|
Student project helps build sustainability reporting website
By Dianne George
Thanks to UVic business students, data about the social and environmental footprint of a wide range of companies will be available online through Zumer, an open source database. Zumer is still in its development phase, but once populated and launched, it will help consumers choose products—from beer to gasoline—that match their personal values.
Zumer is being developed by UVic grads. BCom alumnus Stephen Albinati, charged with managing the project and finding creative ways to build a solid base of information, thought immediately of his alma mater.
“UVic Business was the first business school to participate, and really got the ball rolling for us,” says Albinati.
“We’re reaching out to universities who are leaders in integrating sustainability into business school curriculum. Drs. Monika Winn and Mike Valente, professors in the business program, really embraced the project as a way to familiarize students with sustainability reporting and illustrate the strategic importance of sustainable business practices.”
As a class project, BCom students examined a company’s corporate social responsibility policies and practices in the areas of economics, the environment, human rights, labour, and society and added their findings to the Zumer database.
The class contribution was formally recognized at the March 2008 Commerce Student Society Leadership conference where BCom student Daniel Lafferty, who worked on the Zumer project, and who is co-chair of the Business Sustainability Club, was presented with a special plaque, created from reclaimed wood.
The Zumer project is the brainchild of Tony Melli, a mentor in the business program and local angel investor, and Chris Godsall, CEO and founder of Triton Logging as well as two other partners based in the US.
Currently Zumer is under a private beta with an official launch to the public planned for the fall. However, Albinati is extending a private invitation to the UVic community to help Zumer grow. If you are interested in learning more about the impacts of the products and services in use every day and the companies behind them, visit the site, and enter the passcode boycottbuycott.
|
