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| Dear Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise Alumni & Friends, | | Like many of you, we are cautiously optimistic that the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) which closed this month with a collective response to the climate crisis from nearly 200 nations may, in the words of the UN, “signal the ‘beginning of the end’ of the fossil fuel era by laying the ground for a swift, just and 'equitable transition, underpinned by deep emissions cuts and scaled-up finance.” It is about time. While promises are not action, the continued interest we see in the private sector for investing in energy transition, stemming biodiversity loss, and ensuring functional societies that determine the viability of healthy economies motivate us to push forward in our efforts to prepare effective leaders who can meet the evolving needs in the marketplace. | | To that end, it was through the leadership of the Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor of Management and Faculty Director of MBA and MPS Programs Glen Dowell, who worked collaboratively with faculty to ensure every core course in the 2-year residential MBA program introduced sustainability in their classrooms this year for the first time. This was in addition to sustainability being added as a required course in the MPS program last spring. Similarly, the leadership from Professor of Marketing and Faculty Director of EMBA and MSBA Programs Manoj Thomas ensured adoption of a core program sustainability course for both the Metro and Americas EMBA programs (half our non-residential degree programs!). These are significant steps in our curriculum that remain aspirational among nearly all of our top peer MBA programs. | | Other highlights include continued success for our Sustainable Tourism Asset Management Program (STAMP) which was featured in both the Business of Conservation Conference in August and the industry’s most exclusive forum, the World Travel & Tourism Council’s annual Global Summit in November, both of which were held in Kigali, Rwanda. Additionally, the program looks forward to the pending release and publication of its new teaching case focused on sustainable tourism. Stay tuned for more announcements about that program’s growth globally in the coming months! | | We are excited to announce the launch of a new program: the Integrated Venture Engineering Program (IVEP)! Managing co-directors, Dr. Erik Simanis (PhD ’10) and Tom Manuel bring decades of experience working with companies to develop innovative, profitable new ventures that can help solve pressing environmental and social challenges. Unlike other methods which tend to focus on customer discovery processes, their unique methodology draws from techniques in systems engineering for analyzing and evaluating new ventures by focusing on two processes necessary for long-term venture success: core functionality and business unit viability. See more below! | | Looking ahead, as you may know, the Center is about to celebrate an important milestone as 2024 marks its 20th Anniversary! We have planned a year’s worth of activities and hope you will chose to join us in some ways to commemorate past success, present efforts, and future opportunities. One activity we are particularly excited about is our effort to highlight the great work of our alumni in the sustainability domain. You can help by nominating notable alumni engaged in and/or have demonstrated leadership, impact, and/or achievements in the domain of sustainability (environmental and/or social impact) in their careers and/or personal pursuits. Nominees will be reviewed by a committee on a rolling basis, and finalists will be featured throughout the year. Please consider nominating someone here! | | Finally, a reminder that our 19th cohort will be going through the SGE Immersion program starting at the end of January. If your company is interested in having a multidisciplinary team of graduate students engage on a sustainability-related business project in the spring, don’t hesitate to reach out and let us know! | | Wherever you may be in the world – and whatever aspect of sustainability you may be working on – stay safe and healthy; keep us posted on your highlights and happenings; and let us know how we can be helpful to you. | | Sincerely, | | Mark Milstein | | Faculty Director of the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise |
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| Cornell Business Impact Symposium | | April 13th, 2024 | | Cornell Ithaca Campus |
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| 20th Anniversary Celebration | | The Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise turns 20 in 2024! Stay tuned for information on events and celebrations to be held throughout the year. |
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| If you'd like to be involved in planning the 20th Anniversary Celebrations, please contact Monica Touesnard. |
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| Student Success in Thailand Pitch Competition |
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| In June, with support from the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise, Hailee Greene and Danielle Falcon, both MBA ‘24, traveled to Bangkok, Thailand to represent Cornell and pitch their business, GreeneAcres Processing, in the SCG Bangkok Business Challenge at Sasin School of Management, Chulalongkorn University. Of 172 worldwide submissions, only 20 teams were invited to Thailand to compete in-person during the semi-finals. GreeneAcres Processing was selected for the sustainability round finals, and won best presentation in their semi-final small group, as well as best written business plan in the competition. Congratulations, Hailee and Danielle! Read more about their experience here. |
