Sustainable Business Blog

MBA student, Jacquie Smyth, reflects on her journey to becoming a sustainability ambassador.

MBA student, Stephen Spicher, reflects on his journey to joining AB67 and his year of service with them.

Undergraduate student, Almi Mansaray, looks back on the past year of her life and charts the course of her discovery of sustainability at Georgia Tech.

On November 18, Sustainability Consultant Jeff Foote gave a talk at the Scheller College of Business at which Sustainability Fellow Shrinka Roy was enlightened by statistics Foote gave about waste in America.

On November 11, Kevin Sullivan, former director of environmental remediation for the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), a large California utility company, gave a talk at the Scheller College of Business. Sullivan’s presentation focused on the Hinkley groundwater contamination disaster in the Southern California desert.

Atlanta is an “energy inequitable city,” meaning that benefits and burdens of energy consumption and production are not equitably distributed. In particular, low income households have a high energy burden. This means they pay a disproportionately high percentage (about 10%) of their income towards their utility bills. Of these households, many residents are people of color.

This year, [Net Impact] offered me the chance to attend the national Net Impact conference in Detroit. The annual conference brings together educational and professional chapters, leaders and innovators in the sustainability space, and social entrepreneurs for workshops and presentations on how we can move the planet forward in a more sustainable way.

The topic of climate change has been particularly charged recently. To name just a few newsworthy items of late: the UN’s Climate Change Summit took place on September 23, students around the world have been organizing climate strikes, and over 170 news outlets signed on to the Covering Climate Now project.

An inspiring book talk by John Lanier reminds our undergraduate blogger, Ella Stewart, that we have to use our best efforts to spread the message of sustainability. She writes, “It’s not just what we say but how we say it.”

We started this year with a lot of momentum! One month into the semester, we have celebrated the Third Annual Carbon Reduction Challenge, hosted the RCE Greater Atlanta book club talk on Mid-Course Correction: Revisited, picked our new cohort of MBA Fellows and Undergraduate Ambassadors, announced the Certificate in Sustainable Business (open to all Georgia Tech majors), and supported the launch of the University Global Compact (UGC), a collective impact initiative for universities committed to achieving sustainable development goals, hosted by Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera in New York.

Read how Dayna Grigsby turned a life passion for sustainability and environmental science into an experience with the 2019 Carbon Reduction Challenge with the intentions on impacting e-waste.

Sustainability is one of the big buzzwords of today. Major corporations are constructing internal employee groups to help identify how they can make more sustainable decisions ...

Watch this spunky spin on Mailchimp Director of Corporate Citizenship Lain Shakespeare’s talk about corporate citizenship strategy. Kate Berg, Student Communications Assistant of the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business at Scheller College of Business, interviews...

The best sustainability solutions bring cost savings and environmental benefits together. A company’s first responsibility is to keep the lights on. Forward-thinking companies are philanthropic and environmentally conscious, but they can’t be those things effectively without first being a profitable business...

Chris’ discussion of EY’s research and her personal perspective was inspiring for all of us young sustainably-minded students in the audience. To hear that a “Big Four” accounting and consulting firm is working with these issues first hand ...

I expected Meyers would speak about how recycling plays a critical part in the circular economy, and was therefore drawn to attend through my work as an Undergraduate Sustainability Ambassador. What I could never have predicted was how inspired I would be after his talk to help drive our community (and world) toward changing the way we live ...

NI18 was an inspiring convergence of diverse students and professionals who are committed to working hard to improve business’s impact on the environment and to create a world where people are prioritized over profits. As a first-year MBA student who intends to build a career in sustainability, the opportunity to meet pioneers in the field and representatives from companies of all sizes was inspiring to say the least.

Companies around the world are placing an increased importance upon improving their reverse supply chain and returns management. The talk with David Hogan provided more insight on this growing platform.

“Outside the Lines”–that was the framework through which Net Impact approached its annual conference (NI18), which was held this year from October 25th through 27th in Phoenix, Arizona. I don’t often give much weight to conference themes, but this year I found it meaningful in an untraditional way.

Like so many pre-digital-age Southern childhoods, mine was spent outside: playing cul-de-sac kickball, catching crickets, and tramping around the scraggly pine stand behind our house. When I returned home to Cobb County as a graduate student to conduct oral histories for my dissertation, I interviewed people—in their 30s through 70s—who were raised in Georgia. In those conversations, interviewees’ stories about coming of age in Cobb and its environs often included “playing by the creeks,” “riding bikes,” or “fishing in the Chattahoochee.”

As an employee in a consulting company that specializes in revenue cycle management (RCM) for hospitals and health systems, I am particularly interested in how blockchain can be leveraged in the medical field.

The electrical energy value chain can be broken down into four main components: generation, trading, transmission and distribution, and retail. Given the high fixed costs needed to produce and transmit power, the electricity industry was a natural fit for a monopoly industry model. The United States recognized how a single firm could produce a desired level of output at a lower cost than two or more firms, and by the early twentieth century, 33 states had regulated the sale of electricity in this manner.

