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DIRECTOR'S LETTER
Change is certainly everywhere as the fall season makes its mark on the University of Maryland campus. Change is
also occurring throughout the Center for Social Value Creation. I would like to share some very exciting news and
give you a few highlights since our summer newsletter.
READ MORE>
IN DEPTH
GETTING STUDENTS ON TRACK FOR IMPACT CAREERS
By Ryan Steinbach, Community Engagement Coordinator
Center for Social Value Creation
Today’s college students are redefining career success. Increasingly, they seek opportunities aligned with personal
passions and the ability to make a positive impact on the world. Broadly, this area of interest in doing well by doing
good has come to be known as the “Impact” sector. Given this considerable shift in interest, universities are
beginning to broaden career programming and services to empower students to pursue such goals.
READ MORE>
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STUDENT SPOTLIGHT:
SURENDRA FERNANDO BS '15
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT:
NIMA FARSHCHI BS '14
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT:
RACHELLE SAMPSON
WHAT'S NEW :
NEW ANNUAL REPORT RELEASED (2013-2014)
The 2013-2014 CSVC Annual Report is hot off the presses! We
invite you to page through the many highlights of this past
academic year, as we delivered impact-driven opportunities and
cross-disciplinary collaborations to foster innovation and social
impact. Make sure to check out “On the Workbench” for a
snapshot into the exciting initiatives on deck for the 2014-2015
school year! A big thanks to EarthColor LLC for printing the
report with the highest sustainability standards in mind. The
report can also be found online by clicking here. If you’d like a
physical copy, please just send us an email
(csvc@rhsmith.umd.edu) with your address. And of course – let
us know what you think! We’d love to hear from you.
SAVE THE DATE! 2015 SOCIAL ENTERPRISE SYMPOSIUM
(KEYNOTE FROM TOM’S SHOES)
Save the Date! On Friday, February 27 CSVC will host the 7th
Annual Social Enterprise Symposium at the University of
Maryland. The Symposium explores the role of business in
creating economic prosperity and lasting social and
environmental change. In 2015 we’ll join with academic allies
from across campus to co-facilitate the event, and we’re
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pleased to announce Shira Shafir, Director of Social Innovation and Impact at TOM’s Shoes, as the keynote
speaker. We’re also delighted to announce that the Symposium will take place as part of the 2015 AshokaU
Exchange - a national convening of social entrepreneurship in higher education. Registration for the Social
Enterprise Symposium will open Friday, October 24, 2014. The Ashoka U Exchange will be ticketed separately and
more details can be found here. Stay tuned for the many exciting announcement and updates yet to come!
CSVC WELCOMES NEW SUSTAINABILITY EXECUTIVE-INRESIDENCE
CSVC is happy to introduce our new Sustainability Executive in
Residence, Jeff Senne! Senne is the Director of the Corporate
Responsibility at PwC. In this role he leads the firm's efforts to
deliver public good, differentiate the firm in the marketplace,
drive revenue, manage costs, and attract/retain the brightest
talent. Senne will advise on CSVC’s sustainability strategy and
mentor students interested in corporate sustainability. A first
initiative of this new partnership is the
“Sustainability Roundtable: Lunch & Learn Series.” During the
Lunch & Learn, students explore cutting edge and emerging opportunities in corporate sustainability. This first Lunch
& Learn took place September 23, with additional discussions planned throughout the Fall semester. Learn more
here. If you’re interested in participating, please email Kim R. Glinka: krobertella@rhsmith.umd.edu
FALL 2014 CHANGE THE WORLD SYMPOSIUM
Curious about how our students apply business skills to the
nonprofits world? Come to the ChangeTheWorld.org
Symposium on Wednesday, November 19th and see the impact
our students make first-hand! ChangeTheWorld.org (CTW) is
CSVC’s signature nonprofit consulting program; a thorough
application and matching process enables the pairing of student
teams with high-potential nonprofits on strategic projects. At the
CTW Symposium students showcase their work and discuss
challenges and opportunities faced throughout the course of the
semester. The CTW Symposium also provides an opportunity
for students to source feedback prior to offering final recommendations to their nonprofit clients. Register for the
Symposium here.
