For Steven Byrd (BSBA ’11) sustainability has taken him on an energy-focused tour of Cambridge, UK, and sparked an interest in urban planning and energy use. Steven’s interest in sustainable enterprise started in his sophomore year while taking an honors seminar on de-carbonizing society from Professor Greg Gangi. “That’s what got me really interested in urban planning and energy use in cities, and I’ve mostly gone from there. I don’t really have much interest in geology or environmental science, but Gangi’s class really sparked my interest in sustainability.” Since joining the BSBA Program, Steven has brought his passion for sustainability to bear on business problems. “We learned a lot about the differences between conducting a regular business sustainably versus running Read More
Monthly Archives: November 2010
In conversation with Dr. Al Hammond of Ashoka
On October 13th 2010 two students from UNC Kenan-Flagler’s full-time MBA program, Ashok Jayaram and Mario Prohasky, had the unique opportunity to meet Dr. Al Hammond, one of the leading global practitioners and scholars of social entrepreneurship. He provided tremendous insights into some of his current work within Ashoka, his current venture – Healthpoint Services Global, Inc, and also shared his vision for the development of the social enterprise field in general along with some of the challenges that social entrepreneurs will continue to face in the future. Social Enterprises – Challenges and Getting to scale Looking at the current state of social enterprises across the world, Dr. Hammond identified a number of key challenges that will need to be Read More
Kenan-Flagler Selected for Renewable Energy Case Competition
The Ross School at the University of Michigan has selected UNC Kenan-Flagler to be one of sixteen universities to compete in the second annual Renewable Energy Case Competition. Five students will be selected to compete on the team. Last year’s case was focused on energy storage. The competition organizers recently announced that this year’s case topic is around developing a strategy to implement renewable energy generation in light of RPS requirements and coal plant retirement in the near term. This is a relevant issue that faces the energy industry today and we look forward to seeing what each school creates for the competition.
UNC MBAs make their way to Net Impact Conference in Ann Arbor
On the weekend of Oct. 28th – 30th, about 20 MBAs and CSE Managing Director Jessica Thomas made our way to a pretty amazing Net Impact conference in Ann Arbor, MI (http://2010.netimpact.org/). Looking back now, the tremendous energy of the 2500+ attendees really made the event, and a couple sessions stick out for me, specifically: Hearing Majora Carter Majora Carter, the founder of Sustainable South Bronx, was the final keynote speaker on the afternoon of Oct. 30th, and was one of the best live speakers I have ever seen. The combination of determination and tangible advice that she brought to her talk was really unique. She told the amazing story of the creation of the Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training (BEST) Read More
Remanufacturing to Increase Profits and Reduce Waste
from the Fall 2010 Issue of CSE’s Sustainable Enterprise Quarterly by Dr. Carol A. Seagle, Director of Research at the Center for Sustainable Enterprise and Adjunct Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship Reduce – Reuse – Recycle. These “three Rs” represent approaches to reducing environmental impact. Recycling reprocesses waste materials into the production process. Remanufacturing facilitates reuse by disassembling a product, repairing and/or upgrading parts, and bringing the item back to “as good as new” while retaining a significant fraction of the value added during manufacturing. Cross-industry surveys show typical energy savings of 85 percent compared to the manufacture of new products.1 Xerox was early to implement a remanufacturing strategy in the 1980s with its asset recovery program that resulted in Read More
Experiential Learning: Putting the Ability in Sustainability
How do I scale my social enterprise in Ghana without having to rely on grant funding and donations? How might pending CO2 legislation impact the operations and purchasing decisions for my manufacturing company in the short- and long-term?
These are just two examples of sustainability questions that UNC Kenan-Flagler students address through a range of experiential learning programs. Sustainable Enterprise touches many functional areas of business as well as a variety of advanced disciplines in the applied and social sciences. UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Center for Sustainable Enterprise (CSE) has one of the largest and longest tenured Sustainable Enterprise programs in the country as well as access to the UNC network of advanced programs in environmental science, public policy, social work, entrepreneurship, engineering, and law.