Net Impact in the News
Read about Net Impact coverage in the news.
Dec
5
Bloomberg Businessweek
Ryan Bell first became passionate about helping young children while serving as a major in the army in Iraq, helping local Iraqis rebuild bombed-out schools, obtain textbooks, and get windows and electricity for their new buildings.
Aug
25
New York Times
“Through the roof” is how Adam Zak, an executive recruiter, describes the demand for workers with sustainability-related job skills.
Aug
19
SmartPlanet
Corporate sustainability organization Net Impact just released the 2011 version of “Business as UNusual: “The Student Guide to Graduate Program.”
Aug
18
GreenBiz
The times of environmental programs being seen as niche offering at colleges are getting further and further away.
Aug
12
US News
The notion of using a management degree to do good while doing well has grown in popularity on today's business school campuses, where an ever-increasing number of students plan on putting their business savvy to use within the nonprofit sector. The recession has led many applicants to reevaluate their priorities and determine what they want to do with their lives, often trading jobs with status and hefty paychecks for careers with a positive social impact.
Jun
30
Sustainable Business Oregon
More so than ever, MBA students and alumni are seeking to have a successful business career while making a positive impact. While these professionals are as ambitious as ever, they know that success goes beyond financial measures. It means improving your company culture, using business to make social change, and improving your local community.
Jun
28
Financial Times
Women may hold the vast majority of staff jobs in the non-profit sector, but female leadership is sorely lacking at the senior management level. Of the top 50 leadership positions in the sector, men hold 62 per cent and women 38 per cent, according to a recent national Non-profit Employment Trends Survey.
Jun
2
Fortune
Companies that tout their environmental sustainability cred could have a competitive edge in attracting the younger generation's best and brightest.
May
11
Good.is
It’s easier to do good on the job when the organization you work with is set on changing business for the better. But what if your place of work doesn’t embrace the difference between blue and brown waste bins or isn't concerned with working conditions in the factory where your widgets are manufactured? You might be biting your tongue until you get promoted to a position of authority to start cleaning up your company’s act, but why wait? Net Impact, an international network of professionals committed to using their business savvy for good, is debunking that myth. The fact is, the most influential seat can be your very own office chair. Net Impact’s Jennifer Chin breaks down how you can start your own social "intrapreneurship" to start positive initiatives.
Apr
29
Green Economy Post
Net Impact and The Center for Corporate Citizenship are offering a free guide entitled Corporate Careers That Make a Difference provides a practical framework for career development in sustainability and corporate social responsibility.
Apr
27
Inspired Economist
The medical field has one that dates back to the 5th century BC and now about 2,600 years later an oath is taking shape for students of the Master’s of Business Administration degree. We here at the Inspired Economist clearly hold Net Impact in high regard. After all, we’ve seen articles on their sustainable MBA rankings, looked at their report on how to get a job in the field of sustainability and just this past year, one of our reporters took to the streets to provide live coverage of the annual Net Impact Conference. I myself have been a member for a number of years and it is undoubtedly a great and important organization. However, I just don’t get “the Oath”.
Apr
14
Triple Pundit
Many companies are finding the shift to sustained, skills-based volunteering from the traditional en masse trip to the local soup kitchen more rewarding for employees and more valuable for communities – locally and around the world. This “involve-a-teering” method focuses on letting employees help build more sustained capacity-building for organizations. You want to loan your marketing department out to the local art co-op to increase their presence in the national art scene – do it. Does your communications department want to help a local food bank develop a more dynamic social media presence – let them. And better yet, make it part of their salary and benefits.
Mar
18
Bloomberg Businessweek
No longer seen as the province of fuzzy do-gooders, managing for sustainability is becoming a new bottom line at MBA programs at INSEAD, RSM, and Oxford
Mar
11
The Guardian
"Business schools need to teach students more about sustainability." I have lost count of the number of times I've heard this declaration from business leaders around the world.
