One of the first points University of British Columbia professor Justin Bull makes about sustainability is that business leaders should not see it as a cost center but as an opportunity.
“Sustainability in the context of business means balancing the interests of people, the planet, and profit. You can in fact make money, make people’s lives better, as well as solve environmental problems,” Bull said. “Not only reducing the negative impacts you have, but having the courage and the imagination to say, ‘Can my business have a positive impact on the environment around me?’” If you can do that, then you have adopted an approach to sustainability that gets people excited.”
Bull brings this approach into the classroom for the online Global Certificate in Corporate Sustainability program offered in partnership between Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management and the UBC Sauder School of Business. This 100% online certificate program offers business professionals the opportunity to learn the latest successful strategies to incorporate sustainability efforts throughout their organizations.
Driven by an Entrepreneurial Spirit
Bull serves as academic director of the Master of Engineering Leadership and Master of Health Leadership and Policy programs at the University of British Columbia. He is also a full-time lecturer at the university’s Sauder School of Business. He teaches about sustainability, innovation, and strategy, with a focus on graduate and executive learners.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations (2005) and a Ph.D. in Wood Science (2015) from the University of British Columbia. His doctoral work focused on measuring and comparing the environmental performance of paper and digital value chains in the global media market.
In his biography on the university’s website, Bull wrote that he has been “relentlessly curious and entrepreneurial” throughout his life. He has worked in a wide variety of jobs, including as a horse logger, start-up mentor, board member, Indigenous relations advisor, and an executive educator. He wrote that he even had a period where he lived in his Volkswagen (VW) van, running a leather goods firm. He’s also served as a consultant for clients that include IKEA, Rolling Stone, and WWF, helping them solve sustainability challenges.
“I read as much as I can based on different perspectives and angles, both fiction and non-fiction alike,” Bull wrote. “I am committed to creating a classroom environment where all students understand that they have something valuable to contribute to the broader whole.”
Seeing Sustainability as a Way To Do More With Less
In his approach to teaching about sustainability, Bull focuses on teaching professionals not to see sustainability as something to feel guilty about or with the approach that “the private sector is bad.” Rather, he said, he views sustainability “not as a cost model but as a way of doing more with less.”
He said executives should see sustainability as a method to avoid the costs associated with issues such as waste handling, the discarding of unused or undesired goods, and having excess capacity and inventory.
He also said government programs will provide businesses with an unprecedented opportunity.
“The sustainability agenda, and more specifically the move toward a net zero economy, offers the most ambitious, comprehensive, and well-defined investment opportunity the government has ever encountered,” Bull said, mentioning issues such as electrifying grids and creating charging networks. “The government is going to be trying to find ways to support all of those efforts. And you, at a global scale, are literally going to see trillions of dollars moving into that space, nudging the economy in a more sustainable direction.”
Sustainability Impacts Every Area of an Operation
Bull’s passion for sustainability is palatable when he speaks. He not only views it as a way for companies to save money, but also as something that touches every area of an organization.
“Sustainability is embedded in accounting, sales, you are a front-line employee or an executive in a C-suite, you have to take sustainability into consideration,” Bull said.
He said that increasing focus on sustainability issues by the government, investors, competitors, and consumers highlights the imperative that organizations need to become more sustainable or risk getting left behind.
“If you have a business that makes lots of money, but creates a lot of harm for people, or creates a lot of harm for the planet, eventually you are going to be regulated out of existence,” Bull said. “Whether it is consumers, politicians, markets, or investors, they are going to move away from you.”
A Rapidly Growing Interest in Sustainability Education
Bull said serious professionals now realize that the time has come to move beyond sustainability as an idea, concept, and conversation. It now means making tough choices. Given this realization, Bull said the last few years have seen “this insane acceleration, this amplification, of interest and concern—and student demand—for sustainability education.”
While government actions, consumer choice, and investor preferences have driven much of the change, Bull said businesses also must keep up with the competition, particularly the “big, dominant” companies.
“They are huge proponents for meaningful and profound action on climate, they are huge investors in renewable energy. I’m certainly not suggesting that they’re doing a perfect job, but they’re your competitors, and they recognize the competitive advantage that sustainability offers, and they just so happen to have billions and billions in capital, ready to deploy,” Bull said.
He noted that another benefit for business leaders who learn about successful sustainability strategies and put them into action is that it helps attract and retain talented employees. In the modern business world, many employees expect their company to focus on environmental, sustainability, and governance (ESG) issues.
“Whether you like it or not, your employees care about this stuff. They care about their employer creating positive change and being a force for good in the broader society,” Bull said. “They care if a company they work for isn’t doing its best in managing its environmental and social harms.”
He said the belief that sustainability is a cost center rather than an opportunity has quickly become outdated. Bull added, “If all you are doing is staying stuck in this—that sustainability is a cost center—you are leaving so much on the table, so much opportunity to innovate and grow.”