History of the Center for Sustainable Enterprise

Founding of the Center

As part of a public university, UNC Kenan-Flagler has long cared about its impact on communities, the state, the nation and the world. The school’s approach values a triple bottom line that blends doing the right thing for people and the planet with the goal of making a profit.

The Center for Sustainable Enterprise’s formal efforts to spread knowledge and use of a triple bottom line in business started in 1999. The school called this first program the Kenan-Flagler Environmental Business Initiative. Later, the school changed the program’s name to the Sustainable Enterprise Initiative as the term “sustainable” came into wider use to describe the initiative. In 2001, UNC Kenan-Flagler founded the Center for Sustainable Enterprise, which was made possible by joint funding from two sources:

• The Institute for the Environment
• The Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute for Private Enterprise

The Center’s first co-directors were professors Stuart L. Hart and James H. Johnson. And the CSE’s mission was education, research, and outreach to advance ”triple-bottom-line“ thinking.

Professor Albert H. Segars has led the CSE as its faculty director since 2004, with the exception of the 2008-09 academic year when Carol Seagle served as faculty director. Al Segars is an expert in how to innovate and manage technology, bring about strategic change, and commercialize new products in ways that align the interests of business with stakeholders concerned for people and the planet.

Under Segars, the CSE established a vision for its research based on 4 ”pillars“ of program strategy and expertise:

• Innovation & Design
• Financial Metrics & Models
• Economic Development
• Leadership & Corporate Governance

One of the First to Teach and Research Sustainable Practices

UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School was one of the first business schools in the country to offer a complete curriculum (including an MBA concentration) and to do research on sustainable business. The CSE’s work continues to lead the field and to broaden what the school offers in this area crucial to the future of business.

UNC Kenan-Flagler has one of the largest Net Impact chapters of top business schools. The school founded and hosts major events, some of which draw students from around the world.

• The Sustainable Venture Capital Investment Competition