ORGANIZATIONAL GOVERNANCE -
Innovation often comes from those who have not yet become entrenched in the status quo — they are better-positioned to recognize effective solutions that might otherwise be overlooked or seen as too as too radical by the already-initiated.This is doubly true when it comes to innovating for the “circular economy,” which is quickly moving from the fringe to the forefront of sustainable business thought. It is the idea that today’s take-make-waste consumption patterns should be eschewed for a more restorative process, where products are designed and marketed with reuse in mind.
COLLABORATION & CO-CREATION -
This is the final question from a roundtable discussion with the directors of sustainability research centers at six top business schools.Through Georgia Tech’s new QEP (Quality Enhancement Program), we will develop very deep educational partnerships with a few key institutions, be those NGOs or local government or corporations.
COLLABORATION & CO-CREATION -
This is the fifth of six questions from a roundtable discussion with the directors of sustainability research centers at six top business schools.So there are a couple different ways that we support the research process as an Initiative.One is that we bring in funding and then disperse it to faculty for research on sustainability. We’ve done that with some corporate funding, as well as philanthropic individual donors or foundations. We put out those calls for proposals, and it helps us to identify who among the faculty is doing research and sustainability.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
In Fall of 2013, Dell launched what it called its Legacy of Good plan — a set of 21 ambitious sustainability goals covering everything from its packaging and production materials to reducing the energy intensity of its entire product portfolio by 80 percent.
COLLABORATION & CO-CREATION -
If the ideal business has sustainability embedded throughout, why not embed the same lens throughout an MBA program?That’s what faculty members had in mind for the Sustainable MBA program at Duquesne University’s Palumbo Donahue School of Business.
ORGANIZATIONAL GOVERNANCE -
A new cooperative venture at Arizona State University aims to make ASU a key academic hub for the emerging discipline of biomimicry.
Since Janine Benyus first observed and named the field in her 1997 book, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, designers, engineers, businesses and other innovators have increasingly turned to nature in search of inspired ideas.
COLLABORATION & CO-CREATION -
Within a few years, every undergrad at the Georgia Institute of Technology could understand what it means to create sustainable communities.That’s the goal of a new institute-wide initiative called Serve•Learn•Sustain.
COLLABORATION & CO-CREATION -
This is the fourth of six questions from a roundtable discussion with the directors of sustainability research centers at six top business schools.We have a big opportunity to influence curriculum within the entire university right now. And in the context of that we’ll have the same opportunity within the College of Business.In a nutshell, as part of reaffirming its accreditation every 10 years, Georgia Tech needs to put together a five-year Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) that touches undergraduate education across all colleges.
COLLABORATION & CO-CREATION -
Tom Catania’s role at Whirlpool Corporation wasn’t specifically to shape the company’s sustainability efforts. But in more than 25 years with the appliance manufacturer, the last 14 as Vice President for Government Affairs, Catania’s job called on him to help identify public policy conflicts and bring together diverse interests to find consensus.His role at the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise is much the same. “My focus had always been on trying to identify public policy issues and turning them into business opportunities, and I think we were pretty successful at doing that,” Catania said.
COLLABORATION & CO-CREATION -
A growing number of companies are turning to collaborations — with suppliers, NGOs, industry alliances, governments and even competitors — to become more sustainable, according to new research by MIT Sloan Management Review, The Boston Consulting Group and the UN Global Compact.The study, Joining Forces: Collaboration and Leadership for Sustainability, found that, as sustainability issues become increasingly complex, global in nature and pivotal to success, companies are realizing that they can’t make the necessary impact acting alone.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY -
Sprint today launched its Smartphone Encore Challenge — an attempt to inspire students to generate new ideas about how to revive old smartphones and their components. The competition — launched in partnership with Brightstar Corporations and HOBI International — calls upon students to come up with innovative ways to retrofit their old devices that could be scaled into a commercial business model. The Encore Challenge will be supported by Net Impact, the leading nonprofit that motivates younger generations to find sustainable ways to work within and beyond business.
ORGANIZATIONAL GOVERNANCE -
Business schools play a critical role in society.They support the continual evolution of our economies, the industries that shape them, the people that lead them, and the thinking behind it all.But it’s not just a role. It’s also a responsibility.In today’s hotter, scarcer, and more open world (to borrow from Andrew Winston’s The Big Pivot), that responsibility is greater than ever. More than at any other time in history, humanity is collectively aware of its impact on the planet. We know that our current actions, if left unchecked, will lead to unknown disruptions of life on earth.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
The Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) has partnered with Canvas.net to offer a free, open online course called, Biomimicry: A Sustainable Design Methodology. The course is an introduction to biomimicry, a sustainability framework that studies nature’s best design ideas to help us solve our own design challenges.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
A new initiative from Procter & Gamble’s Febreze air freshener and TerraCycle is challenging Canadians across the nation to recycle everything from used air fresheners to Swiffer packaging for $5,000 in prize money, to be donated to the school or charity of the winner’s choice. It's all part of Terracycle’s new Air and Home Care Brigade, the company's latest collection program that aims to divert from landfills all packaging waste associated with home cleaning, enabling consumers to recycle previously non-recyclable material for the first time.
PRESS RELEASE -
Nanodegrees, a new category of online degrees launched by AT&T and Udacity this fall, provide affordable and accessible training for jobs in the tech industry. As a company that relies on a highly skilled tech workforce, we believe that new educational pathways such as nanodegrees will help more people gain industry-relevant skills to fuel the 21st century workforce. This is also why, together with Udacity, we created the nanodegree scholarship program. Through AT&T Aspire, we are committed to helping students — regardless of age, gender, income or zip code — make their biggest dreams a reality.
PRESS RELEASE -
30 Organizations Across US Receive Contributions to Help Students Graduate High School College and Career Ready.
Thirty organizations that serve 28,000 high school students across the country will receive nearly $12.5 million from AT&T* to strengthen and expand their programs. These evidence-based program help students graduate from high school prepared for college and a career.
Recipient organizations were announced today at an event in the DC Promise Neighborhood, one of the awardees.
“These programs are the best of the best in the country,” said Charlene Lake, Chief Sustainability Officer, AT&T. “They have demonstrated a proven ability to prepare students for future success, and we’re delighted to help them scale.”
PRESS RELEASE -
By: Nicole Anderson
We are stepping up to the challenge to help increase the number of students and workers with science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills in our country. Our company is one of the largest employers in the country – in 2013 alone we hired about 25,000 employees. Almost ¾ of our recent student hires – including interns – begin their career in a technology centric area. We believe that advancing STEM education is a critical investment to preparing our future workforce.
ORGANIZATIONAL GOVERNANCE -
Current and future leaders believe the most significant leadership challenge facing business today is the integration of sustainability into core business operations, according to a new study by BSR, GlobeScan and Net Impact.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
The Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI) has announced that a comprehensive climate change adaptation and community development project, Living Breakwaters has been selected as the winner of the 2014 Fuller Challenge, what has been dubbed by the Institute as "socially responsible design’s highest award." The project was submitted by SCAPE / Landscape Architecture PLLC based in New York.
ORGANIZATIONAL GOVERNANCE -
On Sept. 30, supply chain education will take a major step into the digital age with the start of SCx, an online educational program developed by the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics (MIT CTL) for thousands of professionals across the globe.The SCx curriculum is part of the MITx initiative, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s selection of massive open online courses (MOOCs). SCx is one of the first “XSeries” offerings that award certificates for successful completion of an entire sequence of courses.MIT says more than 9,000 individuals have already signed up for the first course of the three-course program — CTL.SC1x Supply Chain and Logistics Fundamentals.