The Impact Report

#102 Tom Szaky

Eliminating the Idea of Waste - A conversation with Tom Szaky, CEO & Founder of TerraCycle

 

"Why does waste even exist?" That’s the question at the heart of TerraCycle’s own existence. Since 2001, the company has been taking hard-to-recycle waste and turning it into raw material for use in new products. It operates in over 20 countries and engages over 60 million people.

2017 marked a period of significant growth for the relentlessly innovative company. TerraCycle had its first acquisition, placing it on the path to going public. It’s leveraging the JOBS Act to crowdsource for equity. And it’s partnering with major organizations such as Proctor & Gamble (P&G), Mars, Nestlé and Unilever to generate ultra-durable packaging forms that’ll be owned by the manufacturer and merely loaned to the consumer.

In December 2017, Bard MBA’s Alistair Hall spoke with Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle, about the company’s plans for growth and all the ways in which it continues to work toward eliminating the idea of waste in our world.

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#101 Dan Zarrilli

New York City Takes on Big Oil - A conversation with Dan Zarrilli, Chief Resilience Officer for the City of New York. 

On January 10^th, New York City became the first major US city to announce that the City’s $189 billion pension funds would divest City funds from fossil fuel reserve owners within five years.  Currently, the City’s five pension funds hold approximately $5 billion in securities from over 190 fossil fuel companies.

To learn more about this, Bard MBA’s, Cindy Wasser spoke with Dan Zarrilli, Chief Resilience Officer for the City of New York.

You can learn more about this and other steps New York City is taking to mitigate Climate Change by visiting www1.nyc.gov

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S05 EP 08: Mary Powell, Green Mountain Power

Vermont’s Green Mountain Power obsesses on its customers. Under the leadership of CEO Mary Powell, it has radically restructured, positioning itself as an energy transformation company focused on meeting the needs of consumers with integrated, cutting-edge services that help them use less energy and save money.

In the process, the utility has become the first to help its ratepayers go off the grid, the first to offer residential solar customers the Tesla Powerwall battery and the first and only utility to achieve B Corp certification. And consumers have responded. Green Mountain Power has grown from serving 88,000 customers in 2008 to serving over 260,000 today, with revenues of more than $640 million and $2 billion in assets.

Last month, the Bard MBA’s Meghan Altman talked with Powell about the company’s transformative vision and where she sees the future of the energy system.

Powell has served as president and CEO of Green Mountain Power since 2008 and she’s been the backbone of its comprehensive restructuring and service quality improvement. In 2014, Powell was recognized by POWER-GEN as the Woman of the Year. In 2016, Fast Company named her one of the 100 most creative people in business and in 2017 CEO Connection designated her one of the top 25 most influential women of the mid-market.

S05 EP 07: Thomas Singer, The Conference Board

Transitioning to the Circular Economy: Thomas Singer Profiles Seven Companies Making the Shift

Thomas Singer felt that there was already plenty of good writing about the theory behind the circular economy. So, when he and his Conference Board colleagues thought about what they wanted to contribute to the conversation, they focused on case studies: “real, practical examples of companies that have been involved in these types of initiatives.”

The resulting 2017 report, Business Transformation and the Circular Economy: A Candid Look at Risks and Rewards, profiles the strategies and successes of seven companies at the forefront of the transition to an economy based on recovery, reunse and regeneration.

Bard MBA student Carolyn Pincus spoke recently with Singer about his work and what he learned about why companies like Philips and Waste Management are increasingly pursuing circular economy initiatives.

Thomas Singer is a Principle Researcher in corporate leadership at the Conference Board. His work focuses on CSR and sustainability issues, and he’s the author of numerous other publications, including the comprehensive sustainability benchmarking report, Sustainability Practices.

 

S05 EP 06: Kim Falkenhayn, Okabashi Shoes

When “Made in America” Means “Made Sustainably”

Currently, fewer than 2% of shoes worn in the United States are made here. Most are
manufactured overseas by a labor force that works in conditions that would not be acceptable for
American workers.
In contrast, Okabashi, a family-owned and operated footwear manufacturer, makes all of its
shoes in America, employing more than 200 people at its factory and headquarters in Buford,
GA. As a result, its flip flops, sandals and clogs travel almost 10,000 fewer miles than the
average imported shoe, substantially reducing their carbon footprint.
The Bard MBA’s Cory Skuldt recently spoke with Kim Falkenhayn, the company’s President,
about the challenges and opportunities presented by Okabashi’s commitment both to local
manufacturing and to closed-loop recycling.

S05 EP 05: Nick Silver, Author & Co-Founder of Climate Bonds Initiative

Using Finance to Shatter the Fossil Fuel Economy

Nick Silver — actuary, economist and onetime mainstream finance professional — understands the consequences of the financial system continuing in its current form. Which is why his new book, "Finance, Society and Sustainability: How to Make the Financial System Work for the Economy, People and Planet," argues that to avoid collateral damage to the economy, society and the environment, we need to re-engineer the system.

