Fairleigh Dickinson University, Silberman College of Business – Institute for Sustainable
Enterprise
The Institute for Sustainable Enterprise (ISE) at Fairleigh Dickinson University requests a
grant of $_______ to provide start-up funding for its activities. ISE was recently established as
an independent entity at the Silberman College of Business. Its purpose is to educate current and
future leaders of business, government, nonprofit, and educational institutions about managing
sustainably by focusing on products, processes, and services that add value to the organizations,
and are beneficial to people and the planet. ISE will implement this goal through a threepronged model: 1) Conducting research on sustainability-enhancing projects; 2) Providing
facilitation and consulting services to support concrete sustainability-enhancing initiatives; and
3) Developing curricula (degree programs, seminars, and training programs) to teach
leaders/managers and students to lead and manage sustainably, as world citizens. ISE will help
organizations to better address the challenges and opportunities they confront in a changing and
increasingly complex global arena that demands effective public-private partnership.
Corporations providing a minimum seed grant of $15,000 will receive the benefits of a Basic
Corporate Partnership for one year (valued at $13,000) – which include access to and support in
using the Sustainability Knowledge Network (SKN) portal; invitations to monthly breakfast
presentations and seminars; and opportunities to share best practices and recognition for your
company’s work in leading and managing sustainably.
ISE brings to its mission a unique combination of assets, including strong regional and
international relationships with leading corporations, academic institutions, and public and
nonprofit organizations (including the United Nations), deep expertise in practice grounded and
actionable applied research, and well-developed abilities in fostering collaboration among
organizations from different sectors. ISE will differentiate itself from other university-based
“sustainability” centers by taking a multi-disciplinary, multi-faceted, and whole-system approach
to sustainable management. Because of its international scope, ISE’s work will effectively
complement Fairleigh Dickinson’s role as a leader in global education.
ISE has been assisted in-kind by the University and through pro bono provision of professional
services from many sectors outside the University. ISE expects to receive additional support
from corporate partner memberships and services and by securing research and curriculum
development grants from foundations, professional associations, and research agencies.
Justification for Creating ISE: Challenge and Opportunity
Focusing on the critical role that businesses and other organizations play in creating and
enhancing societal, economic, and environmental sustainability in a global business context, ISE
will strive to illuminate two enduring pragmatic questions: How can we create more
“sustainable enterprises?”; and How can we help leaders and managers learn to “manage
sustainably?” As we enter the 21st century, concerns are mounting about the sustainability of
current business and institutional models in the face of ever-intensifying global competition,
complexity, continuous change, worldwide poverty, health crises, natural resource depletion,
global warming, terrorism, and governmental and business corruption. These issues confront
businesses as they try to manage their global workforces and supply chains, and cope with
establishing market and operational presence in unstable business environments. There is a
pressing need to develop public-private partnership strategies that acknowledge and address a
broader range of issues than ever before.
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Fairleigh Dickinson University, Silberman College of Business – Institute for Sustainable
Enterprise
On a positive note, a new business paradigm appears to be emerging in which concerns for the
environment, employee engagement, broader stakeholder satisfaction, and community
investment are becoming more integrated with perennial concerns about profit. Leading firms
are viewing an integrated “triple bottom line” (i.e., people, planet, profits) that balances attention
to employees, society, and the environment in addition to financial outcomes as critically
important not only to the sustainability of the world, but to their own long term viability in the
global marketplace. As they move toward this new model, managers will be required to learn a
good deal more about how to design and manage collaborative social action networks.
ISE will help leaders and managers from all sectors develop new roles and competencies that
will contribute to creating sustainable enterprises in the 21st century, through research projects
that: a) reveal how managers can effectively design/implement sustainability-enhancing projects
and; b) solidly link social/environmental responsibility to economic performance and through
curriculum development and services based on this knowledge.
Use of Start-up Funding
The requested $________ in funding will be used to develop grant proposals and working
structures, specifically to:
 secure sufficient summer support for University faculty to work on developing research
and curriculum-development grant proposals

support an executive-liaison/research associate with extensive industry experience to a)
help develop grant proposals, b) secure preliminary commitments from individuals in
business, government, and NGOs to actively participate in various proposed jointventure projects, and c) develop sustainability enhancing workshops and other services

secure a Fairleigh Dickinson University dedicated graduate assistant to help with
preliminary research to strengthen the intellectual foundation for grant proposals

