PHILADELPHIA, PA, July 18, 2001 -- More than 200 representatives from business and business schools around the world will attend the World Resources Institute’s 2001 BELL (Business, Environment, Learning and Leadership) Conference hosted by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, July 19-21. The 2001 BELL Conference, on the theme “Digital Technologies and the Environment: New Challenges and Pathways to Sustainability,” will explore how business can use digital technologies to improve people’s lives while protecting natural resources. “When Joseph Wharton started the first business school in America in 1881, it was a radical idea. When we started BELL ten years ago, many thought it was a radical idea, too,” said Rick Bunch, director of the BELL Program, a project of WRI’s Environment and Business Program. In 1990, no business school in America offered an environment class. Today, the BELL network includes business professors and programs from most of the top business schools in North America. These schools are now offering more than one environment and business elective, and many include this subject in required courses. The BELL Program is a one-of-a-kind effort that focuses on greening management education. It does it by training business professors and providing green curriculum, publishing a biennial report -- called “Beyond Grey Pinstripes” -- that rates business schools’ environment and social content in MBA programs; and offering field study opportunities to MBA students to work with sustainable enterprises in Latin America. “Business schools have responded favorably to the BELL initiative because they recognize that the next generation of business leaders will need to embrace sustainability as a core business practice to ensure that the companies they lead will thrive,” said Bunch. BELL’s annual three-day conference provides business professors opportunities to exchange case studies, teaching methods, and research initiatives. Representatives from Latin America and China will attend the conference. “The conference is a great opportunity for key figures in the environmental management field to come together to discuss new issues of how digital technology will affect business strategies for sustainability and environmental regulation,” said Eric W. Orts, director of The Wharton School’s Environment Management Program. More than a dozen sessions will be held during the conference. This includes panels on “Understanding the Impact of E-Commerce and Sustainability,” “New Technologies for Pollution Prevention in the Pulp and Paper Industry,” and “Growing a Sustainable Energy Company.” The 2001 BELL Conference will be held at The Inn at Penn, 3600 Sansom Street, Philadelphia

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World Resources Institute
Paul Mackie, senior media officer, +1(202)729-7684, pmackie@wri.org