Principal speaker
Suzanne Benn
Suggestions for new business models that might underpin a more sustainable approach to business have proliferated over recent years. This presentation explores what it takes to progress business organisations towards the ideal of the restorative corporation. Economic models such as the performance or circular economy have long been suggested by scientists as a means of transforming linear or take-make-waste economic approaches. Until recently, the human dimension in terms of what it means to implement these models in business has been little addressed. Now researchers are exploring how the circular economy maps onto more socially oriented concepts such as corporate social responsibility, shared value and collaborative consumption. The question raised here is what are the key management principles needed to bring considerations of materials and energy flows together with principles of sharing and collaboration, necessary if business is to restore and sustain rather than degrade society and the planet.
Professor Suzanne Benn is Professor of Sustainable Enterprise in UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney. Suzanne has a background in the sciences and the social sciences. Her current research interests range across corporate sustainability and corporate social responsibility, business education for sustainability and leadership and organisational change for sustainability. Her interdisciplinary academic publications include four books and numerous refereed journal articles, book chapters and refereed conference papers. As well as conducting research funded through various Australian Research Council (ARC) projects, she has worked with numerous business and government organisations in order to progress understanding of change and leadership for sustainability.