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Stanford Business magazine

 

Dean's Column

Multiple Ways to be Green at the GSB

By Robert L. Joss

Dean Robert JossThere’s been a lot in the media about the greening of corporate America. Just what does it mean to be green? At the Business School, we wrestle with this—both as a leader in management education and as a functioning, resource-consuming institution. How should our MBAs learn to incorporate environmental sustainability into management practices? How do we envision the sustainability of the physical facilities that serve our own needs?

We’ve developed significant momentum in educating our students in this area, in large part through a critical mass of resources fostered by our Center for Social Innovation. We now offer our MBA students three key courses on sustainability: Environmental Science for Managers and Policy Makers, Environmental Entrepreneurship, and a Business and Environmental Issues seminar. These classes form a base for a new joint MBA–MS in environment and resources offered for the first time this fall. The program is a joint effort with the  School of Earth Sciences.

There are other opportunities for our students to integrate resource use into their analysis and thinking. In Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability, students from the Engineering and Business schools work to solve problems faced by the developing world without introducing environmental harm. One result is d.light design, a student-created company that manufactures a safe, cheap, and easy-to-power LED light to replace polluting kerosene lamps. This is the second student-founded company to develop a product of this nature.

As we encourage more multidisciplinary thinking, business students are able to enroll elsewhere on campus for classes such as The Coming Energy Revolution, Global Environmental Ethics, International Environ- mental Law, and Economics of Natural Resources.

We bring executives to the School to inspire our students and demonstrate how business can be an active agent in helping to solve environmental challenges; for example venture capitalist John Doerr on entrepreneurial opportunities to address climate change. As the 2006 von Gugelberg Memorial Lecturer on the Environment, former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Carol Browner warned about global warming. Last fall, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard pledged that by 2010 his company will make all its clothing from recycled and recyclable materials.

The 2007 educational initiative of the MBA Public Management Program, titled “Greening the Bottom Line,” helped students focus on how sustainability can be a competitive advantage in business. In addition to sponsoring workshops and site visits, students helped our own Arbuckle Cafeteria implement a composting program, a model for other facilities on campus as we strive for zero waste.

Faculty have developed fresh case studies such as the greening of Wal-Mart and Starbucks’ bid to set up a sustainable supply chain. Another case features venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, MBA ’80, and investments in ethanol production that are part of his firm’s focus on green technology.

We know executives are hungry for this material as well. In September, we held our first executive education program in Business Strategies for Environmental Sustainability. The course brought together executives, public agency officials, and nonprofit leaders. Directed by Professor Bill Barnett, who is also a senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford, it took a multidisciplinary look at environmental issues from supply chain management to regulatory concerns. The next program will be held Sept. 14–20, 2008.

Last April more than 200 corporate and nonprofit leaders attended our first conference on “Socially and Environmentally Responsible Supply Chains: Making the Business Case,” codirected by the Stanford Global Supply Chain Management Forum and the Center for Social Innovation. It too will be offered again next April. Alumni will have an opportunity to join a special three-day back-to-school program Jan. 11–13, 2008, called “Reduce Your Ecological Footprint: Choose Environmentally Sustainable Business Practices.” To enroll, see page 14.

Next summer we plan to break ground on an exciting new Business School campus that will carry our programs forward for 75 years or more. Our goal is to build for sustainability. Plans are still on the drawing board, but we are aiming for the highest Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification. Some of our goals include reducing water usage, exceeding current energy efficiency standards, and recycling 50 to 75 percent of non-hazardous construction debris.

By pushing boundaries as educational innovators we are demonstrating the role universities can play in helping students, executives, and organizations solve real problems. Much work remains, but we’ve made a commitment to both teaching sustainability and living it.