Greetings from Pankow in Berlin where I’m attending a faculty seminar entitled “Germany as model for sustainability?” hosted by the Transatlantic Climate Bridge, an initiative launched by the German Foreign Office and the German Environment Ministry. I’m here with support from CIBER and will be updating this blog as the seminar progresses. Tonight was the opening keynote by R. Andreas Kraemer of the Ecologic Institute, who was one of the panelists at the CSE-CIBER-OneMBA Global Innovations in Energy Conference in April. Kraemer gave an intriguing overview of the origins of Germany’s environmental policies which he attributes in large part to the energy crises of 1973-74 and 1979-83 and a consequent desire for energy security. Today over 15% of Germany’s power Read More
Monthly Archives: June 2010
Student profile: Lysandra Gibbs on making the business case for sustainability
For Lysandra Gibbs, the president of the UNC Kenan-Flagler MBA Net Impact Chapter, sustainability isn’t only a career interest or a subject she is studying at UNC Kenan-Flagler, it is a lifestyle. Just ask any of her classmates, family or friends about Lysandra’s personal commitment to sustainability, and they’ll probably start telling you about her worms. Yes, worms. Lysandra is a dedicated composter, and the happy owner of red wiggler worms, which were made famous during her first year at UNC Kenan-Flagler when they escaped from under her sink at home while she was at school one day. The obvious humor of the situation provided a platform for Lysandra to educate her friends about the benefits and potential hiccups, of Read More
China is Making a Great Leap Toward Sustainability
On May 28th and 29th, I attended the Being Globally Responsible Conference at CEIBS (China Europe International Business School) in Shanghai, China. I was joined by two fellow classmates, Hao Zheng and Andrew Fu. The conference, now five years in the running, taught me the following: China’s clean technology industry is moving at breakneck speed: China’s government has heavily subsidized renewable energy. Today, thousands of solar companies exist, and many are now global leaders. China’s clean technology industry is no longer simply copy and paste: Many Chinese firms are specializing in R&D. SunTech is a prime example. China moves at breakneck speed in just about everything it does. A new skyscraper is built in Shanghai every month. China has a Read More
A Sustainability Business Plan on Speed
A week before finals ended, two fellow students (Joel Thomas and Hao Zheng) and I had a great idea: let’s enter an international business plan focused on sustainable development! We had two small problems: 1) We didn’t have a business idea 2) The business plan was due in 3 weeks Well, this was the situation we found ourselves when entering the Shanghai Award – a joint effort led by Tsinghua University and HEC Paris. After a couple days of brainstorming we came upon a problem that we wanted to work on solving: relatively inefficient energy use within buildings – both commercial and residential – in U.S. cities. We decided to focus close to home, and write a business plan for Read More