May 14th, 2012 by golivos under Social Enterprise Symposium. No Comments.
by Shantanu Chandra MBA ’13
Note: Each of the participants in the Spring 2012 SVC Smith Experience was asked to blog about a session that piqued their interest at this year’s Social Enterprise Symposium.
Pradeep Suthram, MBA '12, leads a session at the College Park Impact Workshop
This Thursday “The Stamp Student Union” at the University of Maryland glistened with social value, nobility and impact. Thanks to the social enterprise symposium organized by the Center of Social Value Creation- the monetarily driven sharp business minds of the Robert H Smith School of Business could take a deep breath and get a feel of contribution and impact to the society. In the contemporary business era the need of social value alongside making profits has acquired paramount importance and hence it is inevitable for business schools to not provide exposure in this area to its students. The social enterprise symposium was a key move in this direction. The event was kicked off by a Key Note address from Mr Stan Litow of IBM and ended with a wonderful Networking reception alongside a number of dignitaries from various panel discussions and workshops. (more…)
Tags:College Park Impact, Measuring and Reporting Sustainability, Shantanu Chandra, social enterprise symposium.
May 11th, 2012 by golivos under Career. No Comments.
By Tristan Tausendschoen, MBA ’13
It hit me yesterday—I am leaving for Thailand in just over one week. I have a summer internship working for the Population and Community Development Association in Pattaya Thailand, promoting condom use across the country, working with agricultural entrepreneurs, teaching in a school, and doing anything that my employer asks of me. To be honest, I am not 100% what I will be doing at all.
Between now and my departure, I have to take three finals, write three papers, work 3 ten hour work days in Northern Virginia, pack for my trip, move out of my place in College Park, organize my team for a cocktail competition … and …. just do an overwhelming amount of work before going into an uncertain situation.
In the coming fourteen weeks, I hope to chronicle my feelings, experiences, and lessons learned in a blog that is honest, humorous, and informative. The goal of my blog is to tell my story, which is but one Smith story. My situation is in no way unique. The vast majority of my MBA peers at Smith are finishing their first MBA year only to need to relocate to a new city and need to fit in a new environment with new expectations.
Right now my story is a story of being overwhelmed by work and other responsibilities. To me, an MBA is about balancing educational, professional, social, and personal needs in a struggle against the clock. It just happens that all of four responsibilities are hitting me at the same time in my finals week.
Educationally, I am finishing up my classes at University of Maryland, a school whose faculty is rated as the second best faculty in the country. The exams, papers, and presentations that I have left are challenging, and will take time.
Professionally, I am winding down a spring internship as a Contracting Officer with the General Services Administration in Fairfax Virginia. I made a weekly three day commitment to the Administration for the opportunity to gain a full time position upon my graduation and for the opportunity to learn a new skill. Tomorrow, I need to approach my boss about the work I will be doing when I telecommute one day a week while I am in Thailand.
Socially, I am trying to say goodbye to my first year friends, my friends outside of school, and see my family one last time. Two of my friends who are fellow first years and I are competing in Smith’s cocktail competition that takes place this Thursday and we need to get together and plan our presentation. I need to celebrate my mother and sister’s birthdays, say goodbye to my girlfriend, and enjoy Mother’s Day.
Personally, I have to finish everything else—moving, exercising, and doing the activities that I enjoy before I leave. The personal component of business school is in some ways the most difficult because the other three components grab so much attention. It takes a lot of courage to say that you can’t attend a group meeting because you need to get in a run, but if running is what you enjoy, running is what you should do to remain sane.
My subsequent blogs will be more in-depth, but for now, I would like to finish by thanking everyone at the Smith School. Specifically, I am thankful to Karen Watts, Associate Director of Center for International Business Education and Research. Karen Watts leveraged a personal relationship to find me an internship in Thailand, tirelessly advocated on my behalf, covered about half of my expenses, and reassured me when I lost confidence about a summer abroad. Additionally, Jeffrey Stolzfus from the Office of Career Services helped me locate a fellowship that covered the other half of my costs and worked me through the process. I hope that I live up to Karen and Jeff’s expectations and make the Smith School proud.
