Fiona Wilson is an assistant professor of strategy, social entrepreneurship, and sustainability at the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics.
What role do companies play in advancing sustainability?
The social and environmental problems facing our world are increasing, not decreasing. It is becoming rapidly apparent to many that government and non-profits will not, alone, be able to help address these issues, and that we need fundamentally different approaches.
The business world has tremendous power and influence: for example, business corporations make up 52 of the world’s 100 largest “economies”; just one company alone, Walmart, has annual sales that are greater than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 85 percent of the world’s countries...
Scoop up a handful of dirt from your garden or backyard. It may look like nothing’s there. In fact, you’re holding some 200 billion organisms, including tens of thousands of different species. And most of them are in the midst of a vital job: recycling dead plant and animal debris. 
In her office in Kingsbury Hall, Erin Bell is explaining her research. “When you go to a doctor, they don’t just look at you. They do blood work; they run tests. Bridge instrumentation and testing is almost like an EKG of a bridge. You gather data, and looking at that data you can tell if something needs to be done prior to a collapse.” 