enable the development of marketing and outreach strategies

provide travel and meeting expenses to work with potential collaborators on research
proposals, projects, curriculum and to convene the ISE Advisory Board
Examples of ISE Project Proposals Requiring Further Development
I. Research
a. Enhancing Cross-Sector Collaboration for Sustainability: Lessons from UN Global
(GC) Compact Projects: This project will provide a clearer “roadmap” for managing the
challenges posed by the collaborative dynamics of cross-sector working relationships,
examining sustainability-enhancing projects conducted under the auspices of the UN GC.
b. The Role of HR in the Move to Sustainable Enterprises: This project will illuminate how
HR can foster more sustainable management by helping create the conditions for
successfully managing sustainability-enhancing projects. It will supplement and further
leverage the prior proposed project in cooperation with the UN GC.
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Fairleigh Dickinson University, Silberman College of Business – Institute for Sustainable
Enterprise
c. Towards Sustainability in Higher Education: Leveraging a “Green” Library Project into a
University-wide, Environmental, Social, Financial, and Educational Sustainability
Initiative: This project will engage Fairleigh Dickinson’s administration, staff, students, and
faculty from diverse disciplines, along with thought leaders from regional corporations and
the community, in a broad initiative to build a “green” library/learning center that becomes a
catalyst for a green campus, educational excellence, and community learning.
d. Energy: Inputs, Outputs & Outcomes from Investments in Sustainable Energy
Enterprises: In this collaborative action-research, ISE and the nonprofit NJ-based E+CO
will expand a business model combining “micro-finance” and energy while lending money to
clean energy entrepreneurs in Latin America, Asia, and Africa which serve the poor.
II. Consulting Services
ISE is also prepared to offer organizations consulting support as requested, on a fee-for-service
basis (i.e., not supported by funds from this proposal) to help them design, implement, and learn
from specific projects to become more sustainable enterprises, and to help them learn how to
manage more sustainably. Other fee-for-services initiatives may include seminars and
roundtables, conferences, process facilitation, and executive coaching.
III. Curriculum Development
This initiative will seek to leverage and augment sustainable-management curriculum
development initiatives already under way in Fairleigh Dickinson’s Silberman College of
Business and at other universities. ISE will design degree and non-degree programs that provide
a multi-disciplinary, multi-faceted and whole-system perspective on sustainable management.
At Silberman College, faculty have been modifying the existing Executive MBA program
around a sustainable management core. International immersion experiences and joint programs
with the UN are being integrated into management courses to develop the global mindset critical
to managing sustainably. Efforts are under way to develop hands-on action-learning workshops
for corporations to learn how to better implement specific sustainability-enhancing projects.
Fairleigh Dickinson University
Fairleigh Dickinson is the largest private university in New Jersey, with campuses in Teaneck
and Madison, NJ, Wroxton, England, and a new campus in Vancouver, Canada. Created in 1942
as an institution “of and for the world,” the University’s goal is to prepare individuals to be
productive world citizens. Under the leadership of President J. Michael Adams, Fairleigh
Dickinson recently re-affirmed its mission to be a center of academic excellence preparing world
students through global education. Fairleigh Dickinson is just one of four universities in the
United States to have NGO status at the UN, which provides it with special access to UN
facilities, briefings, and programs, such as the UN Pathways videoconference and lecture series.
Silberman College of Business
The mission of Silberman College of Business is to prepare graduates to assume positions of
responsibility in a global business community characterized by rapid technological and social
change. Its major goal is to develop the analytical ability and perspective of the student in order
to contribute to success as a responsible executive. Its faculty are committed to imparting
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Fairleigh Dickinson University, Silberman College of Business – Institute for Sustainable
Enterprise
practical knowledge through engaged learning to its undergraduate, MBA and Executive MBA
students. The Silberman College of Business is accredited by AACSB International.
The Institute for Sustainable Enterprise: Key Personnel
Joel Harmon is professor of management at Fairleigh Dickinson. He has a Ph.D. from SUNY
Albany. Daniel Twomey has a Doctorate from Kent State. He is professor of management and
a founder of ISE and the Center for Human Resource Management Studies (CHRMS).
Rosemarie Twomey is professor of law at Fairleigh Dickinson’s Silberman College of Business.
She has a J.D. from West Virginia College of Law. Jeana Wirtenberg is an executive
researcher with ISE. She received a Ph.D. in psychology from UCLA. Gerard F. Farias is a
management faculty member and the Executive Director of ISE and CHRMS. He has Ph.D.
from Texas Tech University. Christine M. Farias is an economics faculty member with
Silberman College. She has a Ph.D. from Texas Tech. William Russell has a B.S. in chemical
engineering from the University of Maryland and an M.B.A. in finance from Rutgers. Dr. Hsu
O’Keefe is an educator and consultant in international business, with a Ph.D. in economics from
the University of Sao Paulo and Masters in economics from Rutgers.
Expenditure Items
Seed Funding for ISE
Fall 2005:
Expenditures
Personnel
Executive Director (release time and stipend)
Executive Liaison & Research Associate
Administrative Officer
Graduate Assistant Support
FDU faculty summer stipends
Year 2006:
Projected
Expenditures
$ 7,500
$ 4,500
$ 10,000
$ 2,000
$ 5,000
$ 30,000
$ 56,000
$ 40,000
$ 18,000
$ 30,000
$ 90,0001
$368,0001
$ 7,000
$ 20,000
$ 7,000
$ 34,000
TOTAL ISE PROGRAM COSTS
$ 133,000
$ 596,000
TOTAL FDU CONTRIBUTION
$ 39,000
$ 81,000
Other Costs
Institutional Development (Planning, Proposal
Writing, Research Projects, Curriculum
Development, Marketing)1
Office Expenses: Telecom, Supplies, Postage,
photo-copying, etc.
Travel, Meals, Lodging expenses
TOTAL FUNDING REQUESTED
$ 151,000
Almost all of these services have been provided “pro bono” by faculty and external partners of ISE. The value of
these services is estimated at $90,000 for 2005 and projected at $368,000 for 2006, based on a normal fee of $75 per
hour and including travel and other non-reimbursed expenses.
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