Robert Sroufe is a Professor of Sustainability at Chatham University.
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Professor Sroufe develops and teaches courses on Sustainability, Operations, Supply Chain Management, Sustainable Business Practices, and Experiential Learning covering the forces and models driving current decision-making while integrating sustainable business practices into business practices. Sroufe believes students thrive when challenged with real-world problems. Thus, he likes to engage students in problem-based learning and research that has the potential for tangible impact. During the fall and spring semesters, he develops project-based courses for student teams working with corporate, SME, and NGO clients.
He is currently developing new opportunities for the integration of sustainability within graduate and undergraduate curricula. Sroufe's courses have been selected internationally by the Aspen Institute Business & Society Program (Aspen BSP) as one of its Ideas Worth Teaching Award winners. He was also an Aspen Institute Faculty Pioneer finalist and has received University Creative Teaching Awards, the Wickham Skinner Teaching Innovative Award from the Production and Operations Management Production Society (POMS), the Decision Sciences Institute (DSI) Instructional Innovation Award for the development and delivery business school courses integrating strategic sustainability, and Page Prize for Best U.S. Environmental Curriculum. My research focuses on "Environmental Management Systems" defined as the formal and informal systems integrating procedures and processes for the training of personnel, monitoring, summarizing, and reporting of specialized triple bottom line performance information to internal and external stakeholders. These systems have evolved from reactive Environmental Health and Safety systems of the past to proactive, present-day ability Operating Systems improving environmental performance, stakeholder engagement, and resource efficiency.
The primary question driving my research involves what systems and tools effectively measure and manage environmental, social, and financial practices linked to performance? Other secondary questions involve what obstacles hinder integrated bottom line performance in new product development and supply chains; how will Life Cycle Analysis change supply chain management; how do managers define and comply with voluntary initiatives such as sustainable development to create shared value; and how can managers integrate new information and metrics into existing systems to effectively manage the innovation necessary for sustainable business practices? I consider operations management and supply chain management enablers of new initiatives that call for cross-functional collaboration and visibility. The research questions above capture what are arguable some of the main challenges that today's managers face when generating and delivering value within the emerging domain of "sustainability" both internally and externally for a firm. Prior to joining Chatham Professor Sroufe held an endowed chair at Duquesne University, was an Assistant Professor of Operations Management at Boston College. He holds a Ph.D. from Michigan State University (MSU) in Operations and a dual M.B.A. in Materials and Logistics Management, along with Procurement from MSU.
