Businesses have a vital role to play in solving social and environmental issues through innovation, market development, and entrepreneurship.
With more than 20 years’ experience, the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise works with faculty associated with the Business of Sustainability Theme who are at the forefront of research, teaching, and engagement related to helping businesses address these problems. We provide students distinctive experiential learning opportunities and collaborate with organizations to help to tackle the grand challenges of our time, such as climate change, ecosystem degradation, and poverty.
Cornell Business Impact Symposium Registration is now open!
Cornell Business Impact Symposium 2026
From Promise to Performance: Sustainability under Pressure
Join us on April 9th to 11th in-person in the Statler Hotel for the 2026 Cornell Business Impact Symposium
Panel discussions and speaker topics will cover aspects of how the private sector creates positive impact on social and environmental challenges. Join us for networking with students, alumni, faculty, staff, and professionals within this industry.
An MBA internship showed how sustainability can be a luxury advantage, with simple operational and guest‑experience changes driving impact, credibility, and growth at Empirean Consulting
International Union for Conservation of Nature, 2025
Summary
In this publication, the authors develop a framework with three strategic goals for visitation to Protected and Conserved Areas (PCAs). These goals focus on tourism revenue, resilience and livelihoods, and collaborative governance systems, which aim to expand sustainable tourism’s role in strengthening biodiversity and incentivize equitable economic development. The research examines multiple case studies to demonstrate how tourism can drive biodiversity conservation and outline a framework for how stakeholders can position tourism to be environmentally responsible and foster long-term sustainability.
The Center hosts annual conferences surrounding the energy transition and business impact, hosts roundtables and networking events during NYC Climate week, and more!
The Center provides hands-on learning opportunities for graduate students interested in learning how businesses address environmental and social problems through innovation and enterprise. Click on the map to learn more about the diversity of companies and types of challenges we work on.
My best decision at Johnson was joining SGE. Hands down!
Mikey Arsnow, MBA '19
The SGE program is more than a class, it is a community building exercise. We worked hard but also played hard while learning about win-win solutions for business and the world.
Mercedes Moran Enriquez, MBA ‘20
Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ’ Land Acknowledgment for the Ithaca Campus
Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ’ (the Cayuga Nation). The Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ’ are members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign Nations with a historic and contemporary presence on this land. The Confederacy precedes the establishment of Cornell University, New York state, and the United States of America. We acknowledge the painful history of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ’ dispossession, and honor the ongoing connection of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ’ people, past and present, to these lands and waters.