Tags:Population and Community Development Associaiton, Thailand, Tristain Tausendschoen.
May 8th, 2012 by golivos under Social Value. No Comments.
By Amadou M. Cissé, EMBA 12, Robert H. Smith School of Business
I am sure by now that most of you have heard about if not already seen the video that went viral on YouTube entitled Kony 2012, a documentary to put an end to the abhorrent activities to the International Criminal Court’s most wanted criminal, Joseph Kony. A Ugandan national, Kony is the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army and is infamously known to have abducted over 30,000 children as recruits to his army. What I found most tragic about the video was the fact that children soldiers have become the norm in conflict areas in Africa and sadly there seems to be a very lethargic reaction to this outrage.
I commend Invisible Children for having the courage to discuss a very difficult and even controversial subject using social media. To raise awareness of an unspoken situation, you have to engage people and initiate the discussion. Kony 2012 generated a lot of debates for and against the movement. Opponents of the video have stated that releasing the video has not helped the situation since Kony is still free, somewhere in central Africa, still abducting children and engaged in a senseless rebellion. The same opponents will add that this video is again exploiting the misfortune of Africans to profit Westerners. I totally disagree with these views for two reasons. First, I have not seen any of these opponents do something themselves to help stop Kony besides criticizing. Second, not talking about Kony means that we are not giving a voice to those who have no means to advocate for themselves.
In too many instances, the victims end up being more victimized because no one will stand for them. In the quest for justice, one should use all available means to show what a criminal has done and continues to do in defiance of common sense and peace. After all, let’s remember that the ethnic cleansing in Rwanda was not adverted because no one knew what was going in real time. We are so fortunate to live in the digital revolution where information is no longer in the hands of a few, rather accessible to the mass. Invisible Children through the use of social media was able to transform their message into a movement to bring one of the world’s most wanted criminal to justice. YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, just to name a few, were all instrumental for spreading news just as they did during the Arab Spring because the people were broadcasting what news they felt was the most relevant.
A few weeks ago, Mali, my country of origin, was victim of a military coup. As I was completely oblivious of the situation because so busy with work, I was alerted by my brother-in-law, an avid Twitter user. He knew in real time what was going even before most traditional media outlet such as CNN or The Washington Post had spread the news. The following weeks, I was glued to my Twitter account (@UniverSahel) and I was flooded with information about the progress in Mali. Two days ago, under international and regional pressure, the junta reinstituted the constitution and the President of the National Assembly assumed the interim. Democracy was saved thanks to social media and the thousands of “social reporters” who fed us with critical information. I now hope and pray that Kony and all other warlords will be also brought to justice thanks to social media.
Tags:Amadou Cisse, Invisible Children, Kony, social media.
April 26th, 2012 by golivos under Social Enterprise Symposium. No Comments.
by Daniel Howard, MBA ’13
Note: Each of the participants in the Spring 2012 SVC Smith Experience was asked to blog about a session that piqued their interest at this year’s Social Enterprise Symposium.
Stanley Litow addresses the audience
International Business Machines, or IBM, is one of those iconic brands that have helped shape the way we view our world. For business students, many are aware of their recent shift away from the personal computer market and into the technology services arena. For rest of the world, many more people are beginning to see IBM as an exemplar of corporate social responsibility. This last Thursday, at the Stamp Student Union, the Center for Social Value Creation hosted the 4th annual Social Enterprise Symposium and the first keynote speaker of the day was Stan Litow, Vice President of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs for IBM. As many eager faces filled the audience, I sat ready to hear all about the same old green initiatives and pro-bono projects that help only a few. I should have known better. In these economic times, it’s maybe a bit too easy to expect the bare minimum. After hearing what Mr. Litow had to say, and following up with a little more research, I can honestly report back that this company knows a thing or two about the reciprocal value of public service and development.
