Kolloquium - Distinguished Research Fellow Award Ceremony Elizabeth Embry, University of Kansas Business School

Building Change: Promotion Community Resilience Through Sustainability, Health, and Entrepreneurship in the Built Environment

Environmental sustainability, with a focus on climate change, has become a critical consideration for organizations. Management and entrepreneurship scholars have examined the creation and adoption of sustainability practices, but this research remains isolated from other relevant social concerns and has yet to deeply address factors that drive maintenance and survival to move toward resilience and regeneration. The focus of my research is an exploration into the evolution and innovation of sustainability practices, and when and how these solutions might complement or become integrated with addressing broader societal issues. In this presentation, I will present an overview of recent work on adaptations and innovations to existing sustainability measures in the built environment when challenged by concerns of racial and gender equity, and public health. The built environment – the human-made spaces where we live, work, and play, which has significant implications not only for the natural environment, but also the health, wellbeing and productivity of the humans who inhabit it. I will also delve deeper into a grounded theory study of an intentional real estate development. This research shows how innovation intended to preserve the natural environment simultaneously protected the community residents in an unforeseen crisis. This study presents a model that may be more tenacious than existing forms of resilience established by government or policy edicts. As the impacts of climate change continue to increase, it is essential that current approaches to environmental sustainability advance toward resiliency, and ultimately account for intersectional issues.