Partnerships

To explore sustainable business practices and make lasting and impactful investments in these initiatives, it’s important to consider how to bring together three important stakeholders: the academics studying best practices and the public and private manufacturing companies and firms working to become more sustainable.

The IU Business Sustainability and Innovation Lab is building an ecosystem of entrepreneurs, academics, and government leaders to empower the industry to enact sustainability best practices at their companies to help them save money, attract customers, and increase competition.

A sustainability accelerator

Public-private-academic partnerships enable researchers to apply data to practical solutions for real-world sustainability concerns. These collaborations also help entrepreneurs and manufacturers reveal tested concepts to solve their challenges in pursuing sustainable practices. The Sustainability Lab not only collaborates with companies on these initiatives, but also works closely with other academic researchers to further our collective understanding of sustainable solutions and practical approaches to doing better business.

The value of a research partnership

Research expertise & long-term access

By partnering with the Sustainability Lab, manufacturing companies have long-term access to academic experts in the field of business sustainability. Rather than hiring a short-term consultant for small projects, collaborating with the Sustainability Lab allows companies to build relationships with Kelley School of Business faculty and work on projects over the span of years, rather than months.

Manufacturers can respond to industry challenges to sustainability in real time, with data-driven solutions.

Theory supported by field study

The Sustainability Lab supports local business through learnings in a lab supported by 19 researchers doing field study in manufacturing settings. Our lab has raised $64 million in private and public funding to explore innovative sustainability practices like regenerative agriculture, decarbonizing heavy manufacturing facilities, and transitioning toward renewable energy.

Our lab spends about $11 million annually researching ways to improve sustainability in manufacturing. In this lab, we take academic learnings to the manufacturing floor to ensure our sustainability solutions are practical, reasonable, and effective.

It’s a very exciting time for us to study practical applications of sustainability because we’ve been blessed to work with great partners with similar goals. We are working together to grow our impact across the state of Indiana.
Amrou Awaysheh | Executive Director, IU Business Sustainability and Innovation Lab

Ready to partner with us?

The IU Business Sustainability Lab looks forward to collaborating with companies and other academic institutes to further the study of sustainability in manufacturing.

Some of our academic partners include:

Harvard University
Auburn University
Pepperdine University
University of Tennessee at Knoxville
Michigan State University
University of South Carolina
Cornell University
North Carolina State University
IE University (International University in Spain Devoted to Excellence)
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Western University
Utah State University
Pennsylvania State University

Connect with us to learn more by contacting our director, Amrou Awaysheh, at awaysheh@iu.edu.