On Friday February 3, 2012, MBA Sustainability students and one of our consulting course instructors (Diane Ramos) participated in a hands-on Idea Cafe at Deloitte’s Pittsburgh headquarters, gaining insight to how the international consulting giant “helps clients with their toughest challenges” by aligning solutions to the C-suite priorities of their clients.

Our Deloitte hosts were two Duquesne University Business School alumni — Brad Johnson, Relationship Senior Manager, and Stacey Puskar, a Senior Management Consultant. Amy Holmes, a Pittsburgh-based Deloitte recruiter, also participated and took the time to meet with students who are interested in consulting careers.

Johnson introduced a method that Deloitte uses to identify solution paths for a particular project. He demonstrated how Deloitte’s “Enterprise Value Map” and a matrix technique are used to place a value on alternative solutions. We were then divided into small working groups and guided through a food industry case study where we applied the techniques to come up with recommendations for enhancing revenue, raising operating profits, and using assets more efficiently.

The time spent with Deloitte will benefit us as we work on our second consulting projects. We will have new techniques for identifying “value levers” and “decision criteria” and for helping our clients “determine which actions should get energy behind them.” We also learned what Deloitte values in an applicant, and some of us enjoyed promising “face time” with a well-regarded employer of MBA graduates.

On a local level, Ms. DeMarco spoke about Chatham’s Eden Hall campus and the university’s response to the President’s Climate Challenge. Chatham University is the home of The Rachel Carson Institute as part of the University’s new School of Sustainability and the Environment which will be located at the Eden Hall Campus. The Eden Hall Campus is being built as a sustainable, low impact campus.

DeMarco also spoke about energy on a macro level including consumption issues in both the United States and developing world.
She discussed the current archaic grid system and opportunities for change noting that two-thirds of energy produced is wasted in transmission. The infrastructure necessary to reshape the grid system will not be an easy task. DeMarco offered a parallel example explaining the infrastructure needed for cars and roads when the automobile was first invented.

Our class enjoyed both the presentation and question and answer portion with Ms. DeMarco.  More information on The Rachel Carson Institute can be found at http://www.chatham.edu/rachelcarson/

This semester, my project team is working with EverPower Wind to research and forecast future energy demands and how wind will play a part in this new energy landscape. The conference left our team feeling eager and excited to be doing a project in an ever changing and growing industry.

By: Erin Fargo and Maureen Coyle

Completing Our First Client Engagement

Last week, the Duquesne MBA- Sustainability class of 2012 delivered another milestone. We completed the 51st consulting project since the program was launched in 2007. In early October, The Heinz Company presented the sMBA cohort with the challenge of measuring and developing Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions specific to one of its well known brands. Scope 3 emissions can represent up to 70% of a product’s carbon footprint and present a huge opportunity for reducing environmental impact. With the guidance of Dr. Robert Sroufe and Diane Ramos (course faculty), students were asked to analyze inbound and outbound transportation data and develop team-specific bounds, goals, recommendations, and alternatives. The cohort was divided into six teams, each focusing on a raw material for production and a different competitor of Heinz.

The intense eight weeks of research and analysis led up to final presentations at the Heinz Global Headquarters, located in PPG Place, where teams delivered their research, findings, and recommendations to a panel of seven Heinz executives.
Calming the Nerves

Much like the Heinz presentation, a huge part of our MBA experience involves group work and presentations. Initially, those comfortable with public speaking really stand out, while others struggle to tame the nerves associated with presenting. However, as cliché as it sounds, practice makes perfect. It has been amazing to watch classmates transform into confident and well-informed presenters in just three months.

In preparation for this, many of the groups worked on presentation skills. Groups worked with our director, asked classmates to count “ums” during rehearsals, and prepared individually by practicing in front of the mirror and even recording themselves speaking.

The results were incredible. It was such a rewarding and great team feeling to watch our classmates executing the delivery of a project that required so much effort. We were really able to take a step back and realize the professional development that has already occurred during just one semester of the program.

If you visit the offices of Revive Station, a start-up in Pittsburgh’s South Side you will find a ping-pong table, motorcycles inside the office, a bicycle roped to the ceiling, even a few samurai swords. You will also find twenty somethings who are on the career adventure of a lifetime.

Recently, our class took a visit to the offices of Revive Station. Revive station is the world’s first individual bottle cleaning & filling and multivitamin dispensing kiosk. They provide reusable bottle cleaning, filtered water & flavored drink dispensing, and a daily multivitamin. All of these services are entirely free– including one double-wall stainless steel reusable bottle – made possible by sponsors through highly-targeted messaging, advertisements, and offers. Revive Stations will be placed at colleges, universities, businesses, and fitness centers in March 2012.

