Document Type
COBE Sustainability Report
Publication Date
5-1-2015
Abstract
In publishing our sustainability report for the College of Business and Economics (COBE) at Boise State University, we are making our first attempt to transparently report on the social, economic, and environmental impacts that we have on our key stakeholders, and to role model this leading corporate and organizational practice to inspire our business and academic peers to follow suit. To fully align with our mission, we put learning at the heart of this effort: 15 student sustainability reporters researched, collected the data, and wrote this report, and three spring 2015 COBE classes contributed additional expertise, including a graduate accounting class that conducted the report’s assurance review.
Organizing Frameworks
To create this report, we leveraged the leading sustainability reporting frameworks from the corporate and business school realms respectively, namely the Global Reporting Initiative (G4) and the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education (UNPRME). (See page 48 for a detailed explanation of our use of G4 and UNPRME.) You will see icons throughout the report that indicate where the information being provided is in alignment with those framework requirements.
Our Impacts
This is our first report, and in some cases it is the first time we have gathered or measured certain social, economic, or environmental data. As expected, we found areas where we are excelling as well as areas where we have room for improvement.
Top Areas of Excellence
• In seven out of nine of our business disciplines, our faculty members have integrated responsible business concepts such as business ethics, corporate responsibility, sustainability, governance, and diversity into more than 50% of the undergraduate classes taught in COBE (details on pages 22-24).
• Our students have performed more than17,390 hours of service in the community over the past four years as part of our efforts to integrated Service-Learning into COBE classes (details on pages 31-33).
• The Micron Business and Economics Building, built in 2012, offers an innovative learning environment while minimizing environmental impact and maximizing environmental efficiency (details on pages 42-45).
Top Areas for Improvement
• Improve student retention and graduation rates and decrease dropout rates (data provided on page14).
• Research and report College transportation (e.g. employee and student car/bus/bike/walk numbers) and waste/recycling impacts (data not available).
• Research and report College salaries by gender across roles and departments (data not available).
Next Steps We’ve shared our findings, both positive and negative, in line with leading business and education practices. We are also committed to continuous improvement. We will publish our next report in the spring of 2016 to benchmark our social, environmental, and economic impacts year on year, to fill in as many of the measurement gaps as we can, and to keep us focused on improving our overall performance. We aspire to be a sustainable source of business and economics education long into the future, and to inspire our business and academic peers to account for their own impacts.
Recommended Citation
College of Business and Economics at Boise State University, "2014 College of Business and Economics Sustainability Report" (2015). Sustainability Reports. 1.
https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/sustainability_reports/1