International Business Students Present On Issues Of Sustainability

Saint Joseph’s Pedro Arrupe Center for Business Ethics presents “Sustainability in the International Arena,” a competition of international business students, on Thursday, December 1, 6:30 – 8 p.m. in the Wolfington Teletorium of Mandeville Hall.

The event is the last in the Center’s fall series of events sponsored by the Richard Davoud Donchian Foundation, which provides funds to nonprofit organizations whose programs result in the strengthening of the human spirit and the enhancement of personal integrity.

Four teams of students enrolled in the Introduction to International Business course, taught by Assistant Professor of Management Sangcheol Song, Ph.D., will deliver presentations on issues of environmental sustainability or social welfare and propose solutions to a panel of judges. The judges will evaluate each presentation and determine a winning team.

The judges are:

• Ryan Spies, president of the Net Impact Philadelphia Professional Chapter Board
• Frank Fazio '75, president and CEO of R World Energy Solutions, a full service sales and engineering energy firm and Arrupe Board member
• Andrew Bondarev '10, business rotational manager at Arkem, a global chemical and advanced materials company

John McCall, Ph.D., director of the Arrupe Center and professor of philosophy and management, says this competition focuses on issues that are crucial for today’s business students to understand.

“Sustainability is an important question for businesses,” McCall says. “Practices that are environmentally or socially unsustainable will inevitably have effects that spill across the arbitrary boundaries between nation states. Given that so many firms operate across those boundaries already, it is imperative for firms to consider the future impacts of their practices beyond the organizations immediate locales.”