My research, teaching, and professional practice are all focused on sustainable business.

Current projects examine the roles for markets and financial instruments in enacting environmental and sustainability goals (Markets for the Environment). In particular, some colleagues and I are studying the potential for financial products called exchange-traded derivatives (e.g., futures contracts) to improve the performance of markets for recyclable materials in the US. This project, supported by the New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection and undertaken in collaboration with industry partners, explores a new avenue for creating a viable, transparent, and active market for buying and selling recyclables. I have also been studying New Jersey’s own (highly successful) transfer-of-development-rights marketplace, the Pinelands Development Credit program. The PDC program allows landowners to receive cash in exchange for entering their land into a conservation program.

I also research the linkages between sustainability and sports - golf in particular (Sustainable Golf). Golf gets a bad rap, and in some cases rightfully so. But as a sport whose playing surfaces cover a land territory about the size Peru, there is considerable positive that the sport and its keepers can contribute to sustainability. I do both scholarly and applied research (some with clubs) to help improve golf’s sustainability performance. Along these lines, I am also a member of the Sport Ecology Group.

With colleagues, I’ve also been active in examining — and developing applications for — artificial intelligence in the world of sustainability impact reporting.

Some of my other major projects to date have focused on the history and future of waste management in New Jersey (Garbage in the Garden State). This work has been supported by the National Science Foundation'sScience, Technology & Society Program. I have also conducted research looking at other aspects of environmental policy and governance in the US and around the world (EPG). I was previously the co-director of the "Cultivating the Environmental Humanities" project (2017-2020), made possible through the support of the Humanities Connections program at the National Endowment for the Humanities.

From January 2018 to September 2021 I served as Commissioner on the New Jersey Pinelands Commission where I was also a founding member of the Land Use, Climate Impacts, and Sustainability sub-committee. In July 2019 I was named Chair’s Designee to Pinelands Development Credit Bank, an institution facilitating the market-based transfer of development rights in the Pinelands in order to permanently protect sensitive ecosystems and landscapes.