The Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business (“Center”) invites you to the next talk in the Business, Environment, and Society Speaker Series. Professor Ravi Subramanian will present “Applying an Environmental Justice Lens to Firms’ Facility Operations.” The event is open to the public.

Subramanian’s talk will address an important environmental justice issue—how facilities may differ in environmental practices and impacts depending on the demographics of the areas in which they are located. In their working paper, Subramanian and his co-author, Abhinav Shubham, assess how facilities differ in their toxicity- and exposure-weighted emissions between locations that differ in racial makeup. The issue is not necessarily one of compliance but rather of what firms may need to do beyond compliance in order to be equitable.

A bright spot: In the United States, levels of emissions and toxic hazards are generally being reduced over time. However, the starting point for environmental risks is generally higher for minority populations.

Discussion questions will include:

• How can environmental justice be achieved?
• Why should a firm pursue environmental justice?
• How can firms and/or regulation tackle the challenge of accelerating the pace of emissions reductions for communities with predominantly minority populations?

This talk should be of interest to facility managers, firm leadership, regulators, and community leaders interested in learning more about the impact of locationally disparate facility decisions that result in disparate environmental hazards. The talk will also illustrate how firms have the opportunity to emphasize equitable local ESG performance as a complement to aggregate ESG performance.

Subramanian will present his talk, engage in a Q&A with Center Faculty Director Beril Toktay, and take questions from the audience.

This is a Scheller Charge app affiliated event.

RSVP to Attend

Due to current distance-learning circumstances, this event will be hosted virtually. The virtual platform will be BlueJeans. Please see below for instructions to download this software and join the meeting.

• Instructions for BlueJeans on a MacBook
• Instructions to join BlueJeans

The Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business was founded in 2013 to act as a catalyst and connector, bringing together students, research faculty, companies, and entrepreneurs to create an environment where business-driven solutions to sustainability challenges can take shape and thrive. In all, Scheller provides students unparalleled breadth in environmental sustainability, ethics, corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship, and values-based leadership.