Business as a Force for Good
Students launch UN-backed sustainability efforts on campus.
David Steingard, PhD; Mariana Arnabar, BS ’26; Catie Jones, BS ’27; and Lauryne Lane, BS ’26, at the United Nations.
Students at Saint Joseph’s University are making their mark in the sustainability world through participation in a new United Nations-supported initiative called SPIN. The student-run branch of the UN’s Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), SPIN aims to raise the profile of sustainability in business and management education.
Participating students traveled to the SPIN pilot initiative in New York City in October, during which they received a tour of the UN headquarters, heard from a number of speakers in the sustainability world and witnessed the rollout of a global report about green jobs.
Catie Jones, BS ’27; Lauryne Lane, BS ’26; and Mariana Arnabar, BS ’26, attended the event alongside advisor David Steingard, PhD, associate professor of management, and were inspired to bring their passion for sustainability back to campus. Since then, the students have been working to get SPIN off the ground at Saint Joseph’s.
“PRME is really focused on educating students for action in the future,” Jones explains. “We’re planning conversations with people from different universities to see how they’ve been engaging in sustainable practices on their campuses.”
Jones, who is also on the executive board of the Green Fund, a student organization that seeks to implement sustainability initiatives on campus, sees the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as in alignment with Saint Joseph’s larger mission as a Jesuit university.
“We’re educating students, but we’re also trying to get them ready for the world,” she says. “All of this really fits into the global conversations about how universities can help climate change and how sustainability is made possible on these campuses.”
Steingard, who serves on the steering committee for the North American chapter of PRME alongside Vana M. Zervanos, EdD, the associate dean of graduate programs for the Haub School of Business, sees the connection between SPIN efforts and the University’s recent adoption of the Laudato Si’ initiative.
What this initiative does is show students that the University and the business school are taking these deeply held, foundational Jesuit values — men and women for others, care of the whole person — and creating partnerships that actually do this in the real world.”
David Steingard, PhD
Associate Professor of Management and SPIN Advisor“Pope Francis was there on the day the sustainable development goals were launched in the United Nations,” he says. “There’s this beautiful connection between what PRME is and what we’re looking to do on the ascent to becoming a Laudato Si’ university.”
Steingard continues, “What this initiative does is show students that the University and the business school are taking these deeply held, foundational Jesuit values — men and women for others, care of the whole person — and creating partnerships that actually do this in the real world.”
In March, students involved in the initiative traveled to the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, for the Lang Sustainability Conference. There, they engaged in three days of panels, discussions and competitions with the goal of fostering connections between schools and spotlighting sustainable business practices.
“It offered educational enrichment, networking with other students and companies in the sustainability space, and an opportunity to work collaboratively across cultures and nations,” Steingard says. “They had the opportunity to think about sustainable and innovative solutions to the pressing global challenges outlined in the SDGs.”