SOU Sustainability Leadership Presentations - The Spirit of Green
Southern Oregon University is doing its’ part to prepare students for Green Jobs through their Sustainability Leadership Program. Recently I had the opportunity to attend the Sustainability Leadership Symposium, at SOU. Students from Steve Schein’s Sustainability Leadership course, gave presentations on wide range of topics including; Carbon Management, Renewable Energy, Green Building, Ecological Literacy, Sustainability in Education, and Corporate Social Responsibility.
The session was jam packed with information on ‘Green and Sustainability’ issues. I was absolutely vibrating with excitement by the time I left – just hearing about what is currently happening in these growing industries and witnessing “The Spirit of Green” that these students have! (Their power point presentations are now available online at http://www.sou.edu/business/events.html, under “past events” – CHECK IT OUT!).
The Carbon Management presentation, given by Steve Vincent of Avista Corp., jump started my awareness of the magnitude of the business implications of this national agenda. He stated that the Western Initiative is one of the largest and most progressive in the country. Entire new businesses are growing in anticipation of government regulation in this arena.
Another student, who works full time at Harry & David’s and is getting his MBA, James W. Smekal, gave an exciting presentation on Green Building. He showed a slide of “The Green House of the Future”, featured in a WSJ article in April. As he described it – the house is like a tree – with solar as its photosynthesis, a roof garden and exterior walls with “healing cells”. This student’s Spirit of Green is active at work too – he is a member of Harry & David’s corporate “Green Team”.
In their presentation on Corporate Social Responsibility, students Jinno Ordonez and Carter Franklin spoke about how advanced 3M is in their CSR actions (I’m thinking – is this really true? Check it out on the PP presentation!) and recommended a great book for the times – “Green Recovery” by Andrew Winston.<
One student in the course with a high level of “Spirit of Green” is John Mackin. John is extremely enthusiastic about sustainable community development and sustainable business practices and wants to be a ‘Sustainability Manager/Director’ after graduating. Here’s some comments from John.
“The triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit will need to be incorporated into any business that intends to be successful in the future. Helping to revise business plans to be sustainable and in the process more profitable, is what I look forward to putting my energy.
There are so many little changes that a business can make to begin taking better care of the planet, its employees, and the bottom line. It truly is time to get lean on stuff and conserve resources while continuing to employee people. All of these recent layoffs will be for nothing if a company cannot re-think their resource consumption practices. In doing so they will actually create long term employment and financial success.”
How do we, in Southern Oregon, facilitate Green business startups, expansions, and relocations to the area to increase the number of Green Jobs in the region? Let me know your ideas - more state incentives for solar companies to locate here? Local incentives? Other?
Also - Check out The Oregon Green Expo at www.theoregongreenexpo.com - watch for a panel discussion for the weekend of the event, addressing Green Job/Business growth in the region.
The session was jam packed with information on ‘Green and Sustainability’ issues. I was absolutely vibrating with excitement by the time I left – just hearing about what is currently happening in these growing industries and witnessing “The Spirit of Green” that these students have! (Their power point presentations are now available online at http://www.sou.edu/business/events.html, under “past events” – CHECK IT OUT!).
The Carbon Management presentation, given by Steve Vincent of Avista Corp., jump started my awareness of the magnitude of the business implications of this national agenda. He stated that the Western Initiative is one of the largest and most progressive in the country. Entire new businesses are growing in anticipation of government regulation in this arena.
Another student, who works full time at Harry & David’s and is getting his MBA, James W. Smekal, gave an exciting presentation on Green Building. He showed a slide of “The Green House of the Future”, featured in a WSJ article in April. As he described it – the house is like a tree – with solar as its photosynthesis, a roof garden and exterior walls with “healing cells”. This student’s Spirit of Green is active at work too – he is a member of Harry & David’s corporate “Green Team”.
In their presentation on Corporate Social Responsibility, students Jinno Ordonez and Carter Franklin spoke about how advanced 3M is in their CSR actions (I’m thinking – is this really true? Check it out on the PP presentation!) and recommended a great book for the times – “Green Recovery” by Andrew Winston.<
One student in the course with a high level of “Spirit of Green” is John Mackin. John is extremely enthusiastic about sustainable community development and sustainable business practices and wants to be a ‘Sustainability Manager/Director’ after graduating. Here’s some comments from John.
“The triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit will need to be incorporated into any business that intends to be successful in the future. Helping to revise business plans to be sustainable and in the process more profitable, is what I look forward to putting my energy.
There are so many little changes that a business can make to begin taking better care of the planet, its employees, and the bottom line. It truly is time to get lean on stuff and conserve resources while continuing to employee people. All of these recent layoffs will be for nothing if a company cannot re-think their resource consumption practices. In doing so they will actually create long term employment and financial success.”
How do we, in Southern Oregon, facilitate Green business startups, expansions, and relocations to the area to increase the number of Green Jobs in the region? Let me know your ideas - more state incentives for solar companies to locate here? Local incentives? Other?
Also - Check out The Oregon Green Expo at www.theoregongreenexpo.com - watch for a panel discussion for the weekend of the event, addressing Green Job/Business growth in the region.
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