Mar
3
Bloomberg Businessweek
There will always be a few adherents of old-fashioned, "robber baron" capitalism with the view that sustainability—not to mention the whole concept of corporate social responsibility—has no place in the cutthroat world of business. Most of us have come to accept its value, not just as a good thing to do, but as a commercial imperative. One of the latest pieces of research on the subject, for example, by C.B. Bhattacharya of Germany's European School of Management and Technology (ESMT Full-Time MBA Profile) and Xueming Luo of the University of Texas at Arlington seems to conclusively prove that even a modest improvement in CSR ratings can deliver increase annual profits.
Feb
28
Bloomberg Businessweek
MBA students pursuing social enterprise work have turned their attention to the next up-and-coming charity case in need of their help: state governments and the agencies they operate.
Nov
19
GreenBiz
That's a question I've been getting regularly from corporate environmental professionals for years, as they look ahead to the growing calendar of events -- and their shrinking travel budgets -- to discern which events are, for lack of a better term, "worth it."
Nov
11
Forbes
Sarcasm does have a way of driving the point home. After three days of intense discussions and debates–featuring stalwarts like Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farms and Majora Carter, founder of nonprofit environmental justice solutions corporation Sustainable South Bronx, and vocal environmental activist–the economic reality that forms the background for conferences like Net Impact 2010 was perhaps best summed by a veteran of the education trade.
Nov
9
Forbes
Wondering if the panel would promise much beyond a pit of jargon and terminology, I ventured into “CSR Solutions: Leveraging Mainstream Experience for Maximum Impact” on Day 3 of Net Impact.
Nov
9
Vault
In the final panel at Net Impact, Thomas Neil Gladwin presented what he called his "Ten Commandments for Business." Replete with sarcasm and enunciated ridicule for Wall Street, Gladwin's commandments serve less as advice to follow and more as an indictment of the current state of business. In delivering them, he perhaps best captured the sentiments of the crowd—a mix of MBA students, professionals and academia focused on corporate social responsibility.
Nov
8
Next Billion
The Net Impact session on "Beyond Microfinance: Investing in the Developing World" was timely in that it highlighted the certification program for the Grameen Foundation's Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI). I thought I would take this opportunity to highlight some of the potential strengths and possible shortcomings of the 5-month-old certification process.
Nov
4
Next Billion
One recurring theme and a growing imperative consistent across the Net Impact 2010 Conference sessions I attended was the need to increase mindful cross-sector collaborations, particularly within the field of development.
Nov
3
Forbes.com
2,500: Number of business schools in India
156,250: Number of business school graduates every year
100: Number of sustainability jobs on offer at Net Impact’s career expo this year
When a panel begins by laying out numbers like these, the discussion is bound to be invigorating.
Nov
3
GreenBiz
My favorite conference is Net Impact’s annual gathering, mostly because of the crowd — this weekend, about 2,500 people, most of them MBA students, undergrads and young professionals, gathered at University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business in Ann Arbor. These are the smart, passionate and committed business leaders of tomorrow. I’m proud to be on the board of Net Impact, a nonprofit that helps its members harness the power of business for the greater good.
Nov
2
Triple Pundit
On Saturday, October 30, Net Impact closed out their 2010 conference on sustainable enterprise at the UMich Ross School of Business with keynote speaker Majora Carter, a dynamic green community development consultant whose work is revitalizing in New York’s inner city South Bronx neighborhood. Carter harnesses her undeniable charisma to drive attention and resources toward turning “politically marginalized” communities into greener, healthier landscapes with greater economic viability. And she means business. Welcome to “Hometown Security,” a theme she offered to describe economic restoration through localized efforts that empower people and protect the environment.
Nov
2
Next Billion
We take it for granted that companies aiming to do business at the BoP have done the same sort of due diligence required for top of the pyramid market analysis. That would be: understanding consumer purchasing power and buying habits, and setting the appropriate price points.
Nov
2
Vault
When a panel begins by laying out numbers like these, the discussion is bound to invigorating. At the lunch panel on Day 2 of Net Impact 2010 these served as the preface to a discussion that, while wide-ranging, always came back to a singular theme: Where is management education headed and how, if at all, should the MBA curriculum be redefined? On hand were two renowned professors: Srikant Datar, the Arthur Lowes Dickinson Professor of Accounting from Harvard University (and author of Rethinking the MBA: Business Education at a Crossroads) and James Walsh, the A.F. Thurnau Professor with hosts Ross School of Business, University of Michigan.