Among the projects that the three hundred thousand person firm works on, I’d like to point out a couple that hit home for me. First off, IBM runs a program called Corporate Service Corps. Coming from a former Peace Corps Volunteer, I admit that I winced when I first saw the name of this program up on the screen. Part of me believes that ventures like an international volunteer corps should only be done by committed community service warriors with a passion for development who are not tied in any way to a profit motive. I’ll say it again, I should have known better. They do some pretty amazing things. Since they started the Corporate Service Corps in 2008, over 1500 employees have volunteered in over 120 countries. IBM chooses some of its “best management prospects to spend four weeks in groups of 10 to 15 to help solve economic and social problems of their selected [community]. Teams work collaboratively with their government and community counterparts to understand how to implement socially responsible business practices with measurable results in a global context.” So, these IBM volunteers likely live out of hotels with air conditioning–and it’s only for a month, but they do get to provide consulting services within a diverse group for the benefit of foreign societies. You had to hand it to them. After hearing about this program my attention was piqued.
The other initiative that stood out to me was something called P-TECH (stands for pathways in technology early college high school). IBM started what they like to call a “hollege” – a mix between a high school and a college. Together with the City University of New York, IBM created a school for roughly 400 diverse students to gain high demand technical skills through a high school diploma and an associates degree by attending from grades nine through fourteen (instead of ending in the twelfth grade). The best part, for the kids that graduate from this program, IBM said they would guarantee them a job with the company. Now, certainly one can see the self-serving aspects of a program like this. Through more collaborative learning environments and applicable technical training, IBM is essentially building a workforce to fulfill its labor requirements for the future. But the end result is still a great education for students to gain real middle-class mobility. Again, a remarkable program that I actually did remark on later that day. Almost no one has heard of this program but I get the feeling they’re on to something here.
So at this point, I’m sold on IBM’s efforts. Mr. Litow went on to talk about urban renewal programs and disaster relief and I began to see the company through this executive’s eyes. One of the things a Peace Corps volunteer learns is that they will absolutely take away more from their service than they could ever give. A kind of bridge is built across cultures and projects get done for the good of the community, but in the end, it’s the experience that’s most important. For IBM’s investment in a school or a city disrupted by economic conditions, they don’t just get the satisfaction of doing “good.” They gain from it in ways that can’t be quantified. Mr. Litow spoke of the Corporate Service Corps as the “best leadership program [these IBM employees] have ever been a part of.” In these cases of corporate social responsibility that IBM engages in, they keenly know that there are realizable social goods and intrinsic values to such social service commitments. The Corporate Service Corps volunteers gain leadership skills and personal perspective that will last a lifetime; the students trained at P-TECH today could eventually become the CEOs of the future and offer the kind of innovative direction that only comes from diversity; and, in the end, if IBM gains positive brand recognition, well, they’ll do so by being authentic. Now that’s refreshing.
Daniel Howard is a first year MBA at the Robert H. Smith School of Business and a current consultant with the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development of the City of Baltimore.
April 3rd, 2012 by golivos under Social Value. No Comments.
By Amadou M. Cissé, EMBA 12, Robert H. Smith School of Business
Courtesy of The Guardian
Mt. Everest or Sagarmatha is “so high that no bird can fly [above it]” as the saying goes in Nepal. It takes a great amount of training and finances to make it to the peak of the highest mountain in the world. Why a parable about Sagarmatha, you may ask? Well, we just completed the first half of our ethics course in which Professor Lele discussed the famous case of the parable of the sadhu which raised a lot of good ethical questions. In the case, the author spent several months hiking through Nepal where he encountered an Indian holy man, or sadhu. The sadhu was left in poor health conditions to fend for himself while the group continued their way up the slope. What happened to the sadhu? Nobody knows but what has happened to Sagarmatha is very clear or I should say very dirty.