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| ESG Investing Research Conference |
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| Sustainability Leadership LEGO Workshop |
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| In August, Yasuhiro Karakawa (MBA ’12), Managing Director of Market Creation Strategies (Asia) who is also a Lego Master and author of “The Playful Ants,” led a special interactive Lego workshop for MBA students interested in improving their sustainability-related leadership and career planning. The workshop provided students a unique opportunity to creatively explore their attitudes toward sustainability and reflect on how they might incorporate it into their careers in the future. |
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| In October, as part of our ongoing collaboration with the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business to facilitate private sector engagement and investment to address food insecurity in New York State, we co-hosted a virtual workshop for the project research teams working on controlled environment agriculture, food-as-medicine, healthy retail, food hubs/infrastructure, food finance, and food & nutrition assistance. As the teams move their work forward, we are emphasizing the need for viable recommendations to account for competitive realities in the marketplace to elicit lasting engagement from companies to solve this difficult challenge. |
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| Rwanda Sustainable Tourism Case Study |
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| In October, faculty director Mark Milstein, STAMP managing director Megan Epler Wood and STAMP program manager O’Shannon Burns organized a workshop in Kigali, Rwanda to debut a new teaching case for Rwandan academics from around the country who analyzed the case in a classroom setting. The case, scheduled to be completed in 2024, highlights the management challenges facing the Rwanda Development Board (RDB; the country’s government agency responsible for economic development in Rwanda) as it seeks to balance the competing demands of expanding the tourism economy and the need to conserve the wildlife on which that tourism depends. The development of the case was made possible through financial support from the Mastercard Foundation, which enable the team to conduct research that examined RDB’s approach to develop the next generation of conservation policies and practices; balance nature-based tourism growth with conservation management to streamline operations; and help attract new conservation-related funding. |
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| World Travel and Tourism Council Global Summit |
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| In November, at the request of the Rwanda Development Board, co-host for this year’s World Travel & Tourism Council Global Summit (which was held in Africa for the first time), STAMP organized a panel discussion on Pursuing an Innovative Balance Between Tourism Growth and Conservation. Moderated by STAMP program manager, O’Shannon Burns, the panel featured audience engagement and discussion among panelists faculty director, Mark Milstein; RDB Conservation Company interim managing director, Eugene Mutangana; and Volcanoes Safaris founder, Praveen Moman. |
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| Cornell Energy Connection |
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| On November, the 14th annual Cornell Energy Connection was held at the Cornell Tech campus in NYC attracting nearly 200 people. The conference, which brought students and energy professionals together to discuss “Empowering the Energy Transition”, included a fireside chat with Sarah Slusser, CEO of Cypress Creek Renewables, and student-organized panels focused on Energy Capital Markets, Agrivoltaics, Critical Minerals, and Advanced Technologies in the Energy Transition. A networking lunch and reception enabled students to engage directly with sponsors Con Edison, Chevron, Distributed Sun, Emerson, Marathon Capital, Ascend Analytics, CPower, and LS Power. To see the event agenda, visit the event website. |
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| Launch of Integrated Venture Engineering Program (IVEP) |
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| In December, the center launched the Integrated Venture Engineering Program (IVEP) to focus on overcoming the complexity and uncertainty associated with innovating new, profitable ventures meant to help solve sustainability challenges. Managed by co-directors Dr. Erik Simanis (PhD ’10) and Tom Manuel, IVEP is a partnership between Cornell’s Center for Global Sustainable Enterprise, The International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) and IVE Systems. The IVEP promotes a new methodology that applies the science of systems engineering used to innovate any new, complex systems to business venture creation. In the coming months, the program will launch its IVE Experiential Learning Labs for companies, investors, entrepreneurs, and academics. For more information about the program, email IVEP@cornell.edu. |
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| Sustainable Tourism Destination Management eCornell Course |
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| Throughout the second half of 2023, the Sustainable Tourism Asset Management Program (STAMP) continued to award financial support packages for in-need applicants from a variety of developing nations which were made possible through a grant from GIZ and the support of the Travel Foundation. Of the 1,000 spots available, over 500 students have received support for the self-paced Sustainable Tourism Destination Management online course over the past year from Africa, Asia and Latin America. The program will continue in 2024, during which time we will seek opportunities to expand it. |
