Sustainability as a Vehicle for Competitive Advantage: Ecological Redevelopment, Strategic Marketing & the University Campus
Funding body: UK Economic and Social Research Council
Amount: £14,850
Duration: 2006-2007
Summary
The point of departure for this seminar series is the extent to which the costs of environmental ‘good citizenship’ can be off-set, for first movers, by short-term marketing opportunities as well as the longer-term benefits that may come from anticipating the wider trajectory towards environmental regulation. The ecological redevelopment of universities will be used as the focus for an exploration of this topic. A range of participants including academics, university managers and private sector consultants will examine the implications of sustainability for universities. While the technical dimensions of the problem relating to energy usage, construction methods, recycling and ‘campus metabolism’ etc. will provide a context for this discussion, an important focus will be on the business/marketing and research/teaching opportunities. Sessions will address issues such as the built environment, logistical systems and procurement, competition in the global HE sector, marketing and eco-branding, funding, and the environment as an integrating theme in teaching and research.
Organised by Dr Stephen Quilley (Keele, RI LPJ), Professor Andrew Dobson (Keele, RI LPJ), Dr William Young (Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds), and Jill Gordon (Keele RILPJ) the seminar will run for eighteen months from September 2006.