RECAP :
RETURN ON ENGAGEMENT: CASE STUDY ON CSVC
Effective stakeholder engagement is key to an organization’s
sustained success, especially in the social impact sector. Earlier
this year CSVC Social Entrepreneur in Residence Drew Bewick
wrote a case study on measuring effective engagement, and
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explored how a metric like Return on Engagement (ROE), could
help the Center for Social Value Creation continue to improve
and adapt. Learn how measuring ROE can help your
organization improve its stakeholder strategies by downloading
the case study here. To share your thoughts or feedback, or to
connect with Drew, email: csvc@rhsmith.umd.edu
MARYLAND SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR CORPS
SYMPOSIUM
This summer fifteen students traveled to Nicaragua, the
Dominican Republic, and Ecuador as part of the Maryland
Social Entrepreneur Corps (MSEC). MSEC enables students to
learn about social entrepreneurship, and gain first-hand
experience in empowering local, sustainable economies. On
DATE we celebrated the 2014 MSEC cohort with an evening
Symposium where students shared their experience and
findings with program partners, sponsors and prospective
students. Student recounted their involvement in supporting the
creation of businesses focused on such life changing products and services as eye glasses, cook stoves, and water
filtration systems. They also shared stories that expressed the personal impacts of the program, including character
development and professional growth. Learn more about MSEC in our student spotlight with Surendra Fernando and
by visiting the program website here.
PRINCIPLES OF RESPONSIBLE MANAGEMENT (PRME):
THE AACSB ACCREDITATION CONFERENCE
In September the AACSB hosted its Annual Accreditation
Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. During a preconference
session on Sunday, September 21st, Associate Director Kim R.
Glinka shared insights on implementing PRME ‒ an initiative of
the UN Global Compact whose purpose is to provide a
framework for business schools to implement principles of
responsible management. Smith has been a signatory of PRME
since 2010. At the conference, Kim discussed the importance of
strategically aligning PRME-related goals with larger initiatives,
and shared five keys for success: 1.) be aware of the larger
ecosystem and play into existing frameworks and platforms; 2.) leverage institutional allies; 3.) partner with Faculty –
in the B-school & beyond; 4.) empower students to expand on the mission; and 5.) promote your PRME work in fun,
visually appealing ways.
CSVC TALKS ENTREPRENEURSHIP & INNOVATION WITH PAKISTANI
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VISITORS
In late August the Office of Global Initiatives partnered with Meridian
International Center to host a small delegation of Pakistani professionals at
the Smith School. The group was comprised of representatives from
educational institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), private
industry, and government. CSVC Assistant Director Sara Herald spoke to
the visitors about social entrepreneurship and innovation at the University
of Maryland; interdisciplinary programs and courses and collaborations
between CSVC and Dingman Center were of prime interest among the
group. Following their visit to the University, the delegation traveled on to
three other cities across the country to learn more about how universities
and businesses work together creatively to promote successful
entrepreneurship.
FROM THE BLOG :
STORIES OF IMPACT: HELPING A NONPROFIT REACH
NEW COUNTRIES
Last Spring, Chelsea Wallace served as a Strategy Consultant
for Accountability Lab – a DC-based nonprofit determined to
bolster accountability in countries such as Nepal and Liberia.
She and four other graduate students from the Robert H. Smith
School of Business at the University of Maryland helped
Accountability Lab prepare their model to be replicated in new
countries. Learn more about their experience here.
3 CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY TRENDS YOU NEED TO
KNOW
The new standard of corporate sustainability goes way beyond
recycling and energy efficiency. Today’s business leaders
embed social and environmental impact into an organization’s
value chain to drive performance and competitive advantage.
Read about three cutting edge trends Corporate Sustainability
Managers are thinking about that YOU need to know here.
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4/26/16, 9:36 AM
DIRECTOR'S LETTER
Change is certainly everywhere as the fall season makes its mark on the
University of Maryland campus. Change is also occurring throughout the Center
for Social Value Creation. I would like to share some very exciting news and give
you a few highlights since our summer newsletter.
