A Web site dedicated to bridging the gap between the demands of business and technology and the need for social and environmental responsibility has been launched by the management school at the University of California, Davis.

The Sustainable World site features articles on socially responsible business practices, an events calendar and links to organizations active in sustainable development.

Conceived by Richard Dorf of the Graduate School of Management, the Sustainable World site draws on the professor emeritus' 25 plus years of research and publishing about technology and society. Also a professor of electrical and computer engineering, Dorf has authored two books on sustainability including "Technology, Humans, and Society: Toward a Sustainable World" in 2001.

"There's nothing more important than the husbandry of our resources and doing it better and more efficiently -- and also raising everybody's standard of living," Dorf says. "There have to be solutions to spread the wealth."

The idea for the site grew out the school's MBA course on sustainable and responsible business and technology. Dorf, who is teaching the course this spring, initially sees the site as a way to bring together graduate students from several disciplines, including agriculture and engineering.

He envisions the site evolving into an interactive hub for business students, academics and corporate decision makers to exchange ideas, promote action and further weave sustainable business thinking into engineering and business curricula.