Mission

To serve as a resource center where business, academic, government agency and NGO communities collaborate to identify, develop, communicate and help implement practical and equitable business strategies to advance the ecological and economic sustainability of the Greater Chicago Area.

Principal Activities
Specific projects will depend on the interests of participants and community and funding support.

1. Common Ground
Serve as a forum where groups can collaborate to remove barriers to achieving ecological and economic sustainability while learning, teaching and sharing the elements of sustainable enterprise.
(This common ground would be the foundation for all the center projects and activities.)

2. Executive Education
Educate, sensitize and empower key corporate executives/managers and small/medium business owners with practical and equitable business strategies that foster ecological and economic sustainability.

3. Educational Support
Provide sustainable enterprise instruction, curricula and internship projects to university-based programs and community colleges within the Greater Chicago Area.

4. Commercial Applications of Research
Provide the platform for quick and efficient transfers of university-based research and proven industry-based applications to companies, especially small and medium enterprises.

5. Focused Business Support
Work with existing businesses and organizations to develop the tools for success in an emerging, sustainable economy. CSE is a founding member of the Chicago Sustainable Business Alliance (http://csba.foresightdesign.org)

6. New Business Development
Incubate start-up companies that promote sustainable environmental technologies and/or practices with the center’s Strategic Workgroup on Alternative Paradigms (SWAP).

7. Research
Gather data on current use of elements of sustainability and develop reliable metrics and feedback loops that demonstrate the benefits related to the use of sustainable strategies.

8. Information Sharing
Expand the benefits of the learning and teaching efforts of the center by sharing the systems, methods, and technologies developed through the center with other organizations and businesses, locally and nationally.