Please join me in congratulating Kim Glinka on her well-deserved promotion to
Associate Director. In her new role, Kim assumes greater responsibility for our
strategy and long-term growth initiatives while continuing to lead our
sustainability and marketing programs at the Center. I have fully transitioned my
role to Founding Director and am supporting the Center remotely from North
Carolina. We will begin the search for my replacement this month and will
certainly let our community know when the Managing Director position is
announced. Please send us your recommendations and referrals of candidates.
This search comes at a significant transition from the first five years to the next
five, and we are looking forward to continuing our success!
With the leadership and support of Dean Triantis, we would like to introduce you to Dr. Christine Beckman, our newly
appointed Academic Director for the Center for Social Value Creation. Dr. Beckman is a native Californian and spent
14 years on the faculty at the University of California, Irvine, with time at London Business School and UC Berkeley
before joining the faculty at the Smith School in 2013. She was the Academic Director for the Don Beall Center for
Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Co-Director of the Center for Organizational Research at UC Irvine. Her
degrees hail from Stanford in BA Psychology, MA Sociology and PhD Business. Her interest in Social Innovation
focuses on education and gender equality. For example, Christine has completed research on the founding and
survival of charter schools but she is broadly interested in access and quality of public education. She has also
researched the factors influencing the promotion of women and female entrepreneurs but is interested in gender
issues broadly speaking. This fall, Dr. Beckman is piloting a new undergraduate course – the Social
Entrepreneurship Lab - with CSVC’s Sara Herald to a group of enthusiastic undergraduates.
I asked Christine to share a few thoughts about her role to our community. She is looking forward to leading the
search for the Center’s new Managing Director (as am I, so exciting!) and increasing collaborations between CSVC
and other Centers of Excellence at the Smith School. She will also be focused on increasing faculty involvement,
developing cutting edge research around our programs and fostering curricular offerings around social innovation.
She is looking forward to getting to know those involved with the Center and being a part of the CSVC community.
Please welcome her!
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One final important remark is to encourage your participation in the Center’s inaugural Launch UMD campaign. This
is our first opportunity to show the generosity of our diverse community to the University of Maryland students that
we serve. In the Spring of 2015, with your support, a team of students will travel to Dharamsala, India to help
Tibetan refugees achieve greater economic opportunity and independence through entrepreneurial ventures in
partnership with the Lha Charitable Trust. Through your contribution, you will directly provide students with an
unparalleled academic experience. Stay tuned for details about how you can join the campaign.
Warmest Regards,
Melissa
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4/26/16, 10:53 AM
IN DEPTH
Getting Students into Impact Careers
Written by Ryan Steinbach, Community Engagement
Coordinator, CSVC
Today’s college students are redefining what it means to have a
“good career”. They don’t necessarily want a well-paying,
steady career with benefits. They want a career that aligns with their passions and makes a positive impact on the
world. But as the impact space has developed over the last few years, disruptive innovation, radical shifts in thinking,
and ambiguous terminology have become the norm. It’s become hard for students to stay current and relevant in the
impact job market during this period of considerable flux.
At the Center for Social Value Creation (CSVC), we prepare students for the unique demands of the impact sector in
a multifaceted approach. In a space that is constantly evolving, we’ve developed three key ingredients to getting
students into impact careers: experiential programming, impact career search training, and vibrant professional and
alumni networks.
Experiential Programming
Working on projects with real organizations is the best way for students to position themselves for impact careers.
Students build relevant and sector specific skill sets while gaining a general working knowledge of and competence
in the space. Students also begin to build their professional network in the impact space. Experiential programs
become an immediate differentiator for impact organizations with limited training and recruiting resources. They’re
reaching out to familiar faces with a proven proficiency in the role.
But skills, knowledge and competencies aren’t built over one semester. That’s why CSVC offers students multiple,
tiered opportunities. At the undergraduate level, students have access to successive in-semester consulting projects
through ChangeTheWorld.org Nonprofit Consulting. Students start as members of a consulting teams and can
eventually take leadership roles on more demanding consulting projects. The process begins similarly for MBAs, but
they have the additional opportunity to apply for MBA Impact Fellows, a summer internship matching program
developed by CSVC and the Office of Career Services at the Smith School of Business.
