Center for Sustainability launched

The Shell Oil
Co. Foundation has announced a $3.5 million endowment to
Rice University to establish the Shell Center for Sustainability.

The center will
bring together experts from many disciplines to study societal
and environmental issues arising as a result of economic
activities — fostering opportunities for improvement
through new technologies, market-based incentives and other
initiatives.

“We are
immensely grateful to the Shell Oil Co. Foundation for its
generous grant to establish the Shell Center for Sustainability
at Rice,” said Rice President Malcolm Gillis. “Rice
has long been committed to interdisciplinary research and
practice as a strategy for improving social, environmental
and economic welfare. Shell’s commitment to exploring
sustainability strategies across many academic and business
disciplines together with its consistent support for sustainable
development worldwide provides this new center with a foundation
of creative and credible leadership in the field.”

“We share
with Rice University a commitment to finding innovative
ways to meet the world’s present and future needs,”
said Philip Watts, chairman of the committee of managing
directors of Royal Dutch/Shell. “Shell believes it
has a role to play in helping address the fundamental challenges
facing society today.”

Because by its
nature sustainable development requires integrated solutions,
the Shell Center will be characterized by its focus on encouraging
collaboration across disciplines. In addition, collaboration
among business leaders, academia, nongovernment organizations
and senior policy advisers will assist the center in moving
constructively from conflict to consensus on a variety of
social, economic and environmental issues facing the world.

“We would
like Shell to play its part toward solutions for today’s
challenges,” Watts said. “We believe corporate
decision-making should be a critical component of the world’s
journey toward a sustainable future, and the foundation
of this center demonstrates Shell’s commitment to play
a meaningful role in promoting understanding and employment
of sustainable development principles in corporate decisions.”

The specific
objectives of the Shell Center aim to:

• Create
new technologies, processes, products and market mechanisms
that will advance sustainable economic growth and a sound
public infrastructure;
• Develop new tools in engineering, the social sciences
and the natural sciences that enhance the understanding
of requirements for sustainability, help remove institutional
barriers to sensible environmental and social practices,
and contribute to new policy instruments for achieving sustainability;
• Provide society with broadly educated environmental,
technical and natural resource experts to mold future decision-making
in the private and public sectors to help assure a more
sustainable future in both developed and developing nations;
and
• Enhance the exchange of information in the public
and private sectors by serving as an independent forum for
open discussion and constructive dialogue on sustainable
development issues and policies across a broad spectrum
of stakeholders, including U.S. and international business
leaders, academia, nongovernment organizations and senior
policy makers.
Research issues posed by environmental and societal impacts
arising from economic activities include:
• Developing new engineering and scientific curricula
to educate a new generation of scientists who will incorporate
sustainability concepts into business plans, designs and
processes;
• Advancing thinking around market-based mechanisms
that can be deployed to enhance sustainability; and
• Developing linkages with other institutions and nongovernment
organizations at a local, regional, national and international
level.

“The best
guarantee for the welfare of this generation and future
generations is in fact successful sustainable development
wherein cleaner air and water are not viewed as something
apart from rising incomes, but part and parcel of same,”
Gillis said. “The Shell Center for Sustainability is
an important step toward achieving these goals.”