October 19-22, 2023

Ivey Business School, London, Canada 

The PhD Sustainability Academy is generously supported by the Beryl M. Ivey Fund for Corporate Social Responsibility and the Network for Business Sustainability.

The PhD Sustainability Academy, co-hosted by the Ivey Business School and Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability (ARCS), convened 15 promising PhD students and senior researchers championing path-breaking research on sustainability across multiple disciplines using diverse theoretical and methodological approaches. Each student received intensive feedback on their research project. The participants and faculty members represented a range of management disciplines and methodologies. This Academy represented one of the foremost learning and networking events for students researching social and environmental issues.

Meaningful sustainability action requires linking facts and emotions, so PhD Academy co-director Oana Branzei invited Abby Litchfield, Community Manager at the Network for Business Sustainability, singer/songwriter, and all-around talented musician, to integrate music in the 2023 PhD Academy program. Abby led a workshop with the Fellows to capture some of their more emotional and poetic reflections on their work, and ultimately used those to create a song! Read more about the process, and listen to the song "Keep Moving"

2023 PhD Academy Best Paper Award

The Best Paper is chosen based on rigour of research, quality of writing and potential of research to impact management theory or practice. The award is presented during the Academy. This year, the award was split between two recipients:

Congratulations to Kerrigan Unter and Hannah Schupfer for each winning a Best Paper Award at the 2023 PhD Sustainability Academy!

View Kerrigan's article, "Wineries Earn More Per Bottle When They Adapt to Climate Change", written in collaboration with the Network for Business Sustainability. 

View Hannah's article, "Oil Industry Climate Goals: Lots of Talk, Little Action", written in collaboration with the Network for Business Sustainability. 

2023 Impact Scholar Community Award

The new Impact Scholar Community Award is determined based on a set of weighted criteria that reflect the Impact Scholar Community's values. The criteria include the transformative impact of the research, its generative potential in creating new ways of knowing, the degree to which it is representative and reflexive of the researcher’s positionalities, and its agentic quality in guiding future actions. The award was split between two recipients:

Congratulations to Anne-Sophie Sabbatucci and Kimberly McGinnis for each winning an Impact Scholar Community Award at the 2023 PhD Sustainability Academy!