Sagarmatha is prized for its beauty and I bet the view from there on a clear day must be incredible. I remember reading an article a few years back about a Japanese mountaineer that realized, as he was completing this lifetime adventure, how much the mountain was littered. In his fifth trip since he began his clean-up campaign in 2000, Ken Noguchi, brought down 1,100 lbs (500 kg) of garbage from Sagarmatha.
During these five trips as part his campaign to clean up the world’s highest mountain, Noguchi has collected an estimated 18,900 lbs (9,000 kg) of rubbish from both sides of the mountain – the northern side in China and southern side in Nepal.
The sad part of the story is that in 2007 it was roughly estimated that there were 110,000 lbs (50 tons) of garbage on Sagarmatha!! Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary first conquered the mountain in 1953 and ever since every climbing expedition has left trails of litter. The good news is that since 2000, there have been several initiatives attempting to restore the mountain while educating locals as well as tourists.
Clean Himalaya, which was initiated in 2000, has for passionate mission to respond to the desecration of the beauty and holiness of this region. It is a devotional response by Westerners and Indians alike who have been deeply touched by the sanctity of the Ganges River and Himalayas.
Saving Mount Everest was a project initiated in 2010 and has for objective to conserve and manage the rich biological diversity of Nepal’s Sagarmatha/Everest National Park. The emphasis is on solid waste management and on supporting and strengthening local communities as the caretakers of biodiversity conservation.
Nepal and India are countries in which rural communities lack the financial resources to tackle such a huge problem by themselves. However, by engaging and encouraging participation from those communities, the litter issues could be resolved using an integrated natural resources management approach. In the words of Noguchi “An alpinist goes into dangerous conditions. But the most important thing is to never give up. It’s the same with environmental problems. You can’t do it all by yourself, but if you get a group of people together, anything is possible”.
Such great initiatives are reminders that as we all strive to achieve what very few have accomplished, such as climbing Sagarmatha, we should be mindful of the impacts of our actions. We all have the moral responsibility for creating value not only in our lives but also in the lives of others. So let’s be ethical leaders and inspire others to do great things together.
Tags:ethics, Himalayas, trash.
March 18th, 2012 by golivos under Social Enterprise Symposium. No Comments.
Note: Each of the participants in the Spring 2012 SVC Smith Experience was asked to blog about a session that piqued their interest at this year’s Social Enterprise Symposium. We will be highlighting eight of those articles over the next four months. To kick us off, Megan Burkhart (MBA ’13) talks about Sustainable Chocolate Sourcing and other panels relevant to her background as a Peace Corps Alum.
Inefficient ports, tricky trade regulations, rats, bugs, Sub-Saharan heat, corruption, natural disasters, variable quality of raw materials, unreliable electricity, inappropriate child labor…these are among the many logistical challenges that come to mind when one thinks about producing and exporting finished products from Africa. Yet Madecasse Chocolate has figured out how to overcome these obstacles with such competence that they were named one of Fast Company’s “50 Most Innovative Companies” of 2011.
Tim McCollum, co-founder of Madecasse Chocolate, brought the story of his company to the 2012 Social Enterprise Symposium in a session titled Sustainable Chocolate Sourcing. His discussion focused on the bean-to-bar process, which starts with yellow football-sized cocoa pods carried in baskets on women’s heads to a small processing shop, and ends with beautifully hand-wrapped chocolate products with distinct cherry notes and a subtle sweetness. The chocolate is shipped to the United States and sold in upscale retail outlets such as Whole Foods and Wegmen’s, as well as online.
