UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Paul Shrivastava, Penn State’s chief sustainability officer, director of the Sustainability Institute and professor of management in the Smeal College of Business, will be inducted as a full member of the Club of Rome at their annual meeting Oct. 16–17, in Rome, Italy.
The Club of Rome is an international organization of individuals who promote the understanding of the global challenges facing humanity and to propose solutions through scientific analysis, communication and advocacy. Its members include notable scientists, economists, business leaders, high-level civil servants and former heads of state from around the world.
“The Club of Rome is most interested in my transdisciplinary approach to sustainability research, especially attempts to combine the natural sciences with the arts, humanities and law to develop holistic solutions to real world sustainability problems,” said Shrivastava.
“The Club is also interested how we are pioneering the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals through Penn State’s teaching, research and service missions.”
The Club of Rome is well known for its 1972 publication of the report “The Limits to Growth,” the first study to question the viability of continued growth in the human ecological footprint. It also broke new ground as the first global model commissioned by an independent body rather than a government or the UN.
“It is heartening to think that they feel Penn State’s institutional approach to sustainability is a valuable addition to their membership discourse,” Shrivastava said.
Prior to his time at Penn State, Shrivastava served as the executive director of Future Earth, where he established its secretariat for global environmental change programs. He served as David O’Brien Distinguished Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at Concordia University and led the International Chair for Arts and Sustainable Enterprise at ICN Business School. Shrivastava founded several private companies and non-profit organizations, and the ONE Division of the Academy of Management. He has also published seventeen books and more than 100 articles in scholarly journals on sustainable management and crisis management.