It’s common to hear of businesses in finance and manufacturing leveraging transformative technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT). Impact of businesses in these sectors is generally simple to quantify, with new technologies often improving the efficiency of the process and the accuracy of the results. Results for business impacts in social and environmental sustainability, however, are often more intangible.

As an employee in a consulting company that specializes in revenue cycle management (RCM) for hospitals and health systems, I am particularly interested in how blockchain can be leveraged in the medical field.

For decades, academics have been performing studies, analyzing data, and conducting stakeholder interviews in regard to the successes and failures of green marketing campaigns. When I was presented with the opportunity to work with Dr. Omar Rodríguez-Vilá to assess the current state of research on the effects of sustainability investments on brand performance, I signed on for the ride since the topic deeply interested me

On April 10th, the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business at Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business hosted Bruce Karas for its Business, Environment, and Society Speaker Series. Karas, who is Vice President of Environment & Sustainability at Coca-Cola North America, spoke on the subject of “Coca-Cola’s Journey to a World Without Waste.”

Are sustainable companies more valuable? Research on the topic of sustainability and its impact on the performance of businesses has become increasingly prominent over the last several decades, especially as corporations seek to improve their financial health through sustainability-oriented measures.

I stood in the sunny atrium of the Atlanta Hilton Hotel, taking in the sights and sounds of women networking with representatives from companies and organizations sponsoring the 2018 Forté MBA Women’s Leadership Conference. The conference, hosted by the Forté Foundation from June 15-16, 2018, was advertised as an event where women could “explore career paths, meet recruiters and mentors, and hear from today’s most influential businesswomen.” When the Scheller College of Business (in which I am a second-year student in the Evening MBA Program) offered me a ticket to the conference, I jumped at the opportunity to attend.

The Georgia Institute of Technology has begun construction on one of the first “Living Buildings” in the Southeast that seeks to transform the local building and construction industry. Living Buildings (similar to other green building programs) achieve certification by accruing credits across a number of criteria. Living Buildings must produce more energy than they use, treat all water on-site, and be regenerative spaces that connect occupants to light, air, food, nature, and community. In this discussion, I summarize the motivations for organizations to build and certify green and why we might expect Georgia Tech’s demonstration project to begin market transformation in the building and construction industry.

The past five years have been characterized by enormous strides toward full equality for the LGBTQ+ community in marriage, employment, and social acceptance. However, this progress has been accompanied by questions about religious freedom, never more notably than in the case of Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The Court’s decision to rule in favor of the cake shop fails to resolve these questions and leaves them open for future litigation.

Michael Oxman, Managing Director of the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business authored a guest blog for the Ray C. Anderson Foundation Eccocentricity Blog about the Energy Burden Project the Center is sponsoring. You can read about it here.

As a Georgia Tech student, I quickly learned that an established routine was the fastest way to success. However, as Dr. Saravanan Kesavan pointed out in a talk on February 12th, the privilege of a routine should not be taken for granted.

On February 21st, Bhattacharya talked about his research interviewing employees about making their employers more sustainable as part of the Business, Environment, and Society Speaker Series

The onslaught of news about natural disasters has been inescapable of late. As we write this, we think of the inhabitants of Puerto Rico, many still without water or electricity weeks after devastation from Hurricane Maria in September.

On October 30th, David Rachelson, Vice President of Sustainability at Rubicon Global, spoke about how his company's "personal trainer model" to help customers reach zero waste.

First year MBA Student's Impressions attending the 2017 Net Impact Conference

Throughout my education and career, I have continuously strived to feed the pro-social bent of my heart and mind.

Throughout my sustainability journey at Georgia Tech, which has included taking the sustainable systems and communities course and the sustainable consulting practicum, and starting Georgia Tech Solar Home (Solar Decathlon), I have found Professor Connell’s advice to valid. Most recently, I participated in the Summer 2017 Co-op and Internship Carbon Reduction Challenge and have once again found his advice valid.

A number of recent experiences have deepened my appreciation for the environment and have made me more aware of the importance of being a steward for the environment.

The Home Depot enhances its sustainability and corporate responsibility efforts each year by helping customers, suppliers, and business partners minimize their negative environmental impact.

This summer, the inaugural Co-op and Internship Carbon Reduction Challenge gave interns–holding a variety of positions within major corporations—the chance to learn what it takes to be a sustainability ambassador at their place of employment no matter what their job title might be.

This summer, the inaugural Co-op and Internship Carbon Reduction Challenge gave interns–holding a variety of positions within major corporations—the chance to learn what it takes to be a sustainability ambassador at their place of employment no matter what their job title might be.

Rana Plaza, an eight-story building in Bangladesh that housed garment factories employing approximately 5000 workers, collapsed on April 24, 2013. The resulting fatalities (over 1100) and injuries (over 2400) made it one of the worst industrial accidents in history. The scale of this tragedy and subsequent widespread press coverage put a spotlight on the risks and costs of sourcing from low-cost countries.

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.