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| Leaders in Susatainable Global Enterprise Colloquium |
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| We want to recognize and thank the Fall 2023 speakers in the Leaders in Sustainable Global Enterprise Colloquium who shared their experiences and knowledge, including: | - Dr. Keenan Adams, Forest Supervisor of El Yunque National Forest for the US Forest Service
- Doug Beal (BS ‘89), Partner and Director, Global Head of Social Impact in Financial Institutions at Boston Consulting Group
- Kristen Graf (BS ‘01), Global Director of Environmental and Social Responsibility at Darn Tough Vermont
- Natalie Flournoy Grillon (MBA ‘12), Executive Director of Open Supply Hub
- Susan Buckwalter Hartman (MBA ‘12), Co-founder of Recoup Beverage
- Andy Ives, Founder and Head of production at 17th Century Suds
- Suzanne Long, Chief Sustainability and Transformation Officer at Albertsons
- Dr. Cliff Rossi (PhD ‘85), Professor-of-the-Practice, Director of the Smith Enterprise Risk Consortium and Executive-in-Residence at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland
- Monica Hauser Wolff, Director of Lenovo's Global Corporate Citizenship and Environmental, Social and Governance Communications
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| Social Impact Internship Fund (SIIF) Awardees |
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| Established in 2015, the Social Impact Internship Fund (SIIF) provides funding to Johnson residential MBA students who take a low- or no-compensation summer internship directly involved in social or environmental impact. The fund is administered by the Career Management Center and Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise. Lacking an endowment, funding for the SIIF varies each year based on alumni gifts. 2023 SIFF recipients included: | - Kehkashan Basu, intern at Atkinson Center for Sustainability in Fishery Performance Research
- Dominic Bryan, summer associate at New Climate Ventures
- Clevia (Dan) Bu, business strategy intern at Activate
- Marcus Le, strategic planning and societal risk analyst intern at Quantum Risk Analytics, Inc.
- Yang Lyu, summer associate at New Climate Ventures
- Yuchan Wang, programme management intern at UN-Habitat (United Nations Human Settlements Programme) in Kenya
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| Center-Advised Student Clubs |
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| Cornell Energy Club (graduate) |
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| The Cornell Energy Club had busy fall, starting with new member education that covered many topics across the energy industry. The club also welcomed several speakers including Jeff Weiss (’79), Founder and Executive Chairman of Distributed Sun who talked about the future of renewables; Katya Samoteskul from Invenergy who spoke about the challenges of offshore wind development; and Jesse Parker (MBA ’21) and Adam Glassl from Emerson Electric who hosted an “energy treasure hunt” in Sage Hall where students identified and discussed energy savings for the building. For more information about the club’s news and events, visit and follow the club’s LinkedIn page! |
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| Sustainable Global Enterprise Club (graduate) |
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| The Sustainable Global Enterprise (SGE) Club welcomed alumni and industry professionals from Boston Consulting Group, Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency, EY-Parthenon, Emerson, Latent Productions, LEK, McKinsey, Nomura Greentech, and Third Derivative to speak on topics including impact investing, energy transition, circular economy, and more. |
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| The SGE Club also hosted multiple social events throughout the fall semester, including an event at the Big Red Barn with members from Tech, Energy, Healthcare, General Management and Marketing Clubs. Besides speakers and events, the Club piloted a Sustainability Consulting Career Work Group (CWG) with six first year MBAs, created a SGE club guide to introduce incoming MBAs to the sustainability ecosystem at Johnson, and conducted a crowdfunding campaign for the Social Impact Internship Fund in partnership with the MBA Student Council. |
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| Cornell Sustainability Consultants (undergraduate) |
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| | | Cornell Sustainable Consulting (CSC) Club teams continued working with long-term partners and formed several new teams in the Fall semester. Partners and projects students worked on, included: |
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- Sustainable Tourism Asset Management Program (STAMP): a new project to aid in developing a virtual tool to help businesses and governments negatively impacted by tourism.
- Earth Cups: to review their profitability and develop recommendations for expansion and growth for their product that is an alternative to disposable plastic cups.
- Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce: the student team continued their work on a sustainability toolkit for their members and plans to work directly with the chamber’s members next semester.
- Prison City Brewing: a new project that covered a range of issues such as wastewater pollution, a byproduct seltzer, phytoremediation, and B-corp certification.
