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WHERE PROFITS MEET PURPOSE

The Global Sustainability Leadership Institute, formerly known as the Social Innovation Initiative, acts as UT Austin’s hub on campus for innovation in social and environmental impact.

  • WHO WE ARE

    The Institute is managed by the McCombs School of Business and is built in partnership with the Moody College of Communication. Our work focuses on corporate sustainability, sustainable finance, impact innovation and infrastructure, and sustainability communications. Our Mission: The GLSI develops leadership and solutions that address critical sustainability challenges and shape an inclusive, regenerative global economy and society. Our Vision: A world where profits and purpose meet to drive positive change.
    McCombs School of Business Moody College of Communication
Creating Leaders
Our goal is to send leaders out into the world for whom purpose and profit are connected — leaders who will create a regenerative, inclusive world in their own lifetimes.
Meeta Kothare, Managing Director

IMPACT OF GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY

  • 96% of the world’s largest 250 companies reported on sustainability in 2020

    Read the Report

  • Racial inequities have cost the U.S. economy more than $16 trillion over the past two decades.

    See the Impact

  • 75% of Millennials seek sustainable products

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AREAS OF FOCUS

The Institute positively impacts students and community members through experiential learning, classes, events, career support, and research.

Corporate Sustainability

Sustainable companies consider environmental, social, and governance issues in the company’s long-term strategy and into every sector of the organization. Such efforts work toward a "triple-bottom line," aiming simultaneously for an increase in profit, benefits to the environment, and benefits to the people that interact with companies.

Sustainable Finance
  • Sustainable finance continues to birth new, innovative models for funding impact. Recent innovations include social and green bonds, pay for success models, and more. The GSLI focuses on ESG investing for public markets and impact investing for the private sector and new venture funding.
  • ESG Investing: The systematic and explicit inclusion by investment managers of environmental, social, and governance metrics into the investment screening process.
    • E: Environmental criteria focus on a company’s stewardship of the natural environment and include issues like greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiency, and natural resource depletion.
    • S: Social criteria focus on all people who interact with a company throughout its value chain, from employees to suppliers to the communities within which the company operates. Examples of social issues include workplace health safety, labor practices, and relations with local communities.
    • G: Governance criteria focus on a company’s leadership, audits and internal controls, and shareholder rights. Examples of governance issues include bribery and corruption, business ethics, and board diversity.
  • Impact Investing: Targeted investments, typically made in private markets, aimed at solving social or environmental problems, and including community investing, where capital is specifically directed to traditionally underserved individuals or communities, as well as financing that is provided to businesses with a clear social or environmental purpose.

Sustainability Communications

Sustainable finance, corporate sustainability, and impact innovation and infrastructure all rely on informative, persuasive communication to create buy-in. The GSLI is connected to The Moody College of Communication for education in sustainable journalism, television, immersive media, and more.

The Impact Continuum

SII Impact Continuum chart

PIONEERING A FRESH WAY FORWARD

Businesses must be part of the solution to global risks, such as climate change and inequality. Through regenerative, sustainable practices, the business world can help shape a more just and secure future. Here is how we think about these issues:

 

Introductory Video 

 

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