Sustainability Partnerships The Manager's Handbook

Social and environmental issues can be very complex and overwhelming for managers. A partnership seems like an obvious solution. But what type of partnership is appropriate, what are the pitfalls and how can they be overcome? The authors use the experiences of a number of experts in companies, NGOs and governmental bodies to find the answers.

ULRICH STEGER holds the Alcan Chair of Environmental Management at IMD and is Director of IMDs Forum for Corporate Sustainability Management (CSM). He is also Director of several major partnership programs at IMD such as the DaimlerChrysler and the Allianz Excellence Programmes. He holds an Honorary Professorship for International Management at Technical University Berlin. Before joining IMD, he had been Minister of Economics and Technology in the State of Hesse and a member of the Managing Board of Volkswagen, in charge of environment and traffic matters and the implementation of an environmental strategy within the VW group worldwide.

AILEEN IONESCU-SOMERS is Deputy Director of CSM at IMD, Switzerland. Dr. Aileen Ionescu-Somers has managed CSM and overseen several large scale research projects (on, for example, the business case for sustainability and stakeholder views of corporate sustainability performance). Before IMD, she headed an international projects unit at WWF International, overseeing financing and operations of conservation projects globally. She was also programme manager for the Africa and Latin America regional programmes while at WWF. She holds a BA, MA, Higher Diploma in Education and PhD (business administration) from the National University of Ireland, and an MSc (Environmental Management) from Imperial College, UK.

OLIVER SALZMANN is a Sales Engineer at KYOCERA Fineceramics GmbH, Germany. He holds a Masters in Industrial Management from Dresden University of Technology, Germany. From 2001 to 2007, he conducted empirical research for IMD diverse areas such as sustainable consumption in private households, the business case for corporate sustainability, quantification of sustainability benefits and stakeholders perceptions and activities with respect to corporate social and environmental responsibility.

STEPHANIE MANSOURIAN is Temporary CSM Research Associate at IMD, Switzerland. She is a consultant in the fields of environment and development, and has worked with the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), WWF, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and IMD.