Impact Career Search Training
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Having the right skills, knowledge and competencies are only the first steps toward an impact career. Students must
understand how to find the right impact organization and then market their experiences. Many impact organizations
do not have the resources to promote openings extensively, so only those students paying close attention will notice
a job opening. Once in the pool, students must be explicit about both their functional and mission fit with the
organization.
CSVC gives students specific training in how to find an impact career through the More Than Money Impact Career
workshops. It begins with having students better define exactly what they are looking for; a critical and often
overlooked step. From there students are taught how to leverage online resources to find organizations that match
what they want and tailor their engagements with employers to highlight the skills, knowledge and competencies
they’ve gained in the impact space.
Vibrant Professional and Alumni Networks
Reaching out to a hiring organization is a whole lot easier with an introduction to a warm connection. Even if these
connections have no official role in the hiring process, they can give an inside perspective of the organization that
can inform both mission fit and how student tailor their application materials. Also, impact organizations often reach
out privately to their network before publically posting a job.
That’s why CSVC actively engages it’s professional and alumni community. Through mentoring and advice, these
connections are invaluable for students starting their impact careers. Together with the Department of Alumni
Relations at the Smith School of Business, CSVC builds and maintains relationships with professionals and alumni
all over the impact sector. Over the years we’ve connected them with many of our most talented students.
Of course, none of our impact career programming would be possible without your support. Whether you’re an
internal ally, nonprofit partner, or alumni of one of our programs, CSVC’s extended community helps us give
students the skills, training and connections they need to pursue their passions and positively impact the world
through their careers. Please do stay in touch and if you’re interested in being a part of any of the opportunities
discussed above, we’d love to follow up with you about it. You can simply reply to this newsletter or email me at
rsteinbach@rhsmith.umd.edu.
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ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
An Interview with Nima Farshchi, BS Accounting'14
Operations Coordinator, Success Academy Charter Schools
Written by Ryan Steinbach, Community Engagement Coordinator,
CSVC
CSVC: Tell me a little bit about what you do and what led you to
where you are now?
FARSHCHI: I work in Success Academy Charter Schools as an
Operations Coordinator. It involves a little bit of everything. I work
with the budget, do ordering and inventory, manage parents and
scholar files, interact with the Department of Education; a little bit of
everything all the time.
I always wanted to have a social impact career, but I had no idea what I wanted to do. Through different interactive
exercises with Melissa Carrier [former professor of Social Innovation Fellows] and Mrim Boutla’s More than Money
Career workshop series, I realized I wanted to work in the education sector and I wanted to do something hands-on
and interactive. Originally, I wanted to do something outside of the country, but after speaking with Kim Robertella
Glinka [Associate Director at CSVC] I realized there are so many places that have a huge need in the United States.
My job is perfect because it’s in education and it’s 70% running around 30% actually sitting at a desk.
CSVC: What interests you specifically about charter schools and what do you love most about your job?
FARSHCHI: The sense of community that we have at the workplace. It’s not everyone doing their own thing. Even
though we all have very specific roles and we have a very specific business model, we feel like a family, we feel like
a team and everyone is there for the mission. No one’s there for a paycheck. Everyone genuinely cares and that’s
why they’re there. Unfortunately, New York has a lot of failing schools and part of that’s due to apathy from teachers
and it’s cool seeing a lot of young people who are very driven and make that difference.
CSVC: Could you elaborate on the mission of the Charter School you work at?
FARSHCHI: Our charter school is very college focused starting in kindergarten. On the door of every classroom it
has “Class of 2031” because that’s the year the kindergarten class will graduate from college. Instead of calling a
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classroom by the teacher’s name, we call it by the teacher’s alma mater. So we have classrooms called USC,
Brooklyn College and UPenn/Maryland. We have a very rigorous curriculum and it shows in many of our test scores.
As a school system we're in the top 1% for math in the state of New York and in the top 3% for English Language
Arts. In 2014, 94% of our scholars passed the New York State Math exams and 64% passed the English Language
Arts exams, while in other schools in New York City on average only 35% of students passed the Math exams and
29% passed the English Language Arts exams. With shocking numbers like those, you can see the difference.