- Eco-Village Ithaca: a new partnership that is exploring a revenue model and marketing strategy to engage new demographics like graduate students in the area.
- The Carbon Calculators team: continued working with existing partners AEIS and WA:IT and started working with Carbini, while working to streamline their internal consulting process in relation to the Inflation Reduction Act.
- SWEEP Standard: CSC continued this long-term partnership by working on a pilot gap analysis for universities with the long-term goal of helping Cornell get SWEEP Certified.
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| Impact Investing at Cornell (undergraduate) |
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| This past semester Impact Investing at Cornell (IIC) successfully recruited new members from 4 different colleges across campus and introduced them to finance, professional development, and impact investing through their Associate Development Program. |
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| This semester also featured 4 speakers from Barclays Sustainable and Impact Banking, Schroders Greencoat, and Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. They spoke to the club members on topics such as impact related career development, perceptions of sustainability within finance, and ESG trends. IIC also partners with firms every year to provide members with industry relevant experience. This semester projects are underway with repeat partners, including: CNote, a women lead firm focused on investment in underserved communities; and CORI, which deals with the investment and development of rural areas. |
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- UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development Side Event: Panel on Ensuring Equitable Access to Clean Drinking Water for Women and Girls Using Clean Energy Technology. July 10, 2023. Panelist: Monica Touesnard (in-person)
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| Note: The Publications and news articles below reflect the work of the broad Business of Sustainability Interdisciplinary Theme affiliated faculty across the college. Some work is directly related to sustainability in business; other work is indirectly related to the domain. |
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| Soto, Gerardo E., Steven Wilcox, Patrick E. Clark, Francesco P. Fava, Nathan M. Jensen, Njoki Kahiu, Chuan Liao, Benjamin Porter, Ying Sun, and Christopher B. Barrett. November 2023. Mapping Rangeland Health Indicators in East Africa from 2000 to 2022. Earth System Science Data. |
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| Class of ‘22 | | Shayna Krasnoff (MS ‘22) for starting a new position as Senior Analyst, Impact Advisory at Resonance. | | Class of ‘20 | | Zach Koser (MBA ‘20) for starting a new position as Senior Associate, ESG Advisory at Apex Group Ltd. | | Class of ‘19 | | Christina Chan (MBA ‘19) for starting a new position as Chief of Staff, Hyperscale Data Centers at Corning. | | Lauren Palazzola (MBA ‘19) on the birth of her son Jack. | | Class of ‘18 | | Preet Jassi (MBA ‘18) on the birth of his daughter Vaiya. | | Class of ‘17 | | Fargo Balliett (MMH ‘17) on his marriage to Quinn Leary. | | Patrick Grumley (MBA ‘17) for starting a new position as Co-Founder and COO at Arena Renewables. | | Geoff Johnson (MBA ‘17) for starting a new position as Co-Founder, President and CDO at Arena Renewables. | | Class of ‘16 | | Rizwan Ahmed (MBA ‘16) for starting a new position as Director, Finance and Analytics at SquareTrade. | | Arran Bardige (MBA ‘16) for starting a new position as Executive Director of Audience, Opinion and Sub Brands at The New York Times. |
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| Class of ‘16 (cont'd) | | Adna Karabegovic (MRP ‘16) for starting a new position as Donor Relations Manager at The Rockefeller Foundation. | | Mauricio Medaets (MBA ‘16) for starting a new position as Senior Product Operations Manager II, AV Performance at Cruise. | | Robert Mineo II (MBA ‘16) for starting a new position as Managing Director at FMI. | | Vivian Sun (MPA ’16) for starting a new position as Head of Automated Driving at Amazon. | | Isaac Toussie (MBA ‘16) on the birth of his son Max. | | Class of ‘11 | | Celia Benton (MRP ‘11) for starting a new position as Director of Economic Development at Milwaukee County. | | Class of ‘10 | | Ashley Grove (MBA ‘10) for starting a new position as Senior Director of Learning & Organizational Development at Vail Resorts. | | Class of ‘09 | | Jeffrey Gangemi (MBA ‘09) for starting a new position as Practice Director, Growth Marketing at Toptal. | | Hilary Lashley Renison (MBA ‘09) on the birth of her daughter Aaliyah. | | Class of ‘00 | | Angela Mwanza (MBA ‘00) for starting a new position as Managing Director at Rockefeller Capital Management. |
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