School News

Only At Stern: Professor Tensie Whelan, Leading the Way Forward in Sustainable Business Value Creation

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NYU Stern Clinical Professor Tensie Whelan is a Distinguished Professor of Practice of Business and Society, teaches across several Stern programs, and is the Founding Director of the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business (CSB).

Launched in 2016 with $1 million in funding from the Citi Foundation, CSB’s mission is to empower current and future leaders to embed sustainability into core business strategy to drive corporate resiliency and better financial performance.

Under Professor Whelan’s leadership, CSB has had a major impact at Stern. Since CSB’s inception:

  • 1,230+ students have taken the foundational Sustainability for Competitive Advantage course across the Undergraduate, MBA and Executive MBA programs
  • 400+ students have obtained a specialization or concentration in sustainable business across programs, and it is a top 10 specialization for Stern MBAs 
  • 250,000+ executives have been trained in sustainability through Executive Education custom programming 
  • CSB has allocated $227,000 in grant funding to support 36 faculty and doctoral research projects at Stern
  • More than $21 million has been raised by CSB since its inception

CSB conducts practical research that makes the financial case for sustainability, including: 

  • Return on Sustainability Investment (ROSI™) methodology – a cross-industry framework and set of tools designed to help corporate leaders and investors identify, prioritize, and unlock sustainability-driven returns.  
  • The Sustainable Market Share Index™ (SMSI), a highly anticipated annual analysis of US purchasing data for packaged goods marketed as sustainable — which recently expanded to the international market.
  • The Responsible Private Equity Initiative, which has design insights and tools to help PE firms embed sustainability strategies that drive better financial performance in their portfolio companies, CSB is the academic partner to UNPRI’s private equity sustainability-aligned value creation initiative.
  • Invest NYC SDG Initiative, designed to build a sustainable, inclusive, and resilient NYC economy, uses the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and raised ~$4.5M from business, philanthropy, and government to support its work.

CSB hosts dozens of events annually, including the annual Practice Forum — focused on sustainability-driven value creation and providing its hundreds of participants with practical tools and frameworks.

Professor Whelan also served as the President of the Rainforest Alliance before joining Stern, where she built the organization from a $4.5 million to $50 million budget.

Learn more in this video and below:

Select media highlights featuring Professor Tensie Whelan:

Professor Whelan’s policy impact: 

Professor Whelan’s work has impacted Stern and the private sector:

  • Professor Whelan was named a top undergraduate professor by Poets&Quants in 2023
  • Ethisphere named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics
  • she was a recipient of The SustainabilityX® Magazine's inaugural Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards 2022
  • and was highlighted on Crain’s New York Business’ 2024 Notable Leaders in Sustainability

She has served on numerous nonprofit boards and on the following advisory boards: 

  • ALO Advisors
  • Edelman
  • Giant Ventures
  • Nespresso
  • Workiva

She also served on the boards of InvestIndustrial SPAC and Emerald SPAC, is an Advisor to the Future Economy Project for Harvard Business Review, and sits on the MIT Sloan Management Review’s Editorial Advisory Board.