CSVC: Outside of work, are you engaged with social impact work either in New York or here at UMD?
FARSHCHI: I’m not directly involved with outside social impact organizations in New York. I considered the Net
impact professional chapter in New York, but with the working hours I have it just wasn’t feasible. Down the road, I
want to be more involved in their professional chapter, but right now I’m focusing on my first year of work. For social
impact at UMD, I engage as much as I can, especially when someone reaches out from UMD. When younger
students reach out to me, asking “what should I do?” and I see that mindset of wanting to make a difference, that’s
when I pitch things like joining Smith Undergraduate Net Impact or applying to Social Innovation Fellows. I’m
definitely still part of the Smith community. I try and keep in touch with people as much as possible. I didn’t want to
be that person who graduated and was never heard from ever again. I wanted to stay in touch with as many people
as possible. Smith was that family for me and you don’t just leave a family. You can move away, but you can still
always come back.
CSVC: What did you learn here at Smith that is benefitting you now in your job?
FARSHCHI: Right now, the main things that I gained from Smith aren’t the academic skills. It’s the extracurricular
activities and the interactions I had. That includes planning the Social Enterprise Symposium. That experience
directly relates to what I’m doing now. I’m planning events, promoting events to teachers, making sure parents come
out to events. On October 2nd we supported an education reform rally in the center of New York City, and 21,000
supporters attended. We had many creative strategies to get the word out about the rally, including printing out
reminders on name tags for parents and putting them on the scholars when they went home. When the parent saw
the sticker it would remind them of the rally the next day Those kinds of creative marketing techniques are the things
we did for Social Enterprise Symposium.
Taking classes at Smith has helped me be able to have high-level educated conversations about social impact with
others in my industry regarding different social impact tactics to create a positive change. Being a person who has a
passion to improve the world is one thing, but also being able to know and strategize how to do so puts you on
another level. I have the Smith School and especially CSVC to thank for giving me this knowledge.
CSVC: What’s your advice for other students who want to get involved in the education space?
FARSHCHI: The thing that everyone asks me when I tell them I work at a charter school is, “what do you teach?”
There are so many other jobs in the education sector that aren’t teachers. Teaching is one component, but our
school has a procurement team, a renovations team and a finance department as well. These teams have people
with supply chain backgrounds and Operations backgrounds. You can be in the education sector and not have to
teach.
I remember at one of our Net Impact events, Austin Lee asked me to write down what I’m passionate about and
what I’m good at, and then create a job between the two. I wrote that I’m passionate about education and I’m good
at dealing with people. That’s exactly what I do right now. If you’re good at something, you can probably do it in any
industry. Charter schools especially have a very business focused mindset in the sense that it has a very similar
organizational structure. Many of the business-related positions at Target are also in Charter Schools. But we don’t
sell stuff, we sell education.
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CSVC: What’s a fun fact that people probably don’t know about you?
FARSHCHI: I absolutely love bacon. I’ve been bacon as my Halloween costume, I served bacon at 90% of my floor
events as an RA my senior year, and I once ate a pound of bacon by myself. I also still don’t have a driver’s license
even though I lived in the suburbs of Montgomery County my entire life up until this point.
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4/26/16, 11:11 AM
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
An Interview with Surendra Fernando, BS Management '15
Written by Ryan Steinbach, Community Engagement Coordinator, CSVC
CSVC: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your involvement at Smith?
FERNANDO: I was born in Sri Lanka where I completed high school and
migrated to the US in 2010 as a permanent resident through my Moms
work at the US embassy in Sri Lanka. I’ve been here for close to four and
a half years and I’m going to apply for citizenship after completing 5
years. My goal was always to come to UMD, but when I came to the US I
couldn’t afford it so I decided to enroll in community college for two years.
I got a scholarship which now pays for my tuition so I lucked out in that
sense. The scholarship gave me the chance to get involved in the
campus community.
Coming here I had a choice. Yes, I achieved my goal of getting into the Smith School of Business at the University of
Maryland, but I discovered these great opportunities, organizations, clubs and societies. I would be a fool if I didn’t
get the maximum out of them. So that’s why I decided to rush AK Psi [a Business Fraternity] and join a couple of
clubs. School becomes less tiring and easier if you work on things you have a passion for. That’s why I applied to
Social Innovation Fellows at the Smith School. Out of all the Fellows classes, I felt this one aligned the most with my
passions and goals.
