Balancing Stakeholder Expectations in Sustainability Management: The Rinker Center Project at Stetson University

The Marshall and Vera Lea Rinker Welcome Center is a US$7.634 million budgeted new building that was opened in August 2016 to house various administrative and student-related functions at Stetson University in Florida. Al Allen, the University's Vice President of Facilities Management, was the point person entrusted with not only completing the project on time and on budget but also ensuring that the building received external certification that validated its sustainability standards. Allen's task was not an easy one because he had to address the often-conflicting demands of the project's stakeholders, many of whom, although well meaning, had no knowledge of how the building's architectural details related to sustainability. Freeman's [1] idea of stakeholders affecting an organization's actions come into play in this case. This paper examines Allen's path as the project leader and the choices that he confronts via the lens of stake-holder theory as it impacts a sustainability initiative. As a result of engaging in the analysis of this case, the reader should have a fine-grained perspective on how organizations confront the trade-offs between the financial and the sustainability sides of a decision, particularly when these sides may not be completely convergent.