Women, Responsible Leadership and the MBA (part 4): Women on campus

22 April 2013 by Leave a comment

imagesBusiness schools around the world have taken a wide range of approaches when it comes to providing specific opportunities to promote and empower women in business. In the first blog we looked at range of resources on this topic and in the second post we looked at schools that provide a range of free certificate programmes through the 10,000 Women initiative. The third post looked at programmes being developed to empower women in the corporate world. Now, this post will consider the range of ways that schools are bringing up these issues to campus. 

Social Enterprise Week is an annual event where student clubs at the Graziadio School of Business and Management host a range of events to communicate the value of social and environmental responsibility, as well as sound ethical practices in business. During this week, the MBA Women Club, part of an international network dedicated to the advancement of business women as corporate leaders, held a panel discussion on Achieving the Feminine Triple Bottom Line.

A large number of signatory schools, such as Queen’s School of Business in Canada and London Business School in the UK, are also members of the Forte Foundation, a non profit consortium of major corporations and top business schools working together to launch women into fulfilling, significant careers through access to business education and opportunities. The schools provide, among other things, scholarships for women with high potential.

The Simmons School of Management has done extensive research around how gender is explored at a range of different business schools around the world. In 2012 they had an intensive, interdisciplinary student experience entitled the Simmons World Challenge where teams of students are invited to work with a small team of faculty over their winter break to develop creative solutions for major world problems.  The 2012 World Challenge theme was “At the Edge of Poverty:  Empowering Women to Change their Lives and their Worlds.” The MBA concentration in Organizational Leadership continues to have as its primary focus the success of women in organizations. As part of this, Simmons added a travel course to the UAE, including attendance and active participation in the 2012 Women as Global Leaders Conference (WAGL).

Villanova School of Business in the US has a Women in Business Advocacy Committee, dedicated to proposing measures that will enable all students to explore and understand issues that confront women as business leaders. They collaborate with the university-level Women’s Executive Leadership Program to ensure that the needs of VSB undergraduate and graduate students, VSB alumnae, and VSB corporate partners are best served.

The University of New South Wales in Australia has several programmes focused on women. The Academic Women’s Employment Strategy 2012- 2014 positions gender equity as a strategic priority for UNSW. In 2012 for the eighth consecutive year, it was recognised as an Employer of Choice for its initiatives to support and advance women in the workplace by the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency. Initiatives developed under UNSW’s gender equity program include the Academic Women in Leadership program, the Vice-Chancellor’s Childcare Support Fund for Women Researchers and the Career Advancement Fund. The school has an Academic Women in Leadership Program, designed for women seeking to develop leadership capability and includes themes such as authentic style, executive influence, adaptive leadership, thought leadership and one-to-one coaching. Their AGSM Women Indigenous Leaders Scholarship is provided yearly to Indigenous women entering the Women in Leadership Programme.

Filed under 1-Purpose, 2-Values, 3-Method, 4-Research, 5-Partnership, 6-Dialogue, Australasia, Australia, Canada, North America, UK, United States, Western Europe Tagged with , , ,

Go Green Awards – 5 Questions with Victoria Johnsen from Aston Business School

21 August 2012 by Leave a comment

The Aston Go Green Awards were designed to give staff at Aston Business School the opportunity to get involved with efforts to improve environmental performance and awareness at the university. In its first year in 2010, 15 teams signed up on behalf of their departments, and the numbers have been growing ever since. Each year, departments create teams that receive a workbook for completion, which helps them focus on easy steps that they can take to improve sustainability in their department. These workbooks are then graded against a list of criteria, with Gold, Silver and Bronze prizes awarded. The Environment Team provides support for the teams along with a range of workshops. I recently had the chance to speak with Victoria Johnsen from the Environment Team about the project.

  1. Why did you decide to start the Awards, and how did you go about starting them?

We launched the awards because, whilst in the past we had run some successful student engagement projects, we hadn’t run any campaigns specifically aimed at staff. We wanted to do more to involve staff in our projects and to raise awareness of ‘green’ issues, and we felt that incentivising them would help to bring forward volunteers. At the beginning, we looked at other similar schemes in the sector and took inspiration from the ‘Green Impact’ awards, which is run by the National Union of Students (originally started as a student union campaign). We took the basic principles from this but adapted the scheme to fit in with Aston, drafting a series of criteria specific to our organisation and then promoting this heavily to encourage sign-ups.

  1. What were some of the challenges, and how did you overcome them?

The main challenge was in engaging staff, but we found that, by combining different communications (online, print and face-to-face) with direct requests from the University Executive team, we had a reasonable number of sign-ups. It was also challenging to maintain interest in the scheme, but we ran a series of workshops to try to make sure that staff remained engaged and, in the second year, launched an online ‘module’ so that staff could share ideas and pick up tips throughout the year.

  1. What have been some of your successes?

The awards have been well received, and we have recently been asked by the University Executive to extend the scheme to ensure that every department has its own champion, as they feel that this has proved to be an effective method of changing attitudes and behaviour. In general, feedback from the staff volunteers has been positive, and we have had the same volunteers signing up over both years, which has shown great commitment to the project.

  1. What are your plans/hopes for the programme moving forward?

We are now developing the scheme to ensure that there is a wider network of champions in place and that we offer them more support throughout the year. There will still be a ‘workbook’ of some description to complete, but there will be more events and training on offer and more social occasions for volunteers to get involved. We are also working on a series of ‘quick guides’ on topics like saving paper, heating FAQ’s, etc. that champions can share with their colleagues more easily.

