SPRING 2026 | 15 Reusing or extending the use of the products rather than disposing of them can help reduce waste and create a more sustainable world. But how do you get people to act on that? To answer that question, Ludovica Cesareo, assistant professor of marketing in the College of Business, has worked with faculty from three universities in Italy to conduct seven studies looking at whether the creativity, i.e., novelty and usefulness, of a mass-marketed product extended the time its owner kept it. Cesareo hypothesized that people keep creative products longer because they develop an emotional attachment to them. “In the marketing literature, emotional attachment has lots of positive outcomes: commitment, trust, brand loyalty, willingness to pay,” Cesareo says. In one in-person experiment, Cesareo had 245 Lehigh students bring in a T-shirt they had purchased themselves and were ready to dispose of. The students then reported on how creative they considered the T-shirt and how long they had owned it. “The higher the creativity of the T-shirt, the longer the students had owned it,” she says. In another in-person experiment, Cesareo’s research partners in Italy gave 110 university students reusable plastic cups. Some students received plain cups and others were given cups that had creative designs. Four weeks later they were surveyed on whether they still had their cups. Among the students who kept theirs, the majority had received the creative cups. Based on the findings, Cesareo says managers should invest in creativity, design more novel offerings and emphasize creativity in messaging and advertising to increase consumers’ emotional attachment to a product. “We think this work is important because a lot of the marketing research on sustainability has focused on the recycling dimension,” she says. “We look at the reuse dimension. Extending product usage is incredibly valuable because it really reduces the impact for carbon, water and waste footprints of companies.”—Margie Peterson Studying Creativity in Sustainability GENERATING ENERGY SOLUTIONS Chris Hemschot ’93 serves as vice president of development at Tenaska, a private company with operations spanning the energy value chain, where he continues to help shape the future of energy development. Hemschot became involved with Lehigh’s Center for Advancing Community Electrification Solutions (ACES) in October 2025, drawn to its mission of connecting academic research with real-world energy challenges. When ACES hosted a conference focused on data centers, he was eager to participate, offering insight earned by decades in the industry. For Hemschot, ACES represents the collaboration needed to move the energy sector forward, bringing together data, expertise and innovation to create solutions that are economically sound and community focused. Hemschot’s work, like his involvement with ACES, centers on creating practical, forward-thinking energy solutions that people and communities rely on.—Skye Cruz
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTA0OTQ5OA==