Nov
1
Next Billion
This weekend at the Net Impact national conference, I had the opportunity to listen to Jason Saul CEO of Mission Measurement LLC, and author of Social Innovation, Inc.: Five Strategies to Drive Business Value through Social Change. He proposed a few concrete methods for businesses to create a robust revenue stream by creating powerful social change.
Nov
1
CSR@Intel
There’s nothing like being back on a college campus surrounded by ~2,000 students to make me pine for my own B-school days. Ah, remembering the night that my friend Wei and I stupidly pulled an all-nighter for the PAC-10 case competition. Marveling at the beautiful spreadsheet model that I previously could only dream about were it not for the help of my classmate Samir and some patient professors. Helping talk my friend Cass into adopting a puppy when we were visiting a store while doing a research project for at PetSmart. Or lying on the floor of my living room bawling, convinced I would never get the job I wanted, despite the assurances of a very supportive career management center staff.
Oct
19
3BL Media
“I want to make a difference in the community, but I am not sure how and where I can do it.” This is a comment I heard often from my classmates in business school. Many were looking for ways to get involved with nonprofit organizations that went beyond a trash pick-up day or serving soup at the local shelter. They wanted to find a more engaged way to give back and possibly build some new skills in the process.
Oct
11
Bloomberg Businessweek
The Climate Corps program's Victoria Mills explains how MBA students are helping companies curtail energy use—and save a bundle
Oct
7
Next Billion
With all the metrics-related events this month, you'd think World Metrics Day was in October. However, the day chosen by Acumen Fund and the others behind the Pulse initiative, actually falls on June 16.
Oct
3
Financial Times
When Kristy Cunningham was awarded her MBA in 1998, most of her fellow classmates from Harvard Business School went on to work for technology companies and internet start-ups. But Ms Cunningham chose a career in consulting at Bain.
Sep
21
Vault
Going from the spate of recent [Fenton Group's #CSRDebate] and upcoming events [Communicating Sustainability 2010 tomorrow; ICCR's Enough is Enough: Reimagining Global Prosperity next month] either featuring Professor Karnani or planned around the many offshoots of his argument, it doesn’t look like this frenzy is going to die down any time soon. One forum that connects future business leaders with current leaders every year without fail for discussions on corporate social responsibility, sustainability and the green economy is the annual Net Impact conference.
Aug
19
Inspired Economist
Hot off the presses comes Net Impact’s rather comprehensive report on business schools focusing on “sustainability” programs. “Net Impact is an international nonprofit organization with a mission to inspire, educate, and equip individuals to use the power of business to create a more socially and environmentally sustainable world.” The organization is active on campuses and in cities throughout the world, with 260 chapters and 20,000 members. If I may editorialize and make a quick plug, I am one of the 20,000 members as part of the Monterey Institute of International Studies (we’re in the report) and can attest the quality and importance of this organization.
Aug
19
GreenBiz
The slumping economy may be dragging down the share prices of some of the nation's largest companies, but it isn't slowing down the business students dreaming of one day leading their sustainability programs, or the universities angling to train them.
Jul
9
Forbes
“Finally an internship program that gets corporate sustainability!” That was my reaction back in May, when I heard about the Environmental Defense Fund’s (EDF) Climate Corps internship.
May
25
Havard Business Review
For years some of us warned against the perils of an economy driven exclusively by self-interest (made evident by the financial disaster of 2008) and vigorously argued for management, like other professional disciplines, to require its members to accept a code of conduct and make a public commitment to do no harm.
May
10
Bloomberg Businessweek
The election of President Barack Obama gave hope to U.S. environmental activists that real changes in domestic policy on climate change would occur. It gave hope to the world that the U.S. would take the lead in global climate action. And it personally gave hope to me that once I graduate with an MBA from George Washington University (GW Full-Time MBA Profile) in May 2011, I would be greeted with an abundance of career opportunities that perfectly aligned my passion toward the environment with my business skills, financial knowledge, and background in accounting.
