Sustainable Solutions, Stronger Partnerships: UW-Madison’s Sustainable Business Leadership Forum
Jan. 21, 2025—The first Earth Day was in 1970, and since then, sustainability efforts have largely been embraced across America. But more than 50 years later, sustainability initiatives by companies have often struggled to produce consistent impact. So, when staff at the University of Wisconsin-Madison sought to address its industry partners’ sustainability concerns, they knew they needed to think differently. The Business Sustainability Leadership Forum (BSLF) is a novel approach to fostering partnerships to address a global challenge by creating a space for conversation surrounding sustainability issues and potential solutions.
Critical challenges
As companies looked for new ways to address sustainability challenges and anticipated regulations, they turned to the university for new technologies and approaches to environmental sustainability. When the business engagement office noticed these trends, it tapped the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies as a partner to create the BSLF. The forum’s goals also align with a recent research initiative at UW-Madison, RISE-EARTH, which will accelerate the growth of UW-Madison’s environmental sustainability research by leveraging up to 40 new faculty hires with a specific focus on sustainability. The BSLF has already identified key areas of interest, like emissions accounting and organic waste systems, and will soon launch projects to address these topics.
Strengthening ties
UW-Madison staff knew that strategic partnerships take time to develop, but there was common ground in aligning the work toward shared interests and goals. To create the BSLF, the university identified major players across the state—including companies and government entities—with strong records in regional sustainability efforts. UW-Madison intentionally ensured diversity across industries to ensure representation of agriculture, retail, manufacturing, and other companies. This enabled partners to engage in conversations as peers, not as competitors, and fostered candid conversations about challenges and approaches. Additionally, one-on-one conversations with industry partners enabled UW-Madison to determine their individual goals and key drivers, like access to talent and research or helping to shape curriculum.
In addition to company partners, the BSLF includes hand-selected university representatives from every college and school working in the sustainability space to ensure representation when opportunities to partner with participating companies present themselves. This broad scope of interaction builds company awareness of research opportunities on campus and opens the door to new partnerships. A BSLF internship program also allows partner companies to work with fresh talent. Currently, the BSLF includes over 35 companies, with more room at the table to foster additional conversations on environmental sustainability.
Sara Braas, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Carol Revels, Lands’ End, presented on the BSLF at UIDPVirtual 2024. Attendees can access the recordings and materials from the event at any time.
Why it matters
Sustainability is a key issue facing many industries today, and cross-sector partnerships offer a unique opportunity to combine expertise and resources to tackle it. UW-Madison’s BSLF takes a fresh approach to these partnerships with a new model, one that incorporates many partners into one space. Partnership models like these are the focus of UIDP’s Strengthen and Modernize Partnerships Initiative, which is dedicated to creating a body of knowledge on how to create thriving partnerships of the future. If you know about contemporary approaches to or pressing challenges facing cross-sector partnership, please share your input and help shape the collaborations of tomorrow.
We want to hear from you. How does your organization work to incorporate global challenges like sustainability into its partnerships? Let us know on LinkedIn.