  1. What would you recommend to other schools thinking of putting in place a similar programme?

Do it! Although the scheme has taken some time and effort to put in place, it has been well received and has really helped to raise awareness of ‘green’ issues, events and projects at the university. You need to be willing to put the time and investment in place to run the scheme actively, as volunteers need to feel that they are being offered support and that they are getting some benefits out of the scheme. It’s not always easy to engage people, so don’t expect the first year to be perfect but, with time, the scheme will grow and improve.

Filed under 3-Method, 5-Partnership, 6-Dialogue, UK, Western Europe Tagged with , , , ,

Creating a more Sustainable Campus: Water (part 2)

21 May 2012 by 3 Comments

Water saving programmes at Griffith University

Griffith University

Water is one of the 7 critical issues being discussed at the upcoming Rio+20 summit in Brazil. According to the Rio+20 website, by 2050, at least one in four people is likely to live in a country affected by chronic or recurring shortages of fresh water.

In a previous blog, we looked at how a growing number of campuses are choosing to Ban Water Bottles on Campus. In part 2 of this two part series, we look more broadly at a range of initiatives that business schools are taking part in to reduce the amount of water used on campus and raise awareness about issues relating to water.

Reducing water consumption

Griffith University encourages students to report dripping taps and water leaks to facilities management. The University also monitors, records and reports its water usage for the purpose of benchmarking and as a way to identify water saving opportunities. One of their campuses has 12 rainwater tanks that store over 200,000 litres of water, another building harvests water condensate from air conditioning to use in irrigation. Rainwater is harvested and used for toilet flushing in all new buildings.

The new building that houses the Walter E. Heller College of Business Administration at Roosevelt University is designed around “green” principles and is LEED-certified, which verifies use of sustainability principles in key performance areas, including site selection, water efficiency, energy efficiency, materials and indoor air quality. Illinois State University has installed multiple stormwater management features on campus, including a rain garden, two bioswales (designed to remove silt and pollution from runoff water) and three parking lots with permeable concrete. Grenoble Ecole de Management is implementing a range of water saving measures, including the use of reclaimed water in the sewage waste system and timed water faucets. Kyung Hee University School of Management green management practices include water-efficient landscaping in and around business school buildings and a rain-saving system in the school’s newest building.

Through the curriculum and research

The University of Wisconsin Whitewater provides a range of courses in the MBA programme focused on water issues, including one called Blue and Green Marketing, which looks at the effective marketing of water and other sustainability products and services. Babson College provides a course focused on sustainable entrepreneurship in Norway that focuses on drivers of opportunity in the energy domain and examines ways that new ventures are applying technologies in wind, water, solar and alternative fuel.

A wide range of case studies and research with a focus on water have also been developed by business schools around the world. At ISAE/FGV, a case study on cultivating a good water programme looked at the Itaipu Binacional, the largest dam in the world, situated on the border of Brazil and Paraguay.

What is your campus doing to minimize the use of water? Share your projects in the comments area below.

Filed under 1-Purpose, 3-Method, 4-Research, 5-Partnership, 6-Dialogue, Asia, Australasia, Australia, Brazil, Campus Greening, France, Korea, Latin America, North America, United States, Western Europe Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Creating more sustainable campuses: Bikes on campus

6 February 2012 by Leave a comment

Bikes are a common sight on business school campuses around the world and are very popular with both students and staff alike. In this edition of “creating more sustainable campuses,” we look at a variety of innovative ways that campuses and the cities that they are located in are becoming more bike friendly.

  • In 2011 the League of American Bicyclists awarded a range of campuses across the US Bike Friendly University Awards. University of California Davis, who was awarded gold, offers Summer Bicycle Storage and regular auctions on campus and on eBay to sell abandoned and unclaimed bicycles. Students also have access to courses on bike repair and maintenance on campus. Other winners included University of Wisconsin-Madison  University of Maryland, University of Colorado.
  • Stanford has over 12,000 bike racks on campus and maps showing bike paths on and off campus. Students also have access to a range of bike safety repair stands where they can make minor repairs and pump their tires for free as well as free rentals of folding bikes. All this is organized by Stanford’s campus bicycle coordinator.
  • The University of Oregon’s Outdoor Program’s Bike Program, which provides bike loans, a free shop, and education on campus, is entirely student funded and operated.
  • In a project designed to increase awareness about alternative modes of transportation, faculty and Staff at Grenoble Ecole de Management in France have access to electric bicycles 4 weeks each year (trial phase), which are reservable for a 24 hour period free of charge. The school also has over 100 covered car parking spaces that have been turned into bike parking for the growing number of bikes on campus.
  • A growing number of schools, including Winchester Business School, offer subsidies and/or interest free loans for staff interested in buying bicycles for their daily commute to campus.
  • Newcastle University in the UK has a self-service bike sharing system called WhipBikes. Faculty and students pay a one-time registration fee that enables them to use any of the 150 bikes scattered across campus. If they want to use a bike, they simply pick the one they want and text its number to WhipBikes, which replies with the lock code for that bike.
  • Cities around the world are putting in free public bike systems, which are being used extensively by students.  At John Molson School of Business, Concordia University students have access to Montreal’s extensive public bike system, which features over 5,000 bikes and 400 stations, many on/near campus. Similar systems can be found on campuses around the world, including in Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam and across Asia.
  • For students from Copenhagen Business School, Norwegian gas company Statoil has equipped five of its stations across the city with Cykelpleje centers dedicated to bicycle maintenance and repair. Students of Pamplin School of Business Administration, University of Portland travelling through Portland International Airport have a special bike repair section in the lower terminal, where they can take apart and reassemble their bikes, as well as several bike paths connecting the airport with the city.

Does your campus promote bike use in an innovative way? Please share your experiences and stories in the comments area below.

Filed under 1-Purpose, Campus Greening, Canada, France, Global, UK, United States Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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