Sustainable Business Blog

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.