CEO Tom Petrini, an alumnus of the program, discussed candidly the struggles of starting a company and taking big career risks. He spoke of the process of finding investors and what was involved in physically developing the Revive Station. Blake Barnes works on the business development and sales side of Revive and spoke about the importance of networking to get meetings with decision makers of the company. His advice was to not be afraid to walk into a room with C-level executives that may be twice your age. If you have a good product and sound presentation, they will listen. The four also spoke about the risks of leaving stable jobs with large companies to embark on an entrepreneurial journey. Jason and Steve spoke about family and friends reactions to going to work for a startup company.

Throughout our program, we get to experience many site visits, client projects, and guest speaker sessions. Revive Station was a refreshing environment and inspiring for those students with an entrepreneurial spirit. Being able to contrast this company with some of the larger companies we visited was a great way to get a feel for the type of work environment students want to look for post-graduation.

Revive Station will launch its product at ten locations in March 2012. The team is very excited to start seeing the feedback, usage, and most importantly, success of their product.

For more information, visit Revive station at www.revivestation.com/

Background: Kimberly Alberts grew up in Tyrone, Georgia and attended Georgia Tech completing her undergraduate in mechanical engineering. She completed a co-op program which focused on design engineering. After graduating, Kim worked in OEM manufacturing and helped engineer products for Ford and the military. Kim then worked as a process engineer with a construction company.

Why she chose Duquesne: While working as a process engineer, Kimberly was able to get some hands on experience with sustainability in the construction world. Upon learning about Duquesne, she thought this would be a good program to complement her engineering degree and sustainability interests. Additional selling points included the travel abroad opportunities and the city of Pittsburgh itself.

Career Interests: Engineering Design, Product Development, Sustainable Processes

Personal: Kimberly was valedictorian of her high school in Tyrone, Georgia. She likes to sew, cook and travel (and wishes she had time to do more of these things during the program). Her past travels include Germany, France, England, Belgium, and Canada.

On November 10th, The Beard Institute and Donahue Graduate School of Business at Duquesne University will host the 5th annual Beard Symposium on Sustainability.

Our sMBA class will be at the symposium as both attendees and participants. Gearing up for the symposium, our teams have created posters to be on display that address key topics in the sustainability space. Posters on topics such as tracking scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, life cycle analysis, carbon disclosure, water scarcity, microfinance, and food supply chain challenges will be on display throughout the day. We will be spending time at these posters to answer questions and will be attending the many speakers and presentations.

The keynote speaker is Peter Senge, coauthor of The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization and The Necessary Revolution.

Ted Senko, Global Chief Executive, Climate Change and Sustainability Services at KPMG, Chris Park, Principal of Sustainability, Energy and Environment Practice, Deloitte, and Zoe Tcholak-Antitch, Director, North America, Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) USA will also be speaking. The afternoon’s keynote address will come from Jean Sweeney, Vice President, Environmental Health Safety and Sustainability Operations, 3M.

As a student, this is an exciting opportunity to network and engage with people that have careers in the sustainability space. Additionally, this symposium has a “systems thinking” approach. Having taken a course in systems, I am eager and interested to see its applicability in a non-classroom environment.

For more information : http://www.duq.edu/beard-symposium/

Background

Why she chose Duquesne: Em recognized Duquesne as having one of the most integrated sustainability programs, above and beyond elective choices.  She believed that the course offerings and being able to put her education into practice during the program through client engagements and team projects were critical to her decision and desire to obtain an MBA.

Career Interests: Green Building Industry, Energy Efficiency, Resource Renewal and Reuse, Companies focused on sustainability and natural systems.

Personal: Em enjoys cooking, health/fitness, and travel. In undergrad, she had the opportunity to travel abroad with St’ Andrew’s Sustainable Development program in Scotland.  There she took courses in areas of climate change, environmental management, business and corporate social responsibility, and sustainable technologies.

Her mantra: “I look forward to having a part in helping people find what happiness means to them within the intricacies of their own life, rather than searching for what life gives them. When in doubt, just shake your head and laugh.”

Two quotes struck me and were extremely pertinent to life as an SMBA student.

“I’ve looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, If today were the last day of my life would I want to do what I am about to do today? And whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row I know I need to change something.”

Chatting with some classmates, I brought up this very quote. The wonderful answer is that most of us would be doing what we are doing if today were the last day. We all made a big change when deciding to do a full time MBA program. We have accepted the challenges of graduate school and the opportunities to better ourselves and gain experiences in the classroom and internationally. Many of us left previous jobs and roles because we knew we needed to change something.

“You have got to find what you love. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking and don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you will know when you find it. Keep looking. Don’t settle.”

One of the great things about the MBA, Sustainability program is that many are here because sustainability and the environment are truly a passion. Regardless of whether my classmates and I have a known career path after graduation, I think we are on the right track because we have a passion about the topic we are studying. This passion and our education will allow us to do something we truly love.

I am so happy to have grown up in a generation of technology and innovation and have Steve Jobs to thank for much of that. His speech at Stanford, his life at Apple and Pixar, and his death are all reminders to follow your passions and find a way to do what you love. Thanks Steve.