-world and strategically important impacts on organizations.

Students Abbey Blik and Amy Deeter presented survey data they collected about students’ involvement in HR internships.

They shared that 28% of HR students had held an internship, and of those students with internship experience, 100% said that their coursework set them up for success.

Blik and Deeter also facilitated a student panel featuring four students who had held an HRrelated internship. The panelists provided feedback to the executives to enhance their internship programs and gave advice to the students in the audience, setting the stage for future success.

College joins ClimateCAP network to support collective leadership on climate change

Business schools are often competing for students, rankings or top publications. In the ClimateCAP network, information sharing and collaboration are the norm.

As part of the network, the College joins a collective of more than 35 purpose-focused MBA programs working together to provide students with the skills and insights they will need to be leaders in climate action throughout their careers.

“To create a more sustainable world, we must be willing to work

together to co-create approaches to the challenges that lie ahead,” said Grace Wright, the College of Business representative in the ClimateCAP network. “The College of Business is grateful to contribute to a network of education leaders who are working together to produce the next generation of transformative business professionals.”

ClimateCAP hosts an annual summit for MBA students to learn from sustainability-focused speakers, offers a fellowship program and recently launched a

new education series called MBA Academy: Understanding the Business of Climate.

Faculty and staff responsible for implementing sustainability education and programming at their schools typically serve as representatives in ClimateCAP. They regularly email and gather for virtual meetings to ask questions, share best practices and learn from each other, helping magnify each institution’s impact.

College partners with Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative to support systems change

As an associate partner of the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI), the College is a part of a global cohort of more than 35 business schools that are leading progress towards positive systems change.

Founded by EFMD Global and the UN Global Compact in strategic partnership with AACSB, GRLI is a worldwide community of learning organizations, including business schools, learning and development practitioners, NGOs, and businesses engaged in developing the next generation of globally responsible business leaders.

GRLI is invested in creating systemic change across three domains: how we live and make a living, how we learn, and how we lead. The organization contends that people must be consciously connected to themselves, others and the whole as a prerequisite for making change a reality, representing a shift from “I” to “we” to “all of us.”

Through its partnership with GRLI, the College aims to increase collaboration and information-sharing with peer institutions and engage in professional development opportunities, as well as transform student, research and community education and engagement.

Employees Launch Green Team

Putting Business for a Better World into day-to-day practice

Sometimes, the best way to teach is to lead by example. The College of Business isn’t just showing students how to use business to build a better world in the classroom – they practice what they preach in daily operations.

Launched in 2022, the Green Team is made up of employees from across the College and meets monthly to develop operational sustainability goals and plan how to make them a reality.

“This is something that we’re teaching: how to operate business in a socially and environmentally responsible manner,” said Grace Wright, the College’s sustainability initiatives specialist. “We partner with companies to help them implement sustainability initiatives, we are a leader in sustainable

business curriculum and we advance research on responsible business. We also need to practice sustainable operations ourselves.

“We need to operate in the most socially responsible and environmentally responsible manner possible, and those things don’t just happen. It takes leadership, it takes funding and it takes a focused strategy. But mostly, really good sustainability projects take a groundswell of buy-in and collaboration and cooperation to make them happen.”

The team’s first project was to analyze a greenhouse gas inventory of the College’s operations, from heating and cooling the buildings to employee commuting in an effort to better understand what’s driving the College’s environmental impact.

I’m just really excited to see how we can continue to help each person recognize their ability to make an impact in what they do every day.”

Grace Wright Sustainability Initiatives Specialist

“We started by looking at the greenhouse gas report and identified where our major impacts were to help us pick what our priorities should be,” Wright said.

The team has worked with employees and students to create initiatives promoting alternative transportation, composting and energy efficiency in the College’s buildings. Over the next year, Wright hopes the Green Team can build on the progress it has made while collaborating with others in the College to launch new initiatives.

Pilot bike-commuting program saves 7,867 car-miles

Riding your bike to work instead of driving might seem like a small environmental action in the grand scheme of things, but the Replace a Ride Challenge is proof that those little things add up fast.

For two six-week periods in spring and fall, 40 College of Business employees opted for active transportation for 1,714 total trips – a savings of 7,867 miles by car. To put that into context, that’s the equivalent of a drive from Fort Collins to the Panama Canal and back. It eliminated 4,786 pounds of carbon in the atmosphere.

“This is us turning the idea of Business for a Better World into action,” said Grace Wright, the College’s sustainability initiatives

specialist. “As a College, we’re really interested in supporting the health and well-being of our employees and taking actions that benefit the environment. Active transportation plays a big part in that.”

Employees who replaced 16 rides or more during the Replace a Ride Challenge received $50 gift cards to local businesses, but even now that the incentive has passed, active commuting lives on.

Keelin McGill, Impact MBA program facilitator for graduate programs, said the challenge made her realize she didn’t need to drive her car to work – and it even inspired her to sell her worse-for-wear vehicle in favor of biking, walking and using free campus transit.

“It’s amazing to see how a simple initiative can create a profound impact, both on an individual level and within our community as a whole,” she said.

The College and CSU Parking and Transportation Services teamed up to pilot the concept of college-level engagement and programming to promote active transportation and have seen promising results.

“What stood out to me and why I’m excited to continue this model is just the camaraderie that came out of it and how much of a team builder it was,” said Jamie Gaskill, the associate director of active transportation in Parking and Transportation Services.

What I’m hearing from folks in the College of Business is, ‘I think I’m going to keep riding to work even when the challenge is over.’ It’s gratifying to see people overcome barriers and try something new.”

Jamie Gaskill Associate Director of Active Transportation, Parking & Transportation Services

There’s more than one bottom line. We’re moved to serve our community and our earth.

BUSINESS FOR A BETTER WORLD