Recently, two Bradley University MBA students in the Foster College of Business, Dan Dugal and Veronika Koubova, turned an independent study course on sustainability into a community-based effort to improve awareness and engagement on campus. They spent the winter and spring 2012 terms preparing a high-quality sustainability report, complete with recommendations for Bradley University. The two were encouraged to approach the project as if they were professional consultants and Bradley was the client requesting an action plan.
The project began with research and data collection from numerous individuals and units of Bradley, including its facilities, student organizations, departments of human resources and accounting, community philanthropy and top administration. They garnered a sustainability report from these inputs, following guidelines published by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the leader in organizational reporting of sustainable practices.
“We chose to use the GRI guidelines because they have become the global standard for reporting on organizational sustainability,” Dugal explains. “It provides a recognized framework for reporting the achievements that Bradley has already made.” The report covers the three main areas of sustainability: environmental, societal and economic, detailing Bradley’s economic and financial performance; energy consumption and characteristics, together with its “carbon footprint;” and its overall impact on the surrounding community and on broader society.
The recommendations were compiled from a host of surveys of faculty, staff and students. “The surveys helped us to gain even better insights on the Bradley community’s attitudes toward sustainability and green issues. I was happy to see we weren’t the only ones who sensed that there were opportunities for improvement,” says Koubova.
The report also included an assessment of university best practices—a qualitative market analysis of how other universities are approaching sustainability on campus. A management framework for creating sustainable strategic value (developed by Dr. Stuart Hart and Professor Mark Milstein of Cornell University) was used to develop the key set of recommendations, with directions aligned to Bradley’s five-year strategic plan, published in early 2012.
“By the end of the project, it wasn’t as much about getting a good grade in the course as it was about providing something valuable to our ‘client,’” Dugal explains. “It was a lot of work for just the two of us, and I was elated by the warm reception we received on both the sustainability report and our recommendations,” adds Koubova.
It’s no surprise the project was chosen as one of the highlights of this year’s Bradley University Student Exposition. It will certainly serve Bradley University well in its future sustainability endeavors. iBi
