The Centre for Social Innovation & Impact Investing (SauderS3i) is focused on leveraging business tools to advance social innovation and sustainability, through research, incubation, and application. SauderS3i defines social innovation as a new approach which fosters initiatives that contribute to solving existing social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental challenges. This encompasses concepts such as social enterprise, social finance, and strategic corporate social responsibility. What it does not involve is simply throwing money at a problem. Rather, SauderS3i aims to build institutions designed to create value rather than dependency.
The core research themes at SauderS3i are building the low carbon economy, social innovation, and impact investing. Our goal is to build intellectual and human capacity by linking knowledge with action to further the field of sustainability and social innovation. We are just as passionate about student development and action oriented research, as we are about creating useful resources, plans and capacity for our partner communities and organizations.