Discover all of our ongoing projects.
Biodiversity is rarely addressed in corporate environmental governance. Yet, biodiversity in ecosystems represents the variety of all life on Earth that supports vital functions like pollination, water purification, nutrient cycling, and climate regulation. Since nature has a distant and indirect impact on corporations, we consider how and when corporate leaders attend to biodiversity.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UN SDSN) Switzerland is funding a project titled “Towards a Regenerative Economy”. The goal of this project is to bring together best science and practice to accelerate the transition towards a thriving economy that operates within the planetary and social boundaries. The project aims to develop a joint understanding of regenerative economy in Switzerland, with an emphasis on globally consistent approaches. This involves establishing clear definitions of a regenerative economy and developing guiding principles for measuring its progress and identifying best practices.
Prof. Dr. Judith Walls, Dr. Kerrigan Unter, Leo Vogel
The importance of biodiversity and its pivotal role in sustainable development are gaining increasing attention and acknowledgment. Our focus lies on the complex interrelationships between business and nature (e.g., dependence and impact) across multi-tier supply chains and industries. Further, the Swiss Network for International Studies (SNIS) is funding a research project entitled “Unblocking the flow of biodiversity data for multi-stakeholder environmental sustainability management”. The collaborative project is being implemented by the universities of Lausanne, St. Gallen, and Ghana and the Humboldt Institute in Colombia. We seek to understand the diverse needs of biodiversity data users across sectors, identify the reasons behind blockages to data flow and access, and help integrate mainstream biodiversity data into decision making and halt biodiversity loss.
Contested industries such as the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) sector have great potential for contributing to all 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). Nonetheless, such industries are characterized by complex belief systems emanating from a wide range of institutional constituents. The resulting institutionally complex environment makes promotion of sustainable development almost impossible. Hence, this study, supported by the Swiss Government, through the ESKAS scholarship fund, aims to understand the different belief systems in ASM, how ASM actors respond to pressure coming from these belief systems, and how sustainable development can be achieved in such an environment.
In collaboration with the Institute for Marketing & Customer Insight, Publicis Communications Schweiz AG and Grownate AG, we are conducting research on Swiss Consumer Perceptions of Sustainability. The main objective of the SCOPES study is to gain a comprehensive picture of the Swiss sustainability communication landscape, from both consumers and brands. We are leading the qualitative aspect of the study, which looks at how brands manage their sustainability communication to stakeholders. Based on multiple case studies, the study illustrates how sustainability has changed the branding landscape and become an integral part of (corporate) brand communications.
More about SCOPES
Addressing environmental challenges requires companies to take transformative actions that enable the transition to a circular economy (CE). Corporate executives play a central role in this process. This project aims to understand why, when, and how organizational leaders engage stakeholders to tackle grand environmental challenges in CE. In this project, we clarify the construct of green transformational leaders (“GTLs”) and seek to understand how such GTLs motivate and enact change among networks of external stakeholders for environmental sustainability. We propose that doing so requires the following: 1) Individuals with specific motivations and characteristics become GTLs under certain conditions. 2) Specific mechanisms that help GTLs build relationships with external stakeholders. 3) Dedicated processes through which GTLs orchestrate stakeholder networks to create joint value for stakeholders and nature.
The project is founded by the Swiss National Foundation (SNF), a governmental organization, which financially supports research projects in Switzerland.
Agricultural commodities like palm oil have complex supply chains and represent a major driver of deforestation in the tropics. Firms, investors, insurance companies, and organizational stakeholders increasingly demand more transparency in the governance of such supply chains. A lack of appropriate governance carries operational, reputational, and regulatory risk for agri-commodity companies and their buyers. This project aims to identify where deforestation risk is introduced along the supply chain in order to intervene and mitigate deforestation risk.
University of St. Gallen (HSG)
Institute for Economy and the Environment
Müller-Friedberg-Strasse 6/8
9000 St. Gallen