Widely acknowledged by connoisseurs as a superior chocolate source, Madagascar had only been exporting raw cocoa, to be produced by external sources, before McCollum and his partner started the company after serving as Peace Corps Volunteers in Madagascar. According to the company website, “70% of the world’s cocoa comes from Africa. Less than 1% of chocolate is made there.” At first glance, that is a startling statistic, highlighting yet another valuable natural resource that is regularly exported from the African continent to generate profit elsewhere. However, recalling the challenges facing exporters in the region, it becomes obvious that the African continent is stuck in generations-old catch-22: economic stability can not happen without better infrastructure, and infrastructure developments can not be supported without better economic stability.
Madecasse’s operating principle is primarily, “why not?” Why not import an industrial cocoa roaster to a remote island off the coast of East Africa? Why not partner with local paper companies to make sustainable packaging for finished products? Why not figure out a way to help cocoa farmers in Madagascar generate four times more income than fair trade cocoa alone? McCollum laughed and shrugged as he described the company’s growth, explaining that he and his partner just loved the country, and were willing to face the challenges and rolling eyes of potential investors to prove that single-source, bean-to-bar chocolate production was possible in Madagascar.
As a former Peace Corps Volunteer myself, I immediately related to the inspiration and love for the country one feels during (and after) service. It seemed that every season brought new raw materials and opportunities for revenue-generating activities – bees, mangoes, dairy cows, tea, peanuts…yet the logistical hurdles standing between the idea and implementation seemed insurmountable. Eventually, most of us concede to the idea that “this is Africa” – for too long the continent has been the victim of its own value proposition (a plethora of raw materials), and one mzungu in central Tanzania isn’t going to change anything.
At many points during the discussion, McCollum emphasized that Madecasse was founded on inspiration and love for Madagascar, and faith that the essential elements of a successful enterprise were present on the island. The company’s success represents the real potential for economic development in Africa through the use of natural resources, human talent, and a lot of patience. The chocolate is delicious, the revenue model goes “beyond fair trade,” and I left the session with a renewed passion for leveraging business principles to thwart developmental catch-22s and create sustainable change in the world.
Lessons Learned
From the Sustainable Chocolate Sourcing session, I learned that seemingly insurmountable obstacles to enterprise development can be overcome with local knowledge and a dedication to the cause. This is particularly relevant within the scope of the WRI-New Ventures project, as our team works to find an appropriate technology and business plan to bring water treatment technologies to India.
Another session I attended that caught my attention was Social Entrepreneurship and Global Health. Since working in Tanzania with USAID, I’ve been intrigued by the marketing techniques and business models employed by Population Services International (PSI). PSI does a remarkable job of merging business training with health services outreach, and I left the session inspired to head towards that objective with my next career move.
Finally, during the process of planning the Launching a Social Enterprise session, I realized that the steps we outlined to launch an enterprise can also be useful to implement at a time of organizational change. Amani ya Juu, the revenue-generating nonprofit that I work with in DC, is currently restructuring its US-based landscape, and we recently met as a team to discuss the implications of this change – I found that the framework employed in the session was very useful in working through the new SWOT analysis and identifying action items involved in this expansion.
Megan Burkhart is a 2013 MBA Candidate at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland-College Park.
February 2nd, 2012 by golivos under Social Value. No Comments.
By Amadou M. Cissé, EMBA 12, Robert H. Smith School of Business
A few days ago, on my way home I was listening to NPR and I heard about yet another chemical spill in a river somewhere in China. After researching the internet this morning, I ran across an article from Bloomberg News informing me that seven people had been detained in connection with the toxic metal (cadmium) spill in a tributary of the Pearl River in the Guangxi province. The spill threatens the livelihood of 1.5 million people in the city of Liujiang. As China continues to enjoy its economic prosperity – being the second largest economy in the world – how can it also become a leader in environmental stewardship?
Courtesy of Associated Press.
China has an estimated population of 1.3 billion people according to the latest report from the CIA. A spill impacting 1.5 million people or 0.1% of the Chinese population would have been impacting almost the entire population of the state of Idaho! Such a spill would be considered a major crisis in the US, especially when one understands the dangers associated with cadmium like kidney failure and cancer. Cadmium is an extremely toxic metal commonly found in industrial workplaces, particularly where any ore is being processed or smelted.
