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Stories from the front lines of business and sustainability innovation.
Episodes
Friday Sep 20, 2019
Friday Sep 20, 2019
Waste-less School Supplies: Wisdom Supply Co.’s Mission to Reduce Plastic Waste, An Interview with Founder, Heather Itzla
Unless you have school-age children, you may not realize that we’ve just come through the second biggest shopping season of the year. According to Deloitte’s July 2019 Back-to-School Survey, US shoppers will have spent $27.8 billion, or $519 per student, on everything from clothing to calculators. Of that, $6.1 billion will have gone to purchasing school supplies.
Heather Itzla reads that last figure and thinks plastic waste. Realizing how back-to-school shopping encourages the rote purchase of disposable plastics, Itzla and partner Nicole Kozlowski founded Wisdom Supply Co. to provide affordable, zero-waste alternatives to most school supplies.
The company’s paper-covered binders are 100% recyclable. Its refillable dry erase markers feature aluminum barrels and replaceable nibs. Its highlighters are made of wood and wax. Plus, Wisdom Supply Co. has been a B Corp since its 2017 launch.
Impact Report producer Katie Ellman spoke with Itzla about the company’s origin story, how it designs its products, and why affordability is a key component of its mission.
The Impact Report brings together students and faculty in Bard’s MBA in Sustainability program with leaders in business, sustainability and social entrepreneurship.
Friday Sep 06, 2019
Friday Sep 06, 2019
Rethinking Wealth & Investing for Impact: A conversation with Matthew Weatherley-White,Co-Founder of Caprock
The principal architect of Caprock’s Impact Investing Platform and the creator of the now-independent impact reporting platform iPAR,Matthew is a sought-after speaker and thought leader in the discipline, most recently being honored as an Industry Pioneer. In addition to keynoting conferences and lecturing at leading business schools around the world, he serves as a strategic advisor to several Impact Investing funds, and has appeared in Barron’s, Yahoo Finance TV, International Business Daily, Bloomberg Business Week, Journal of Philanthropy, Forbes, Conscious Company, The New York Times, Financial Times and many more. More recently, he successfully shepherded two pieces of legislation through the Idaho Statehouse, the first authorizing Pay For Success Contracting and the second awarding legal status to businesses structured as Benefit Corporations.
Prior to co-founding Caprock, Matthew was a partner in The Owyhee Group, a boutique advisory team within Smith Barney. During his thirteen years with the company, he was a member of Citigroup’s elite Leadership Development Program and helped craft the firm’s Private Wealth Management platform. Matthew graduated from Dartmouth College, has competed internationally in five different sports and continues to serve as a Director for the Lee Pesky Learning Center, an organization he helped launch 20 years ago.
Bard MBA’s Emma Jenkinsspoke with Matthew in the fall of 2018 about his career journey, investing for impact and the advice he would give to someone just starting out in the field.