Dr. Timothy M. Smith is founder of the NorthStar Initiative for Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, where he is also an associate professor of environmental sciences, policy and management, and bioproducts and biosystems engineering at the University of Minnesota.

Smith’s research focuses on policy and market adoption of technologies that enhance environmental performance, public and private governance of sustainability, and sustainability systems modeling in decision making. His work has been published in top-tier journals across the multiple fields of management, public policy, and environmental sciences. Most recently, his efforts have been directed toward collaborative research efforts with corporate and NGO partners to explore global supply chains as institutions for collective action.

Through his career, Smith has held the rotating chair in sustainable entrepreneurship at Wageningen University, Netherlands, served on the faculty at INCAE Business School in Costa Rica, and taught on the extended faculty in marketing and logistics management at the Carlson School of Management and in the College of Continuing Education at UMN. He is a former AT&T Industrial Ecology Fellow and has advised the Environmental Protection Agency, the General Services Administration, the National Research Council’s Committee on Certification of Sustainable Products and Services, and numerous companies and organizations on supply chain sustainability and product-based policies.

A Minnesota transplant in 1999, Smith has yet to fully embrace winter, but enjoys all the Twin Cities have to offer with his wife, Ann, and three children—Ellie, Michael and Ida. He spends his free time traveling, playing soccer and cooking.

To invite Tim Smith to speak at your event, please email him directly.