Apr
14
Triple Pundit
Where will tomorrow’s corporate responsibility leaders come from? That was the question before a breakout session panel Monday at the BCCCC Conference.
Apr
14
Career Rocketeer
“Green jobs” is the hot topic of the day, and now more than ever, companies are embracing the sentiment, if not the practice, of sustainability. But, when it comes to career options, green business can mean many different things—sustainability, corporate social responsibility (CSR), cleantech, socially responsible investing, green building, carbon markets and finance, renewable energy industry jobs, green marketing, or corporate-NGO partnership engagements, to name a few.
Apr
5
GreenBiz
In order to make sustainability the norm, we need to educate the next generation of business leaders in sustainability issues. However, every year thousands of future business leaders and managers are coming out of MBA and other similar programs around the world without an adequate knowledge of not only what sustainability is, but more importantly, how to apply it to their jobs and how it can benefit their business.
Mar
30
Huffington Post
The financial meltdown of 2008 will be remembered as a crisis not only of regulation, but of values; a painful reminder that good markets run on trust, and not only self-interest. Even Adam Smith's butcher understood that selling unsafe meat, no matter how profitably, was a terribly bad idea, both for his clients and himself.
Mar
12
Green Economy Post
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) jobs appear to have been another casualty of the global economic recession. But, the good news is that, like other economic indicators, this one appears to be on the upswing.
Mar
4
Wall Street Journal
Corporations Work With Schools to Train Potential Employees, but Jobs Are Scarce
Mar
2
Huffington Post
"It took me like ten years to graduate. I was working on my consulting business at the same time, and University only began to prepare me after I got all this work experience," Munira Ravji, the founder of a socially conscious event-planning company called Bene-Fete, told us. Like Munira, a lot of young entrepreneurs are finding that their education is simply not enough to prepare them for the work they want to do, and are looking for other ways to get the training and experience they need.
Mar
1
Bloomberg Businessweek
I returned from my trip to Portugal—a much needed three-day vacation from school—on Nov. 11 in such good spirits that the Paris train strike that doubled my travel time home seemed comical. With a refreshed motivation and eye-sparkling memories of my travel adventures with some of my new friends, I returned to HEC Paris (HEC Paris Full-Time MBA Profile) and commenced my five-week countdown.
Feb
18
IESE Top Stories
Europe's leading student-run conference on responsible business, "Doing Good and Doing Well (DGDW)" is set to take place next week, Feb. 26-27, on IESE Business School's Barcelona campus.
Feb
15
Environmental Leader
Upon first glance, the idea of a corporate green team may seem fairly simple—a small effort that allows a subset of employees to gather around a shared interest. In practice, however, green teams can be much more powerful than that. They can inspire, activate, and engage employees to create meaningful changes within a company.
Feb
1
Next Billion
To date, the track record of strategic, sustainable and successful engagement in BoP markets from corporations is extremely weak. Although companies such as SC Johnson, Dupont/Solae, and Danone have penetrated BoP markets with products and services that arguably make the poor better off, the list of successful corporate BoP projects remains quite short. In 2010, NextBillion readers will be looking for more companies with major product development and R&D budgets, proven marketing abilities, and pools of enterprise-savvy talent to lead social and economic development at the BoP.
Jan
25
Triple Pundit
What do you get when you take top MBA students who possess knowledge of sustainability and place them in companies for a summer? The answer: Environmental Defense Fund’s (EDF) Climate Corps. (Full disclosure: we’re proud to have EDF as an affiliate here at 3p, but think the Climate Corps is a great program all on its own). On January 21, 2010, EDF began the third year of the Climate Corps
Jan
21
EDF+Business
Today, EDF announced the first 20 companies that have signed on to our Climate Corps program for summer 2010. It’s amazing how far this program has come since we launched it two years ago.
May
15
Associated Press
The economic meltdown has given rise to a new generation of socially-conscious business school students. AP Business Editor Mark Hamrick reports that a growing organization is helping to drive the change.
