Professor wins 2009 Faculty Pioneer Award

The Center for Business Education at the Aspen Institute has named ASU professor Jay Golden as a 2009 Faculty Pioneer.

This recognition program, dubbed the “Oscars of the business school world” by The Financial Times, celebrates business educators who have demonstrated leadership and risk-taking in integrating ethical, environmental and social issues into the business curriculum. Golden will be honored Nov. 6 at an awards breakfast at Ernst & Young’s corporate headquarters in New York’s Times Square.

An assistant professor in the School of Sustainability within the Global Institute of Sustainability, Golden is committed to creating a new paradigm in higher education by developing curriculum that fosters multidisciplinary approaches to solving pressing sustainability imperatives for business and society. In addition to teaching classes on corporate environmental sustainability, he has developed innovative courses on sustainability consumption and indicators, and system complexities of climate change and sustainable energy.

In 2004, he created the school’s Certificate of Sustainable Technologies and Management program comprised of graduate MBA, engineering and sustainability students. Golden also founded and co-directs the summer Sustainable Energy Fellowship, a joint program of ASU, Duke, Michigan, MIT and Cornell universities that annually educates 40 of the nation’s most outstanding undergraduate business, engineering and physical science students on critical sustainability, energy and climate change challenges faced by businesses.

Golden’s research focuses on energy-climate system interactions, both for infrastructure and consumer products. His published theoretical and empirical results have provided a platform for the development of a more holistic approach to quantifying the sustainability of consumer products that accounts for all phases of a product’s life cycle. He co-founded and co-directs the Sustainability Consortium which is comprised of leading international researchers and aims to develop the best system science and empirical tools for governments and businesses to adopt a unified and transparent sustainability index; this sustainability index is being implemented into supply chain decision-making by global retailers including Walmart.

Golden has been invited to testify about his research before the U.S. Congress. He was named an AT&T Industrial Ecology Fellow; has been appointed to a United Nations task force on life-cycle management; and serves as an advisor on sustainability strategies for many multinational corporations.

"It is immensely gratifying to work in a field where I can help students to explore the world's sustainability challenges and work with them to develop practical solutions," says Golden. "I am honored to be recognized by the Aspen Institute as a Faculty Pioneer."

"Now more than ever before we are witnessing the substantial influence of business on society," says Rich Leimsider, director of the Aspen Center for Business Education. "It’s the trailblazing research and teaching of these Faculty Pioneers that will prepare future business leaders to make the most of this influence, by leveraging successful businesses to create positive social impacts."

Three other Faculty Pioneers were selected this year:

• Lifetime Achievement: Thomas Donaldson
  Mark O. Winkelman Professor at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

• Gregory Fairchild, associate professor of business administration
   The Darden School of Business, University of Virginia

• Michael Lenox, Samuel L. Slover Professor of Business
   The Darden School of Business, University of Virginia

This year’s winners were selected from over 125 nominations submitted by respected academics and business executives; self-nominations are not considered. Finalists are selected by Aspen Institute staff in consultation with prominent academics; winners are selected by a panel of corporate judges. This year’s final-round judges are:

• Dan Bross, senior director of corporate citizenship, Microsoft
• Andrea Doane, director of corporate giving and community affairs, United Technologies
• Deborah Holmes, global director of corporate responsibility, Ernst & Young
• Lauren Iannarone, head of downstream policy and stakeholder relations, Shell
• Mitch Jackson, director of environmental affairs and sustainability, FedEx
• Valerie Smith, vice president of environmental affairs, CitiGroup

In addition to public recognition, Faculty Pioneers receive an honorarium.

For more information about the award program, visit: http://www.aspenCBE.org/.