Dr. Robert Sroufe
Professor of Sustainability & Operations Management
Donahue Graduate School of Business Director
Robert Sroufe is a Professor of Sustainability, Operations and Supply Chain Management in the MBA Sustainable Business Practices program at the Palumbo-Donahue School. Professor Sroufe develops and teaches a course on Strategic Sustainability and Models, covering the forces and models driving current decision making while integrating sustainable business practices into operations including Life Cycle Analysis. He also develops and teaches the spring case based Sustainable Tools and Processes for Driving Performance course with guest speakers covering topics and assignments ranging from the development of a sustainability management plan for area organizations, to energy management systems, and a Leading Electric and Environmental Design (LEED) competition.
Sroufe believes that 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 both the fall and spring he develops and co-instructs the Sustainability Consulting Field Project courses overseeing student teams consulting with corporate clients. He is currently developing new opportunities for the integration of sustainability within graduate and undergraduate curricula. Sroufe's course, Sustainability Tools and Processes for New Initiatives is one of just 20 selected internationally by the Aspen Institute Business & Society Program (Aspen BSP) as one of its 2017 Ideas Worth Teaching Award winners. He was also an Aspen Institute Faculty Pioneer finalist, and has received the University Creative Teaching Award, and the Decision Sciences Institute Instructional Innovation Award for the development and delivery of these courses. As a faculty member within the innovative and #1 ranked U.S. MBA Sustainable Business Practices program, he is also an integral member of the faculty team awarded the Page Prize for Best U.S. Environmental Curriculum.
In his research, Professor Sroufe primarily aims to understand what drives sustainability performance and how firms can develop effective environmental management systems to enable the measurement and management of a triple bottom line. His work has been published in a number of journals, including the Journal of Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, the European Journal of Operations Research, Journal of Supply Chain Management, International Journal of Production Research, the Production and Inventory Management Journal, Greener Management International, and Business Strategy and the Environment, while also publishing books on Integrated Management: How Sustainability Creates Value for Any Business, Developing Sustainable Supply Chains to Drive Value: Management Issues, Insights, and Tools; and Strategic Corporate Environmental Management Systems. Professor Sroufe consults with a range of corporations, and conducts quantitative and qualitative research with firms including Alcoa, Baxter, Dow, Eco Labs, Ford, Gillette, GSA, Herman Miller, IBM, Intel, Interfaces, Lucent, and Steelcase.
Prior to joining the MBA+Sustainability program, Professor Sroufe was an Assistant Professor of Operations Management at Boston College. He holds a Ph.D. from Michigan State University in Operations and a dual M.B.A. in Materials and Logistics Management, along with Procurement from MSU.
Hobbies and personal interests: Anything that will get him outdoors including, but not limited to, camping, hiking, fly fishing, kayaking, golf, and training working dogs — primarily Labrador retrievers.
Sroufe believes that 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 both the fall and spring he develops and co-instructs the Sustainability Consulting Field Project courses overseeing student teams consulting with corporate clients. He is currently developing new opportunities for the integration of sustainability within graduate and undergraduate curricula. Sroufe's course, Sustainability Tools and Processes for New Initiatives is one of just 20 selected internationally by the Aspen Institute Business & Society Program (Aspen BSP) as one of its 2017 Ideas Worth Teaching Award winners. He was also an Aspen Institute Faculty Pioneer finalist, and has received the University Creative Teaching Award, and the Decision Sciences Institute Instructional Innovation Award for the development and delivery of these courses. As a faculty member within the innovative and #1 ranked U.S. MBA Sustainable Business Practices program, he is also an integral member of the faculty team awarded the Page Prize for Best U.S. Environmental Curriculum.
In his research, Professor Sroufe primarily aims to understand what drives sustainability performance and how firms can develop effective environmental management systems to enable the measurement and management of a triple bottom line. His work has been published in a number of journals, including the Journal of Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, the European Journal of Operations Research, Journal of Supply Chain Management, International Journal of Production Research, the Production and Inventory Management Journal, Greener Management International, and Business Strategy and the Environment, while also publishing books on Integrated Management: How Sustainability Creates Value for Any Business, Developing Sustainable Supply Chains to Drive Value: Management Issues, Insights, and Tools; and Strategic Corporate Environmental Management Systems. Professor Sroufe consults with a range of corporations, and conducts quantitative and qualitative research with firms including Alcoa, Baxter, Dow, Eco Labs, Ford, Gillette, GSA, Herman Miller, IBM, Intel, Interfaces, Lucent, and Steelcase.
Prior to joining the MBA+Sustainability program, Professor Sroufe was an Assistant Professor of Operations Management at Boston College. He holds a Ph.D. from Michigan State University in Operations and a dual M.B.A. in Materials and Logistics Management, along with Procurement from MSU.
Hobbies and personal interests: Anything that will get him outdoors including, but not limited to, camping, hiking, fly fishing, kayaking, golf, and training working dogs — primarily Labrador retrievers.