Meet Nancy Shaw, Social Responsibility Manager for Blue Shield of California. She currently serves on the Advisory Council of Business Council on Climate Change and was recently a speaker at the Women in Green Forum. She also recently served on the Executive Committee of 2009 Hazon Sustainable Food Conference.
Prior to transitioning to a career is corporate social responsibility, Nancy had a successful career in marketing and the non-profit sector. In the roll of Grants & Program Manager for the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, Nancy analyzed grant proposals that led to nearly $9 million in funding. As Nonprofit Director for Craigslist, she managed Strategic planning, board development and fundraising, as well as produced venture events connecting nonprofits with potential funders. Before going into the non-profit sector, she was a marketing strategy analyst for both HBO and RR Donnelley. She also directed Fortune 500 companies market research studies for Wetfeet. Read about how Nancy changed her career path to a green one with an MBA in sustainability.
As corporate social responsibility and social media collide, David Connor examines the outcome – and provides tips on getting the most from CSR via social media.
Meet Adam D Granz. Before getting into energy efficiency, Adam D. Ganz worked in real estate. He is a former real estate broker, property Manager and escrow officer. In this capacity, he represented clients in the buying, selling, and leasing of commercial and residential property, managed over 2 million square feet of commercial and residential property and conducted residential sales transactions and refinances totaling over $55 Million for 80 clients. Since getting his MBA, Adam has taken on the role of Energy Efficiency Program Manager at Willdan Energy Solutions. Read about how he changed his career path to a green one with an MBA in sustainability. Don’t forget to check out our entire Green MBA series.
The keys to unlocking value through implementing sustainability initiatives require positioning through: identifying marketplace trends that reward innovation toward sustainability; optimizing the linkage between sustainability, environmental and business objectives; creating a systematic process and internal champions that can drive the system from the inside out; establishing a manageable performance measurement system that demonstrates ‘triple bottom line’ results; and building assurance systems for compliance and credible and transparent public disclosure.
There has been an increase in senior-level corporate positions—those with VP and Director titles in the CSR and sustainability sector. Companies are placing an increased value on CSR as a component of corporate strategy, which elevates the importance of positions overseeing CSR. The emergence of the CSO title is indicative of the growing trend of sustainability as a core business strategy.“CSO” is a title that senior-most CSR executives will increasingly carry.
Robbie Vitrano, Co-Founder, NakedPizza, and Eric Quick, SVP Operations, Revolution Foods, presented at the 2010 Sustainable Brands Conference in June, not only bringing attention to the growing harmful consequences of fast food, but also providing innovative and real solutions.
Companies are attempting to motivate employees to do the “right,” or sustainable, thing when at work by increasing environmental and sustainability education and awareness and it is paying off with increased profits. Complementing education with incentives to engage a diverse workforce with varying levels of engagement and social consciousness motivates employees to take action.
While the terms green and sustainable are often used interchangeably, not all green building techniques are sustainable. Green building encourages the reduction of harmful impacts that buildings have on the environment and their occupants while focusing on environmental sustainability, but does not necessitate truly sustainable practices. While sustainable strategies stipulate the conservation, or preservation, of resources and require the reconciliation of all economic, social, and environmental demands.
There is a need for the establishment of a framework that encourages economic, social, and environmental sustainability for green buildings.
