The following is a guest post from Antonio Baca (MBA ’11). As part of the MBA class “Strategies in Sustainable Enterprise,” we were fortunate to have Louis Ferretti and Patrick Gibney from IBM speak to us about IBM’s approach to sustainability. The following includes my reflections on what I learned from their presentation as well as from the article “Unchaining Value: Innovative Approaches to Sustainable Supply” by Sustainability, UN Environment Program, and UN Global Compact. How and Why: IBM has a solid 40 year history of focusing on sustainability. By choosing to be a leader in the sustainability arena, IBM has affected governments, suppliers, customers, and other companies. Given the scope of a company with over 400,000 employees spread over Read More
Monthly Archives: January 2011
Fostering employee engagement to boost sustainabilty
This guest blog is by Thanamon Panyadilok, a UNC Kenan-Flagler exchange student. To sustain a business, the business must be able to make profit and managers should be most concerned with how to achieve a sustainable profit. While some in management focus exclusively on cost cutting to enhance profit, Anne Clair Broughton, who was a guest speaker in our Strategies in Sustainable Enterprise class, and the article Engaging Individuals: People Want to Help–Sustainability Fosters Engagement, Which Fosters Sustainability emphasized the importance of employee engagement as it affects the value of business. According to both sources, people are the key success factor of the business. They believe that engaged employees result in many positive outcomes for company, including higher profit, productivity Read More
Advancing the triple bottom line – and the brand
This guest post is by Jenny Wisdom (MBA ’11). On Jan. 11, Marc Pons, CEO and owner of Chapel Hill Tire and Car Care Center, spoke in the Strategies in Sustainable Enterprise class I’m taking. Hearing about the sustainability efforts and Green Plus certification process from a small business owner is an enlightening experience for anyone interested in corporate sustainability. However, hearing about it from such an unlikely source, the owner of a tire replacement and auto repair chain, is perhaps even more intriguing. In an industry almost completely foreign to environmental sustainability, the owner of Chapel Hill Tire used this blank slate to institute many innovative ideas, which subsequently have advanced his brand and standing within the community. Perhaps Read More