Sustainable Economic and Enterprise Development (SEED) Institute

In alignment with Regis University’s Jesuit values, the Sustainable Economic and Enterprise Development (SEED) Institute seeks to foster the development of sustainable economic systems and enterprises honoring humanity and the Earth through education, collaborative scholarship and convening.

Through events, seminars and its unique undergraduate fellowship program, SEED hopes to play a role in co-authoring a new story in which business is a partner in addressing the changes needed for humanity to move toward a thriving planet and flourishing human society.

The SEED Institute draws inspiration from Laudato Si’ On Care for Our Common Home, an encyclical letter written by Pope Francis in May 2015 as an urgent call to address the dire humanitarian consequences of climate change around the world. To this end, the SEED Institute aims to support economic initiatives and enterprises that steward natural and human resources while readying the next generation of business leaders to take on future sustainability challenges.

As one of the world’s most powerful institutions, business has a critical role to play in supporting social and environmental sustainability. As such, SEED aims to catalyze a future of hope, innovation and a new direction for this influential force in society. SEED’s director, Dr. Abby Schneider, believes that business can be a force for good if its lessons on leadership, behavior change and scalable strategies, among others, are used for a higher purpose. As Parker Palmer states in his book Let Your Life Speak, it is possible to conceptualize “another way of doing business, a way that is consensual, cooperative, communal.”