Senior Lecturer/ Business Sustainability Outreach Director
Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies | WI School of Business; Founder, Wisconsin Sustainable Business Council; Founder, Wisconsin Microfinance
Hometown: Milwaukee, WI
Tom has been at the forefront of business and sustainability for the last twenty-five years, both teaching classes in sustainability at the University of Wisconsin and founding and serving as the Executive Director of the WI Sustainable Business Council. Tom taught the first classes on campus in sustainability and later was a co-developer of the graduate certificate in Business, Environment and Social Responsibility (BESR) at the WI School of Business. He has written and spoken extensively on the changing role of business in society, corporate social responsibility, socially responsible investing, divestment, and on how the private sector can lead in responding to generational challenges such as climate change. Growing out of his interest in sustainability, Tom founded the non-profit “Wisconsin Microfinance”. Wisconsin Microfinance’s programs provide people living in areas where access to capital is severely limited ACCESS to financial and support services needed to lift their families out of poverty.
Talks:
- Societal Leadership Transitions: From Public Sector to Private Sector
- Sustainability in a Small Town
- The Business of Water
- The Challenge of Sustainable Consumption in India
- The Business Case for Sustainability
- The State of Sustainability Practice in WI
- Sustainability and Micro-finance
- Green Jobs 2010
- Energy as a Sustainability Issue
- Developing International Partnerships in Sustainability
- The Evolution of Green Business
- State of Sustainable Community Development: Notes from the Field
- Sustainability and the Role of Government
- Business and Sustainability
- Sustainability in Wisconsin's Business Community