Wal-Mart Foundation Gives $1.5 Million for Applied Sustainability Center
Wal-Mart Foundation Gives $1.5 Million to Fund Applied Sustainability Center
The Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas has announced a $1.5 million gift from the Wal-Mart Foundation to establish an Applied Sustainability Center.
The center, an interdisciplinary initiative of the college, will work to develop sustainable business practices and promote their application across the retail and consumer goods industries. "Being a sustainable university means that as we educate new generations of leaders, conduct research that makes our lives better and reach out to the communities of Arkansas, we do not compromise future generations," said chancellor John A. White. "The new Applied Sustainability Center allows us to maintain a commitment to the environment and also to assist others in their goals of becoming more sustainable."
The center plans to conduct two projects in its first year. The first will focus on reducing the embodied fossil fuel content of products. The second is a sustainable food agriculture project in which the center will collaborate with the university's Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food, and Life Sciences and sustainable agriculture experts to identify key sustainability factors in twenty-first century agriculture in the United States.
In addition, the center will sponsor a speaker series to expose the northwest Arkansas business community, students, and faculty to an array of national thought leaders on sustainability theory. As part of the education process, the center will also develop pilot training modules for Wal-Mart buyers, suppliers, and other key decision makers on specific sustainability issues.
"There are many steps on the road to sustainability, but each of us can take the first steps in our own lives and encourage the people around us to join in," said Jon Johnson, Walton College professor of management and the center's executive director. "The move toward sustainability means reducing use of non-renewable energy and natural resources, such as coal, oil, and gas....Finding sustainable products and services that the world finds useful to increasing a standard of living is the only sustainable way."
“Wal-Mart Foundation Gives $1.5 Million to Fund Applied Sustainability Center.”
Sam M. Walton College of Business Press Release
8/29/07.
Primary Subject: Environment
Location(s): Arkansas, Fayetteville
FC010919
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