Marlboro MBA Authors in Sustainable Brands

We take pride in our faculty members being not only outstanding instructors but also authorities in their fields.  We’re delighted that Sustainable Brands seems to agree with us. The highly-regarded website has just published a piece by co-authors MBA faculty members Bill Baue and Mark McElroy, and MBA advisor Cary Krosinsky. 

Read and ponder “Crossing Thresholds: From Fossil Fuel Divestment to Sustainable Investment.” And congratulations to our spotlighted trio.

Earn Grad School Credits at Slow Living Institute

As part of this year’s Slow Living Summit (June 5 – 7), the Slow Living Leadership Institute will offer a course in “Leadership for Sustainable Change” that will carry credits from Marlboro College Graduate School.

The course will be held here at the Grad School in Brattleboro and will be led by our MBA in Managing for Sustainability faculty members Beverly Winterscheid, Ph.D., and Cary Gaunt, Ph.D. It is appropriate for business leaders, social entrepreneurs, community advocates, teachers, and anyone wanting to apply Slow Living principles to their professional or personal life.

 Topics to be covered include:

• The Art of Visioning the Possible - alone, and with others
• Courageous Conversations - deep listening and conscious speaking in the face of alternate views
• Contemplative Leadership Practices - presence, planning & alignment of personal values with action
• Stakeholders & Community - the key parties (both human and more-than-human) for project success and what they want or need

 Course Schedule:

• Tuesday evening (June 4, 2013): Arrival, informal meet and greet, time and location to be announced.
• Wednesday (June 5) beginning at 8:30 AM: Class sessions at Marlboro College Graduate School, downtown Brattleboro
• Wednesday evening through Friday (June 7, 2013): Institute registrants participate in the Slow Living Summit, except for selected luncheons and maybe evening gatherings for the Institute.
• Friday (June 7, 2013): As part of the Summit’s closing Plenary, we honor the Institute graduates with a certificate ceremony. The Slow Living Institute concludes on Friday at the same time as the Slow Living Summit.
• Three credit-hour registrants will complete additional coursework with the instructors after the conclusion of the Summit, on a schedule to be arranged for mutual convenience.

For full details and to register, please visit the Slow Living Summit website.

See You at NYC Green Festival

On Earth Day weekend, April 20-21, we will be exhibiting at the New York City Green Festival.

The Festival will feature inspiring keynote presentations; an organic, vegetarian and vegan food court; the Sierra Club Green Cinema; eco-fashion exhibits; hands-on DIY workshops; live music; and an organic beer and wine garden. 

Be sure to stop by booth #834 to say hello and learn about our Marlboro MBA in Managing for Sustainability.

MBA Net Impact Chapter Hosts Wine Tasting

Join students and faculty from our MBA in Managing for Sustainability program for a private wine tasting, at Metropolis Wine Bar on Saturday March 23rd at 7:00 PM. The tasting includes a sampling of several sustainable wines and/or beers and some great nibbles too. Cost is $20 cash at the door, $15 for Net Impact members. For more information, please contact VP of Net Impact Event Planning, Julie Fahnestock at jfahnestock@gradschool.marlboro.edu.

Alex Wilson to Speak on Resilient Design

Alex Wilson will discuss his new initiative, the Resilient Design Institute (RDI), here on Friday, November 9, 2012 at 7:00 p.m.

The Resilient Design Institute (RDI) advances practical solutions that can be employed by communities, businesses, and individuals to adapt and thrive amid the accelerating social, ecological, and climatological change being experienced today. In this program, Wilson will address resilient design as a driver of sustainability.

Well-known in the green design field, Alex Wilson is the founder of BuildingGreen, Inc. and Environmental Building News. He has a well-earned reputation for being a pioneer in Green Architecture and remains a leading light in the field.   Alex is incisive, technical, and filled with anecdotes. His Brattleboro-based company’s resources are used throughout North America and the world by designers and builders wanting to create more environmentally responsible buildings. He also writes the weekly Energy Solutions column in the Brattleboro Reformer and is a member of Marlboro Grad School’s MBA Circle of Advisors.

The talk is free and open to the public. 

MBA Alum's Raleigh City Farm Wins National Award

Raleigh City Farm was among three recent winners of Green America's first quarterly "People & Planet" award, which recognizes America's best green, small businesses. It will receive $5,000. Winners were selected by the public, who had a month-long open voting period online at Green America's website. 

Green America's "People & Planet Awards" recognize innovative entrepreneurial U.S. businesses that deeply integrate environmental and social considerations into their strategies and operations. The first round of the Awards focused on green businesses that also are active in serving their local communities.

Recently-graduated MBA alum Ryan Finch has played a key role at the Farm.  Her Capstone Project fostered the launch of the Farm in March of this year by raising funds through a Kickstarter Campaign, cultivating stakeholder engagement to grow the farm, building a social media marketing strategy, writing a business plan, and developing a cash flow forecast.