Further research on my part revealed that the Guangxi province is one of China’s key production centers for nonferrous metals. The province has become heavily industrialized and has benefited from a prosperous economy with a reported GDP of 588.6 billion Yuan ($93.3 billion) in 2007. The Guangxi province possesses an extremely rich fauna and flora located in an ideal setting from an environmental perspective.
One could argue that the province’s businesses have a responsibility to be sensitive to the abundant water and natural resources. That argument could be reinforced by saying that all natural resources are finite and without careful exploitation, there will not be anything left for the next generation – in a nutshell the definition of sustainability. Others could argue that Chinese businesses are competing in a global economy and should only be concerned about generating profits for their shareholders. After all, in the words of Milton Friedman “What does it mean to say that “business” has responsibilities? Only people can have responsibilities”. Milton further argued that the Government has the responsibility to impose taxes and determine expenditures for such “social” purposes as controlling pollution.
The latest cadmium spill in China is one of many chemical spills that threatened Chinese cities’ drinking water in the past decade according to Bloomberg News. As someone with an environmental background, I know how water resources are extremely valuable to any country not only because they supply drinking water but also for their many other benefits such as recreational activities. For the longest, in several industrial countries including China, it was not infrequent to see businesses spilling their “guts” into nearby streams as a mean to get rid of waste generated by their activities.
To become an environmental steward, the Chinese government must implement provisions aimed at optimizing its economic prosperity as a catalyst for environmental protection. It is the Government responsibility to care for its constituents and invest in environmental protection. It is good that industries create jobs and have positive impacts to the economy but it is not right if the environment suffers and takes a backseat. I think it’s time for China to reconsider the long-term impacts of its short-term economic prosperity on not only the environment but everything it contains and most importantly people. After all it’s called the People’s Republic of China!
Amadou Cisse (EMBA ’12) is a CSVC Blogger and member of Smith’s Executive MBA Program.
Tags:cadmium, China, economic prosperity, environmental stewardship.
November 28th, 2011 by golivos under Social Value. No Comments.
Courtesy of www.responsible-investor.com
by Shantanu Chandra, MBA ’13
Robert H. Smith School of Business
The past few years have been nothing short of tumultuous in the Global Financial Investment Industry. For myself, I feel that the recession has created a global perception that investment banking is lacking in nobility or goodness. With the “Occupy Wall Street “protests heating up, there certainly are some uncomfortable questions being raised on the feasibility and motives of the entire investment banking business model. The Wall Street Journal headlines compelled me to think of a solution to fix this problem of perception. During my research, I came across a firm – Calvert Investments.
Calvert is one of the largest investment funds dedicated to sustainable development in the United States. Since 1976, the company has focused on funding projects with return as well as with social value. Socially Responsible Investing recognizes the importance of corporate responsibility and societal concerns while making investment decisions.
The SRI ideology consists of maintaining the financial objectives of the investor while having a positive impact on society. The former is critical for the sustainability of SRIs and differentiates a socially responsible investment from charity.
Where did all of this responsible investing rhetoric come from? One can find snippets of the tenets underlying SRI in as disparate places as the Methodist church to the market response to apartheid in South Africa. John Wesley, for example, preached responsible investing and “not to harm your neighbor through your business practices and avoid industries like tanning and chemical production which can harm the health of the workers.” Historically, you can find other examples in the 20th century such as the Vietnam-era boycott of Dow Chemical products as they produced napalm for the war as well as mass investor pullout in 1980s South Africa.
Courtesy of HistoryWiz.com
With time the methodologies changed and in the contemporary era socially responsible investing focuses on promoting environmentally sustainable development and social development activities, including those undertaken in the emerging economies. More recently SRIs have also been working to protect the rights of indigenous people (check out this deck from Boston Common Asset Management, LLC outlining the interaction between their investment strategy and native workers in Peru and Ecuador.)
