Sustainable Business Blog

A few months ago a report detailing transportation sustainability in the Atlanta metro area was published by the Partnership for Southern Equity. Called Opportunity Deferred: Race, Transportation, and the Future of Metropolitan Atlanta, it got me thinking about what I learned first-hand when I took part in Zipcar’s Low Car Diet Challenge in 2011.

My research has evolved into supply chain social and environmental responsibility. An overarching question that guides my work is: How can the buyer firms be sure their suppliers engage in socially and environmentally responsible practices?

Over the past year, the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business (ACSB) collaborated with the Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS) to engage more educators in our overlapping missions: to weave environmental and social sustainability deep into the fabric of the Georgia Tech experience.

A new initiative taking place at Georgia Tech, the Carbon Reduction Challenge challenges students to formulate a plan with their employer to reduce carbon and create cost savings.

All of this to say, carbon is not some enemy. It is a misplaced resource. And the opportunity for the business community to value drawdown as an investment, rather than view carbon reduction as a cost, is upon us.

Presenter Stephen O'Day offered insights from his extensive background in solar advocacy on the current state of solar energy and government policy.

On Monday April 10th, Georgia Tech’s Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business (Scheller College of Business) and the GT Energy Club welcomed Luke Wilkinson, Director of Business Development at Silicon Ranch, a solar energy developer with a growing presence in Georgia and around the country.

In “Climate Policy from Paris to Peachtree and Beyond” by Dan Rochberg, Chief Strategy Officer of the Climate@Emory initiative at Emory University, Daniel Rochberg, laid out the evolution of international climate negotiations over the past thirty years. It was a reminder of how far we’ve come. It was also a sobering reminder of how far we have to go.

Marilyn Brown, a professor in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech, 2007 co-recipient of the Nobel Prize, and co-founder of the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance, made a strong case for the value of efficiency projects during her presentation “Selling Energy Efficiency in a Climate-Conscious World”. Her discussion highlighted the importance of educating consumers, businesses, and politicians about practical policy solutions that drive increased adoption of energy efficiency projects.

Coming to Tech as a PhD student, I wanted to continue to explore these types of issues. Corporate social responsibility/sustainability was just a natural fit.

In the last two lectures in my Business Strategies for Sustainability MBA class, we played the Fishbanks simulation, originally developed by Professor Dennis Meadows, co-author of Limits to Growth (Chelsea Green, 1972). My students take the role of competing fishing companies seeking to maximize their net worth.

A primary reason I came to the Scheller College of Businesses was to widen my knowledge of the interaction between business and society. The Carbon-Conscious Business Speaker Series is one of many reasons that I am able to gain a deeper understanding of the business case for sustainability initiatives.

It was exhilarating to finish out my first semester at Scheller co-teaching (with Jay Cranman) our MBA Sustainable Business Practicum!

On November 14th, Michael Oxman and Chris Anderson presented to a group of about forty people interested in sustainability, including my Sustainable Systems class. They began this presentation by explaining that the number one cause of delays in extractives projects are stakeholder and community related issues.

Last week, Georgia Tech design, engineering and business students came together to participate in the Next Generation Mobility Challenge run by Toyota and the Toyota Mobility Foundation in partnership with Net Impact. Students were divided into inter-disciplinary teams to formulate a solution that would facilitate more sustainable transportation for elderly, disabled and low-income individuals facing unique transportation challenges.

Since joining the Center late this summer, I have been focused on getting to know my amazing colleagues at the Center, within Scheller College, and supporters among the broader Georgia Tech community. I am excited to begin executing on the robust strategic plan that is in place and to drive new initiatives that will advance sustainability innovation and promote integration of the topic within both business education and practice.

Today is the first day of the academic year. The campus is humming with the energy of new students and the optimism inherent in every new beginning! It’s a great time to take stock of where we are today and look to the future.