Silver is also the managing director of Callund Consulting, a specialist consultancy that advises developing country governments on social insurance. He has advised the U.N., U.K. and EU on carbon markets, climate finance in developing countries and managing risk from climate change. 

Bard MBA faculty member Kathy Hipple spoke recently with Silver about his background in finance and how it led him to write his book. Their conversation explores both the book and Silver's work with Climate Bonds Initiative, which Silver co-founded to mobilize the $100 trillion bond market for climate change solutions.

S05 EP 04: Rebecca Hamilton, W.S. Badger Co.

Bard MBA graduates Sam Levine and Alex FitzGerald spoke recently with Rebecca Hamilton about Badger’s business model and how it goes beyond the B Corps standard. Hamilton is a co-owner and the vice president of research and development at Badger, where she sources new raw materials and oversees the sustainability and quality of Badger’s supply chain, among other responsibilities. She is also involved in safe cosmetics legislation and toxic chemical reform and has served as the chair of the Natural Products Association National Personal Care Steering Committee.

As of January, there were 1,000 certified B Corps — companies certified by the B Lab, a nonprofit, to create social and environmental benefits — in the U.S. alone. This number is even more impressive when you realize that fewer than two years ago, there were only 1,000 B Corps worldwide.

Badger, a family-owned, mission-driven certified B Corp company nestled in the woods of Gilsum, New Hampshire, exemplifies and extends the B Corps model. The company was started by Bill Whyte in 1995 when, as a carpenter working in the cold New Hampshire winters, he created a balm that helped his cracked hands. The company has grown to over 100 personal care products and 60 employees.

Honored this year as a "Best for the World" and "Best for the Environment" B Corp, Badger scored in the top 10 percent of all businesses on the B Impact Assessment, the gold standard of corporate responsibility metrics.

 

S05 EP 03: Kevin Rabinovitch, Mars Inc.

In September, Mars unveiled its Sustainable in a Generation plan, which sets a new standard for its responsible growth as a business. Mars believes that transformational, cross-industry collaboration is required to fix the extended global supply chain, and the plan leads the way by investing $1 billion to tackle threats such as climate change, poverty in its value chain and resource scarcity.

The private, family-owned brand has been in business for over a century and sells its products in nearly every corner of the globe. Its six businesses — from chocolate to pet products — reach billions of consumers and earn more than $35 billion in global sales.

Bard MBA student Alistair Hall talked with Mars’s Kevin Rabinovitch shortly after the launch of Sustainable in a Generation about the plan and how it evolved.

Rabinovitch, Mars’s global sustainability director and chief climate officer, was instrumental in developing the plan. His team manages a global portfolio of renewable energy projects in conjunction with efficiency work led by the business units. He also leads the assessment of environmental impact for Mars’s value chain and the translation of external environmental science into policy and strategy for the business.

S05 EP 02: Alice Bosley & Patricia Letayf, Five One Labs

Helping Refugees & Conflict-Affected Entrepreneurs Launch & Grow Their Businesses in the Middle East: Alice Bosley & Patricia Letayf of Five One Labs.

What do you think when you hear the word refugee? For Alice Bosley and Patricia Letayf, Co-Founders of Five One Labs, it makes them think of innovation, passion, creativity and grit. Since the war began in Syria in 2011, nearly five million Syrian refugees have been displaced across the Middle East and Europe. Five One Labs has launched a startup incubator in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to help some of the 250,000 Syrian refugees and over 1 million Iraqi refugees in the area rebuild their lives and livelihoods. The program is designed to provide training, mentorship, inclusive communities, and support to build businesses. The name “Five One” comes from the 1951 Refugee Convention that gives refugees the right to work. Their incubator will empower young men and women from displaced and host communities in starting scalable, innovative businesses - benefiting the entrepreneurs while also strengthening the local economy through training, mentorship and community building.

Five One Labs first cohort is scheduled to begin this October in Erbil, Iraq and they are crowdfunding with a matching grant from the Tent Foundation via Indiegogo https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/five-one-labs-startup-incubator-for-refugees-entrepreneurship#/

 

S05 EP 01: Sherry Youssef Younes & Alejandro Crawford

The Democratization of Entrepreneurship: Sherry Youssef Younes & Alejandro Crawford

With a surge in the growth of the youth population worldwide there is, and will continue to be, a job shortage. The solution to this is self-employment or entrepreneurship but access to entrepreneurship is not keeping up and we may face a lost generation of job creators.  Enter Sherry Youssef Younes and Alejandro Crawford both working to democratize entrepreneurship by using technology and breaking open access points that are typically closed to budding  entrepreneurs outside of well-established networks.

Sherry Youssef Younes is a Youth, Workforce Development, ICT4Development and Women's Economic Empowerment Consultant with over 23 years experience in international economic development programme design, development and management.  Alejandro Crawford’s mission is to expand access to the knowledge, space and alliance innovators require to bring new solutions to market and scale them. As a consultant, he is is managing director of Acceleration Group, where he works with the leaders of companies, governments, universities, investors, and NGOs to to harness the potential of disruptive leaders to remake our economy.