By David and Cathy DuBois, SIOP Bloggers
We hope this post finds many of you already registered for the upcoming Leading Edge Consortium (LEC), Environmental Sustainability at Work: Advancing Research, Enhancing Practice, October 19 and 20 in New Orleans. If you haven’t yet registered – it’s not too late!
This gathering will provide a terrific opportunity for researchers and practitioners to dialogue about the current state of research and practice in I-O involvement in supporting/promoting environmental sustainability initiatives within organizations, and lay the foundation for meaningful advancements. The small group size and access to expertise are particularly enticing aspects offered by the LEC!
One of the quotes on the LEC Agenda web page: “I have attended many of the LEC's and always find them educational, enjoyable and challenging. They lead me to think about issues I don't always encounter in my current role.” The I-O and HR role in embedding sustainability within an organization should be huge, but that fact hasn’t necessarily occurred to many organizational leaders or to I-O and HR professionals. I-O and HR voices have been largely absent in many organizations as they try to roll out the environmentally-focused aspects of their strategic plans. Yet in those organizations that are leaders in embedding environmental sustainability into their core, these professionals have been instrumental players in the change process. Some of these key voices will be present at the LEC – sharing their stories and offering their perspectives on current challenges.
Ed Lawler will lead things off with his
keynote address by addressing the “Management Reset Needed for Creating
Sustainable Effective Organizations.” Anna Clark, a sustainability consultant who
hosted a special SIOP
Exchange post and dialogue on August 30, will elaborate
on practices used successfully by organizations in embedding sustainability, as
will representatives from Interface, 3M, Walmart, PepsiCo, and AT&T. Deniz
Ones and Stephan Dilchert will share their research, and Mark Schmidt, VP of
Research for SHRM will provide an update on the state of HR practice in
sustainability.
If you can’t attend, please provide your ideas and questions below this post – we will be sure they get addressed in discussions at the LEC, and will report back to you following the event!
