The Super Bowl was last week...onto the Sustainability Bowl!
Carbon neutrality and sustainability agriculture. Two wicked challenges face our MBA students....
Two Smeal MBA teams are competing for the first time in two national Sustainability Case Competitions. Similar to the Smeal Sustainability Case Competition, these events are opportunities for students to wrestle with real-world business challenges. Good luck to the MBA teams!
DanoneWave Case Competition (organized with Net Impact)
(Excerpt from publicly available case) "Holly Yates smiled as she arrived at work on a bright Monday morning in early autumn. She couldn’t imagine herself in a better position, just months after completing her Master of Business Administration, working at Healthful Farms – a company known for its strong social values and financial performance. Later that morning, she was to meet with her fellow new employees in the rotational Leadership Training Program (LTP), to kick off their first project: creating a “clean sheet” strategic plan to focus and direct public benefit activities at Healthful Farms (HF) in 2018-2019..."
Students pitch ideas to a Steering Committee and must:
devise a strategy for HF to maximize public benefit (DanoneWave is a public benefit corporation)
Explain HF’s public benefit and how their recommendation for each strategic issue creates the proof point of that benefit
demonstrate out-of-the-box thinking
incorporate case studies, research reports, and other data sources not mentioned in the materials
MBA Students at the 2016 Smeal Sustainability Case Competition. Image Credit: Jennifer Neal
This case study focuses on Patagonia's goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2025.
"More specifically, how can Patagonia, a company that has implementing solutions to the environmental crisis as part of its mission, influence the industry broadly and create a model that other companies are inspired to replicate?
Carbon neutrality means going beyond reducing energy use, increasing renewable energy sources and recycled materials, to also influencing policy, sequestering carbon in the soil through regenerative agriculture, and reducing waste in food production, consumption, and disposal."
Good luck MBA teams!