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The best event I have been to at the Smith school… That’s probably a good place to start.
Yesterday, the Smith school, along with our newly launched Initiative for Social Value Creation, hosted our first annual Social Enterprise Symposium. The event was awesome..First off, Steve Fludder, Vice President from Ecomagination and GE Corporate Officer, gave a really inspiring presentation..GE’s slogan is “imagination at work” and I really got the sense of that with Fludder. When asked by a student how to succeed in sustainable business, he talked about how one’s career is not a straight line, that we as students need to be ready for twists and turns not only in our own careers, but in the world. Stay loose and imaginative and you’ll get ahead of the curve. GE has a number of interesting sustainable goals that it has set for itself, and it has achieved many of them because the very concept of sustainability has been incorporated in company culture. Fludder advised that even if you are not exactly where you plan to be– work hard in whatever role you are in–you never know where you’ll find the next opportunity. GE imagines in the coming years that literally hundreds of thousands of jobs are going to come from places like new energy..particularly energy efficiency. Ecoimagination is growing. Even though in many ways the world economy is struggling, there was a deep sense of optimism of what our economy could be coming out of that talk, and it reminded me of the importance not only of my education at Smith, but of my role in this wider new economy.
We were then off to the panel sessions after and I had the chance to check out:
“Opportunities and Challenges in Environmental Sustainability”
Janet Larsen, Director of Research at the Earth Policy Institute, started off the panel with a brief discussion of the current environmental state of our economy. She said that a quote she liked was “socialism failed because it failed to face economic reality…capitalism could fail because it fails to face ecological reality” which was an interesting perspective. She talked about research that showed that if all costs of fossil fuels– economic, social and ecological –were added to a gallon of gas, it would be $9 higher! This includes health costs associated with pollution, global warming effects, etc. That means if we’re paying $3 at the pump, the real cost to our society and planet is $12 at the pump. We begin to see why it is important to face the ecological reality of our economy.
Another really interesting panel member was David Sklar. Sklar is an award winning architect and designer, and pioneer in Eco-tecture. I had the opportunity to speak with Sklar after the panel and his story is pretty amazing. He has an incredibly cool project that I had actually heard of through ABC news recently..it’s a totally “green” (sustainable and carbon neutral) island in the Bahamas called Star Island. Star Island uses solar, wind, hydro and biofuels..and is off the grid! ( a ‘normal’ grid uses energy centers and distributes that energy outward to buildings in the grid, Star Island uses a ‘reverse’ grid energy structure.. where buildings actually produce energy that can go back to the energy center of the grid. .) It’s pretty neat stuff. Sklar mentioned to me that electricity is extremely expensive in the Bahamas, and this ‘reverse grid’ can bring down the cost of electricity immensely.
Rod Smith at Green Smith was another speaker and his organization focuses on the grid as well. Smith’s story also had a unique element..he worked in the financal industry for many years of his career, while keeping up with the latest on grid and energy efficiency. He then decided to start Green Smith and started a brand new career. Its worked. And it goes to show that it really never is too late to make a change in your career. As Steve Fludder had said, stay loose. You never know when you’ll have an opportunity. Smith gave an interesting talk on his technology–which manages ‘peak energy’ (we use a lot of energy at certain times of the day, but then much less at other times..this strains the grid at peak use..). Smith also talked about some of the ways that we got where we are..how population growth, clean water, food, energy, and the environment all work together. How the “green revolution” (different from our current “green revolution”) in agriculture spurred food availability–and in part, population growth. Without clean water or energy, its hard to grow food..without food..you get the idea. Its good to understand how you got where you are because it helps you understand where you’re going.
There is so much more I could write about our event last night. I was so excited about it last night that I was up to 1AM just deconstructing stuff I had learned, talks I had, and ideas that were sparked..(that’s when you know you’ve had a professional growth experience..)
It was a great night for Smith and I think for all the students that were involved. BIG thanks to the Ashoka team (both undergrads and MBAs), Melissa Carrier, Dean Anand, and for everyone that attended and made this such an interesting night.
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