Going through more of the information available, it seems that SRI’s adopt four general strategies in capital markets:
- Screening: The practice of evaluating investments based on the social, environmental and corporate governance criterion. This encompasses both negative and positive screening. Generally investors seek to invest in companies that are doing social good and earning good returns as well. Conversely, those industries which harm the environment, society or individuals are excluded from consideration.
- Divesting: The practice of removing companies from the investment portfolio which indulge in activities that could harm the environment or society.
- Shareholder Activism: Social investors should work cooperatively to force the management to adopt a path to successful financial performance that simultaneously improves the well-being of stockholders, customers, vendors, employees and communities.
- Best in Class Selection: Investors should include companies with the best relative practices while maintaining a diversified portfolio (may be difficult under certain levels of negative screening)
It seems elusive though that the investors can achieve benefits out of socially responsible investing but data provided by United States Social Investing Forum (USSIF) proves otherwise. Some key facts are as follows:
- In 2010 SRIs included $3.07 trillion out of $25.2 trillion in US marketplace investment
- In 2010 there were 250 socially screened funds with assets of $316.1 billion
- The assets growth rate of SRIs from 2007 to 2010 has been 13%
- One out of every eight dollars under professional management in the United States today (12.2% of the $25.2 trillion in total assets under management tracked by Thomson Reuters Nelson) is involved in socially responsible investing
- Community investing is the fastest growing area of SRI. Over the past three years it has grown from $25 billion to $41.7 billion in assets.
It is my hope that dissemination of information about SRI’s might change public perception of the investment banking industry. The era of impact investing has arrived, and the i-banking sector have and will continue to be major actors. With all of the attention that the Occupy movement places on Wall Street greed and corruption, it is comforting to think of a positive path forward for this critical and influential industry.
Shantanu Chandra is a CSVC blogger and a first-year MBA candidate at the Robert H. Smith School of Business of the University of Maryland at College Park.
Tags:Calvert, CSVC, impact investing.
October 25th, 2011 by golivos under Social Value. 1 Comment.
by Eric Flamer (MBA ’13)
The US Green Building Council reports that as of March 3, 2011, 91 hotel properties have achieved LEED certification, with an additional 1100 projects registering with LEED and working towards certification. From my employment experience in the Washington, DC convention hotel market, the truth is that most of the buildings dedicated to hospitality were constructed in the era preceding the green revolution, and are sorely lacking in any type of green efficiency. What are some ways the industry can align guest satisfaction, bottom-line reduction, and green values successfully?
Recently I came across a LEED gold-certified property during some volunteer work in East Baltimore, MD: Marriot’s Fairfield Inn and Suites takes pride in being ‘Baltimore’s first green hotel’. After examining the Fairfield’s greening strategies, there are some points to consider in examining the overall trend towards a greener hospitality industry:
a. A zero-carbon footprint, achieved by purchasing wind-sourced, renewable energy credits – a more apparent greening effort, this fits with a smaller property’s reduced electricity usage compared to a larger property.
b. Fragrance-free, all-natural, biodegradable cleaning products and laundering – while there is no direct correlation between this initiative and guest satisfaction, many travelers are sensitive to industrial cleaners, and in some cases, may be allergic. Eco-friendly cleaning products, though, are more expensive.
c. Recycling bins in every guest room – a simple procedure that seems like a no-brainer for any hotel, regardless of size, since many of us already commit to recycle.
d. Alternative transportation for both guests and associates by having bike racks and supplying bicycles – a wonderful way to improve guest satisfaction by increasing accessibility through an in-house initiative. It goes well with the city’s commitment to bicycles.
e. Appliances and fixtures that reduce energy, waste and water usage, resulting in an operation that is 24% more energy-efficient than required by code – there’s no doubt this impacts the bottom line in a big way. In older properties, the commitment to replace old fixtures may dampen revenue in the short run by reducing available room inventory.
