Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility (CESR) seeks corporate ESG and Sustainability consulting projects to integrate into MBA and undergraduate level courses at Leeds.

Looking for creative, actionable solutions to your organization’s biggest sustainability challenges? The Leeds School of Business offers sustainability/ESG expertise to equip you and your team to elevate your organization’s sustainability and ESG strategy, performance management, measurement, and reporting. 

Image of CESR students giving a presentation

Request for Proposals:

Interested in exploring how our MBA or advanced undergraduate teams might accelerate sustainability initiatives at your organization? Please submit a proposal. 

How Leeds can help: 

Supported by world-class faculty and CESR, Leeds is training the next generation of sustainability and ESG professionals at both the undergraduate and graduate levels to drive business solutions to environmental, social, and governance related challenges. Whether through projects like strategic planning to support decarbonization or the implementation of an integrated reporting framework to better demonstrate stakeholder accountability, Leeds students are equipped to bring fresh perspectives, cutting edge research, and bold ideas to your organization’s biggest challenges.

With high-touch faculty support, our undergraduate and MBA students have delivered powerful sustainability solutions for some of the world’s largest corporations, including:

  • Recrafting the Task Force on Climate-Related Disclosures (TCFD) report of an S&P 500 energy company;
  • Helping one of the top 5 US banks develop decarbonization Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for its Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) strategy;
  • Developing a dossier of key research findings to support Public Private Partnerships (3Ps) for EV charging infrastructure on behalf of one of the Big Four accounting firms;
  • Conducting a B-Corp Impact Assessment for a biotech company in the Russell 1000 and defining a roadmap for getting the company B-Corp certified.
  • Student teams have also worked with a range of smaller organizations on challenges from product lifecycle carbon analysis to greenwashing-free product marketing.

In consultation with the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility (CESR), your proposal will be reviewed by one or more Leeds faculty members, who will evaluate its alignment with current student consulting capabilities. We aim to respond to all proposals within 4 weeks. If your proposal is accepted: 

  • The Leeds faculty member who will be overseeing your student team will work with you to scope the project.
  • A graduate or undergraduate team of 4-6 students will spend between 80-120 team-hours on your project over the course of a ~3 month engagement during the Spring academic term (roughly February-April).
  • At the end of the semester, your student team will produce a polished deliverable for your organization’s use.
  • Your student team will also deliver a project presentation in class to support the ongoing education of their peers. Representatives from your organization will be invited to attend.
  • Your consulting team may also include promising job candidates for open roles at your organization.
    • Our program has a track record of students being hired off their consulting teams into full-time roles at the client after graduation.

  • Responsiveness via email;
  • Availability for 30 minute meetings via Zoom weekly or biweekly for team check-ins;
  • Introductions to other stakeholders in or outside your org relevant to the completion of the project;
  • Company information necessary for the completion of your team’s project;
    • Throughout the process of working with your org—including the in-class presentation—confidentiality will be maintained with respect to any proprietary information shared by your org to facilitate the completion of the project.
  • Coordination with the team to maintain updated expectations about final deliverables;
  • If possible: host the student team at least once for an on-site visit to your org.
  • Please note that the University of Colorado cannot enter into legally-binding commercial contracts with clients on behalf of students completing the sustainability consulting engagement. NDAs may be evaluated on a case-by-case basis—but must be signed by individual students at their discretion and cannot be signed by the University on their behalf.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Kathryn.Wendell@colorado.edu.