Profitable business practices are not commonly associated with environmentalism, but a new campus business club aims to change that.
The Society for Green Business was informally formed about two months ago to encourage sustainable and environmentally friendly business practices, said senior logistics and marketing major Brandon Moffitt, a club co-founder. Club members hope to host guest speakers and have weekly club discussions, Moffitt said.
0nce the group gains some prominence, members plan to form committees to analyze environmental practices on the campus and around College Park, they said. When needed, they will present solutions to environmental problems.
Club president Gavin Christiansen, a senior marketing major, said the business school curriculum does not focus enough on green business practices and that the society will fill that void.
“I saw it as something that was missing in the business school,” he said.
Group members also want to inform their business school peers so they can make positive environmental decisions when they leave the university, they said.
“In order to be a productive society, we have to take care of the Earth first,” said senior marketing major Danielle LoRusso, the group’s vice president of marketing.
Group members said they want to study companies that prioritize the environment in their daily workings. The club’s list of guest speakers to invite includes a General Electric representative because of the company’s Ecomagination initiative, which combines profitability with ecologically sound products.
More businesses should follow General Electric’s model, Moffitt said.
“They are sound business practices that make you more efficient, but they also minimize use on resources and, in a lot of cases, they save organizations money,” Moffitt said.
The society is off to a fast start. Two weeks ago it received official approval from the Smith Undergraduate Student Association, which entitles the club to funding and allows it to use the Van Munching Building for meetings and events. The Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization at the Universities at Shady Grove has also asked the society to get involved in its yearly conference, Moffitt said.
For now, though, the club is planning for next semester and is most concerned with building a member base beyond approximately 25 students, Moffitt said. Part of the challenge is overcoming students’ stereotypes, he said.
“A lot of people think, when you say Society of Green Business, ‘Oh, you guys probably go out and plant trees,'” Moffitt said. “They think you’re hippies.”
The university seems primed for this type of group. Last month, the university hosted Power Shift, the largest-ever youth climate change conference. In October, the student group LEAFhouse won second place in the Solar Decathlon competition for an energy-efficient house it designed and built. And this past summer, online environmental news publication Grist ranked the university the 15th-greenest campus in the world.
Business school adjunct professor David Ashley, the group’s faculty advisor, said he was excited to be involved.
“I think the mission is a good one,” he said. “It will elevate the issue in a way that will help position the university to be at the forefront of this issue, which is really taking flight now.”
The group represents a different focus for some business students, LoRusso said.
“Many people in the business school don’t think twice how their occupation affects the environment – they are more concerned with their checks,” she said. “I think that by starting up this group, we can make the business school more aware of the environmental effects their future employers have on the Earth.”
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