I had a chance to speak to Roberta Wittes, the General Manager of the Fairfield Inn. When I asked about the meaning of the LEED certification, she explained that the commitment to green values began with the vision set forth by the property’s ownership during the hotel’s construction. While it hasn’t necessarily translated into more revenue or a greater marketing presence, the starting objective to save materials from ending up in landfills and invite guests into a clean and eco-friendly experience has established a recognizable long-term vision. Take for example the Pur-Water Technology that operates in the hotel’s lobby.
“We’re encouraging guests to refill their water bottles to avoid purchasing bottled water,” Wittes explains. The property’s staff may lose out on gift shop revenues, but comes away knowing that Fairfield is making a difference in its daily operations.
Eric Flamer is a first year MBA at the Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Tags:Baltimore, Green buildings, LEED, Social Value Creation.
October 10th, 2011 by golivos under Social Value. 1 Comment.
By Stephen Huie (MBA ’12)
In recent years, organizations have developed increasingly creative and large scale supply chain initiatives to deal with increasing energy costs, a recessionary environment, and consumer demand for sustainable processes.
To capitalize on this evolution in practice, academic institutions must also make a conscious effort to train the next generation of supply chain managers to build upon these best practices and identify further opportunities to improve.
Progress
Large organizations have not only become increasingly conscious of the benefits of greening their supply chains, they have begun to actually implement solutions to minimize their environmental footprint and enhance their bottom line.
For example, Unilever recently opened its aerosol manufacturing plant in Jiutepec, Morelos with smart manufacturing equipment that runs on energy-efficient variable speed engines and automatically shuts down when idle. At the string cheese manufacturing plant in Campbell, New York, Kraft Foods converts whey byproduct from the manufacturing process into a biogas to power the plant and improve the cleanliness of wastewater discharge into the area. The General Services Administration has targeted a 28% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 through fleet transformation, LEED design, and contractor incentives.
Greenstorming the Supply Chain
Students training to become managers or supply chain specialists have a lot to learn from such current practice and how organizations grapple with integrating a green supply chain. At the Robert H. Smith School of Business, MBA and MS Supply Chain students recently participated in a case workshop guided by supply chain practitioners from Constellation Energy, Deloitte’s Federal Consulting Practice, LMI, and the Red Cross. Teams of students and their practitioner advisers dealt with the dilemma of how to reduce the emissions and cost of shipping excess apparel inventory to secondary retail markets around the globe. The teams identified factors driving excess supply and mis-forecasted demand and devised actions and mechanisms for intervention. After presenting their ideas and discussing as a large group, advisers spoke about situations in their own career experience that shed additional light on the issue.
Such learning derived from industry experience and other opportunities to participate in structured engagements for real clients will disseminate best practice and allow future practitioners to avoid reinventing the wheel.
Some programs, such as the Presidio MBA in Sustainable Management, even specialize in sustainable management practice and regularly train on cases involving waste management and water conservation. At the Smith School, students involve themselves in such consulting engagements involving supply chain, marketing, and finance through the school’s Center for Social Value Creation.
This week at the Smith School, Mars, the food and health science maker of M&Ms, will be visiting for an informal “Cases & Beer” session to discuss their sustainable sourcing efforts. Last year, Dennis Wrasse, the former Chairman and CEO of Pepco, came for Cases & Beer to talk about the future of alternative energy.
Cases & Beer is a series of ongoing discussion sessions organized by Smith’s Net Impact chapter to bring high-profile guest speakers and faculty to lead discussions on current business issues.
Stephen Huie is a 2nd Year MBA at the Robert H. Smith School of Business. You can also read his blog about MBA education.
Tags:Center For Social Value Creation, Green, Green Supply Chain, Mars, sustainability.
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