ANN ARBOR—The Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan and the World Environment Center have announced a partnership to directly engage graduate students in planning and implementing sustainable development initiatives with leading global companies.

The program, known as the “Erb/WEC Fellowships,” will be supported by IBM as part of its long-term commitment to environmental sustainability and developing next-generation skills for the 21st-century workforce.

The Erb Institute/WEC partnership will provide cross-disciplinary curriculum and training for eight graduate student fellowships during 2013. Erb/WEC Fellows will take an active role in WEC’s Roundtables—identifying potential speakers, synthesizing research, participating as speakers, preparing course materials and communications to the professional sustainability community, and developing articles, blogs and social media communications on Roundtable results. Students chosen to participate will then prepare a research paper suitable for publication.

The partnership strengthens U-M’s leadership role in the advancement of sustainability concepts and practices for future graduates. WEC will provide students direct access to senior-level sustainability executives of global companies in its membership and beyond, and students will obtain original information on how companies evaluate and apply sustainability-related data and formulate decision making options.

“Education in business and sustainability must transcend the classroom to include engagement with business professionals that are on the cutting edge of the issue,” said Andrew Hoffman, director of the Erb Institute and the Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise. “This initiative represents the spirit of that goal with real action-learning opportunities for our students. I couldn’t be more thrilled with the collaboration among Erb, WEC and IBM.”

WEC President and CEO Terry Yosie said the new collaboration with Erb and IBM will lend significant and practical experience to business school students seeking careers in advancing sustainable development.

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U-M Sustainability fosters a more sustainable world through collaborations across campus and beyond aimed at educating students, generating new knowledge, and minimizing our environmental footprint. Learn more at sustainability.umich.edu.