Net Impact Blog: Partner Stories
Net Impact believes that real change comes through collaboration. Our partners and sponsors work closely with us to develop on-the-job impact opportunities for thousands of students and professionals around the world.
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Fatten Your Resume and Your Wallet – While Building Nonprofit Capacity
Win up to $2,000 for you and your org with Projects for Good’s Challenge Grant
Projects for Good connects students who have the will – and skills – to make an impact with organizations who need them. Still in its pilot phase, our new online matchmaking site has already registered hundreds of students interested in flexing their business muscles on nonprofit and social venture projects. We're now offering an exciting cash grant to participants who demonstrate the greatest impact.
Building a Pipeline for Water Reuse
Net Impact partner turns students into Water Matchmakers
Most of us probably know the global statistics well: 1.2 billion people without access to improved water supply and 2.4 billion people without access to sanitation. Kate Peabody, Net Impact member and communications strategist for the CH2M HILL Water Business Group shares how we can make the most of one of our most precious resources – water...
Renewing the Idea of a Resilient Future
OneEnergy Scholars build a network of renewable energy leaders
It often takes a crisis to get everyone talking about renewables – for instance, when energy grids cripple into wide-scale blackout. Yet, time and again, especially in the United States, conversation falls to the wayside in place of other issues vying for the public’s attention. Fortunately, OneEnergy Scholars are set on talking about and tackling those challenges head on.
Measuring Shared Value: Not Your Father's CSR
Greg Hills of FSG offers his thoughts on the business side of social impact
Consider the following concepts: root cause analysis...lean six sigma...weekly, quarterly, and annual reviews. Do these concepts sound like core business practices or ways to achieve social impact? Greg Hills, Managing Director at FSG shares his thoughts on the emerging concept of measuring shared value on a panel at the recent Net Impact Conference...
Reflections On an Unlikely Partnership: Waste Management & Recyclebank
Dave Aardsma of Waste Management shares his company’s latest challenge – and the opportunities it brings
This year, Dave Aardsma delivered a keynote with Jonathan Hsu, CEO of Recyclebank—a vast online community and incentive platform for recycling—and Marc Gunther, a writer and speaker specializing in business and sustainability issues (and Net Impact Board member). Our conversation focused on the power of partnerships, including the challenges and opportunities my own company experienced in bringing together Waste Management’s huge curbside collection infrastructure—the largest in the nation—and Recyclebank...
Share These Books: Introducing the Net Impact Library
For as long as we’ve had documented information, we’ve had libraries. Magnets for the curious and inquisitive, they offer us a world of ideas waiting to be cracked open and put to use. So when Herman Miller (a Net Impact sponsor) approached us with the idea of a Net Impact library, we eagerly embraced the opportunity. Of course, this isn’t your ordinary collection of books.
Check Out These Winning Ideas for Social Innovation
If you've ever wondered how to measure the value of diversity – ethnic diversity, certainly, but also diversity of backgrounds, diversity of ideas, and diversity of skills – look no further than the winners of this year's Walmart Better Living Business Plan Challenge. Open to universities across the country, the Challenge gave 50 teams the chance to pitch their sustainable business solution or product to Walmart executives (and score some seed funding). The University of Virginia team includes undergraduate, graduate, and PhD students majoring in engineering, medicine, public health, business, and more. United around the global health crisis, they pooled their areas of expertise to create PureMadi, a uniquely effective water filtration system that combines modern engineering with the low-tech practicality of nature's own materials.
From Brainstorm to Business: Walmart Challenge Semifinalists Announced (3 of 3)
Over the past week, we've been introducing our eight Walmart Better Living Business Plan Challenge semifinalists. These student teams are competing for the chance to pitch their idea to C-level Walmart executives - and for $35,000 in seed money to launch a business that tackles a critical social or environmental problem. Today, we introduce the final three semifinalists.
From Brainstorm to Business: Walmart Challenge Semifinalists Announced (2 of 3)
Last Friday, we introduced two of our eight Walmart Better Living Business Plan Challenge semifinalists. These student teams are competing for the chance to pitch their idea to C-level Walmart executives - and for $35,000 in seed money to launch a business that tackles a critical social or environmental problem. Today, we introduce three more semifinalists.
For 3M's Kurt Werner, Finding Impact Work Is About the Chemistry
You may know 3M's ubiquitous yellow Post-it notes and plaid-swathed Scotch tape but Kurt Werner, Environmental Affairs Manager for the company's electronics markets, has spent his career focusing on many of 3M's 55,000 other products. Many of these are distributed in highly-regulated markets like manufacturing, healthcare, transportation, and safety and security – and that means Kurt has his hands full to ensure not only legal compliance but environmental safety, as well.
Performance with Purpose
During their conversations together, Emily Kiely and a group of her PepsiCo colleagues would often talk about how they wanted the world to be, and what they could to do to help it get that way. “What would happen if we took all of the passion, creativity, and energy we put into a brand launch or marketing campaign, and instead channel it into some kind of challenge in the ‘real world?’” Emily recalls thinking. “What kind of impact could we make and what kind of solutions would we come up with?”
Needmap Video Earns Liquidnet Finalist $1k
The Liquidnet "Markets for Good Challenge" is aimed at making your giving more effective. Together with Net Impact, Liquidnet has challenged student teams to improve performance-based giving through innovative solutions. This year, Liquidnet introduced an additional $1,000 prize to the team's video that best showcased their idea. And the winner is…Needmap! We asked Vladimir Dubovskiy, the co-founder and CTO of Needmap, a few questions about his winning video.
Lifetime Members Play an Inside Role
Net Impact members are known for their commitment to making an impact through their work – and Lifetime members are no exception. In fact, these folks are so dedicated, they're even helping to shape our strategy. And it's a good thing, too, because there are some exciting new things in the works for Net Impact.
Defining Sustainability at a Fortune 50
For Target's Kate Heiny, the first challenge as sustainability group manager isn't driving sustainable practices within a Fortune 50 company. It's educating 355,000 people on what sustainability means. But she's up for the challenge.
Start the Shift: Q&A with FedEx's Mitch Jackson
As part of its Start the Shift campaign, FedEx recently announced an increase in the number of fuel-efficient vehicles it uses. The goal is to ease our reliance on oil, while reducing the company's environmental impact by getting more all-electric and electric-hybrid FedEx Express vehicles on the road. Mitch Jackson, vice president of FedEx's Environmental Affairs and Sustainability, answers questions from Net Impact about the campaign and the company's overall mission to address energy and sustainability issues.
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