Raleigh City Farm's goal is to transform unexpected downtown spaces into beautiful and nourishing farmland. It engages the local community in the process of growing food and sparking imaginations about agriculture in the city. These highly-visible spaces are an educational tool to demonstrate responsible, intensive growing techniques and encourage movement toward a restorative, community-based food system. Its weekly farm stand offers fresh and organically grown food for local residents. Raleigh City Farm serves as a field trip destination for neighboring elementary and middle schools as well as universities and assisted living centers.

Well done, Ryan.  The value of your good work is obvious to all.

Net Impact Dinner Friday, July 20th

Marlboro Grad School’s MBA in Managing for Sustainability Net Impact chapter is holding its annual fundraising dinner on Friday, July 20th, from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. at Scott Farm in Brattleboro.

Marlboro MBA alum and chef, Tristan Toleno of Entera Artisanal Catering, will prepare the meal using foods from local farms and businesses including Lilac Ridge Farm, Sweet Tree Farm and Red Hen Baking Company.

Net Impact is a global community of more than 30,000 changemakers who use their jobs to tackle the world’s toughest problems, demonstrating that it’s possible to make a net impact that benefits not just the bottom line – but people and planet, too.

This dinner raises funds to support the activities of the Marlboro Net Impact chapter.  Costs are $25 for adults, $20 for Net Impact members, and $10 for youngsters.

Scott Farm produces 90 varieties of ecologically grown apples, and many other fruits and berries. David Tanzey, Executive Director of the Landmark Trust, which owns the farm, will welcome the group to Scott Farm.

To register for the dinner, please visit: http://farmtotablemarlboro.eventbrite.com/

For more information, contact Mary Karis at Marlboro College Graduate School:               mkaris@gradschool.marlboro.edu.

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Ralph Meima Interviewed on VPR

As one of the originators of the Slow Living Summit, and an active participant in its planning and execution, MBA program director Ralph Meima was recently interviewed by Vermont Public Radio’s Mitch Wertlieb about the second Summit, May 30-June 1, 2012.  Listen to the interview here.

Grad School Hosts National Slow Living Summit

Marlboro College Graduate School will, once again, host and co-sponsor the Slow Living Summit, which will take place in downtown Brattleboro May 30th - June 1st.

The second-annual U.S. Slow Living Summit is a national convening of cross-sector intelligence, ideas and action for sustainable living.

The event will kick off at 6:30-8:30 p.m. on Wednesday with Marlboro College President Ellen McCulloch-Lovell and Grad School faculty member Lori Hanau welcoming all and setting the tone at the opening plenary: “Setting an Agenda for Action and Change” at the Latchis Theater. MBA Program Director Ralph Meima will moderate this plenary session as well.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Governor Peter Shumlin will be among dozens of high-profile speakers including David Orr (Oberlin college, Down to the Wire), Woody Tasch (Slow Money), Chris Martenson (The Crash Course), Charles Eisenstein (Sacred Economics), James Howard Kunstler (The Long Emergency), John Restakis (Humanizing the Economy) and many others.

The Slow Living Summit boasts at least 50 sessions on topics like food, agriculture, spirit, investing, energy, technology, entrepreneurship, communities, media and sustainability - plus theater, video and music offerings.

To get the full sense of the Summit as well as the times and locations of presentations, please visit the Schedule of Events.

It’s easy to register, and we hope you will be able to join us.

Dr. William New Next MBA Guest Speaker, Friday, June 8th

On Friday, June 8th our next Featured Speaker will be Dr. William New sharing “Lessons Learned by a Seasoned Social Entrepreneur.” 

William New has pursued a career as physician, engineer, educator and serial entrepreneur.

He has known both the triumphs and the perils of Wall Street's venture capital realities in building companies across the US, Canada and the UK. 

Bill’s consistent goal was to create and nurture customer-centric sustainable enterprises. He shares these experiences with the hope that young social entrepreneurs forearmed can build sustainable companies that put people before profit, work over wealth, substance above spectacle, and cultivate happiness not hedonism.

Bill leads a conversational Q&A session about this and other lessons learned over many years as a successful social entrepreneur, and proposes strategies going forward to create sustainable organizations that avoid self-destructive money-obsessed consumption to prosper instead with longevity, health, and happiness exemplified in other developed economies.

Dr. New retired from Stanford University after 25 years of faculty service, but continues biotech research supporting commercial spinouts as adjunct professor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC.  He earned BS and MS degrees in engineering at Stanford, his MD at Duke University, a PhD at UCLA, and an MBA at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

A board director of numerous companies, non-profits, schools and universities, he currently serves as a trustee of nearby Putney School.

A networking social with refreshments will start at 5:30 p.m., with Dr. New's presentation beginning at 6:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.