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The following is a guest post by our friends at Bard College's MBA in Sustainability Program (a 3p sponsor) - for the business leaders of the future who recognize the importance of all business moving towards true sustainability—economic, environmental, and social.
By Eban Goodstein
As part of the Bard MBA Sustainable Business Series, I am holding a “Conversation with Hunter Lovins” next Monday night (March 5th) in New York City, and I’d love to know what you would ask Hunter if you had the chance to sit down with her. For over thirty years, Lovinshas been at the center of developing the key idea in business sustainability: that protecting and restoring the earth not only can be profitable, but that, in fact, profitable solutions are the only kinds that can scale fast enough to change the future.
Five questions I am thinking about:
- How was the sustainability paradigm shaped at Rocky Mountain Institute in the early 1980’s, and how did it evolve through the 90’s and today?
- Paul Hawken’s Ecology of Commerce was in some ways a precursor to your book with Paul and Amory Lovins, Natural Capitalism; how do you see the books complementing or working with one another?
- With Michael Porter’s latest argument that pursuit of “shared value” is the foundation of successful firms, does this mean that conventional business education will rapidly move teaching sustainability to the core of their curricula?
- Some are calling this the “decade of implementation” for sustainability – time for mature initiatives to show the scope of what is possible. Do you agree?
- How, if at all, is Climate Capitalism different than Natural Capitalism?
Please let me know your questions for Hunter Lovins, and I’ll get back to you with some of her answers next week. In New York City and interested in attending? Register here!
Eban Goodstein is the Director of the Bard MBA in Sustainability and Bard Center for Environmental Policy
The Bard MBA in Sustainability focuses on the business case for sustainability. We train students to see how firms can integrate economic, environmental, and social objectives, the triple Bottom Line, to create successful businesses that build a more sustainable world. Graduates of the Bard MBA Program will transform existing companies, start their own businesses, and pioneer new ways of operating that meet human needs, while protecting and restoring the earth’s natural systems. The Bard MBA is a low-residency program structured around “weekend intensives” with regular online instruction between these residencies. Five of these intensives are held each term: four in the heart of New York City and one in the Hudson Valley. Residencies take place over four days, beginning Friday morning, and ending Monday afternoon. Learn more today.