CSVC: Could you talk a little more about what your passions are?
FERNANDO: I’m involved in tutoring kids at UMD on Saturdays. Through the Office of Multi-Ethnic Student
Education, I tutor kids mainly for the SATS. They’re generally weak in math so we improve their math skills for the
SATS and for University classes upon graduating high school. I’m also involved in Net Impact, an undergraduate
club focused on helping students find careers that align with their passions. We just hosted an awesome event
about Corporate Impact Careers. It was a blast. All the seats were taken and a few students were even sitting on the
ground and steps. Yes, it’s a bit of a headache trying to get all of the panelists on board and coordinate the event,
but I got to interact with the panelists and get real world experience working with others to organize an event.
CSVC: Something you haven’t mentioned that you’re involved with is Maryland Social Entrepreneur Corps (MSEC).
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Why did get involved and how did it go?
FERNANDO: Interestingly it’s through Social Innovation Fellows. Last October Melissa Carrier mentioned Maryland
Social Entrepreneur Corps in class as an opportunity to get nine credits while basically doing an internship abroad.
The more I learned about it, the more I realized that this was a perfect fit on multiple levels. Not only did I earn nine
credits in two months, but I also gained experience consulting small businesses, had the chance to work in a
completely different environment and got to do what I love, helping communities through business principles. It’s a
great thing to put on your resume and a great talking point in interviews. I like to call MSEC the perfect package
especially because consulting is an area I’m really looking forward to going into upon graduating. I also forgot to
mention that MSEC was a lot of fun! I had the most amazing time. That’s why I say it’s a full package, you have fun,
you get to work with people from different cultures and backgrounds, you get nine credits, you get consulting
experience, and you get to help people. I think it’s perfect.
For me Social Innovation Fellows (SIF) and MSEC, were a perfect combination. I did SIF the year before MSEC and
felt I was very well prepared compared to some other students. I had previous experience with the ideas and
strategies we were talking about in MSEC such as microconsignment. As a result of taking Social Innovation
Fellows, I felt prepared going in and felt I had an advantage in understanding what needed to be done.
CSVC: How are you using your involvement in Social Innovation Fellows, Maryland Social Entrepreneur Corps or
Net Impact in your interviews?
FERNANDO: I was just having an interview yesterday and talking about the Net Impact event that we hosted as a
committee. I also talked about how in Social Innovation Fellows we worked on consulting projects with start-ups and
companies. Both Net Impact and Social Innovation Fellows gave me incredible experiences that I can talk about in
interviews. In my opinion, those kinds of experiences are what interviewers are actually looking for. They can look at
your resume, but when you talk in depth about something you’ve done, you can show them your passion and
impact.
CSVC: What advice would you give to undergraduate students trying to get involved in social entrepreneurship and
social innovation, both here at UMD and beyond?
FERNANDO: I feel that as students we are lucky to be at UMD with all of these resources and opportunities. We’re
not going to be here for long, usually four to five years, but for me it’s only been two years. I’ve learned it’s so
important to take as many opportunities as I can, use all of the resources that are available and just have an
awesome experience. Get involved in the community, get involved with study abroad programs and get involved in
clubs and societies. It makes you such a better and more well-rounded person. Yes, you have to focus on your
studies, but if after college you only have your transcript, you’ve definitely missed out. So just give it your best and
take your opportunities. It doesn’t mean you’ll get everything. You’ll fail sometimes, but you have to give yourself a
chance. My advice to undergrad students in a nut shell: take opportunities and just go for it.
CSVC: What is a fun fact about yourself that most people don’t know.
FERNANDO: I’m a twin. That’s my go to fun fact when anybody asks. Apart from that I’m a die-hard cricket fan. I get
up in the middle of the night to watch matches. I’m extremely passionate about cricket. My favorite team is Sri Lanka
which has been great because we won the world cup this year!
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4/26/16, 11:23 AM
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
An interview with Rachelle Sampson, Associate Professor, Robert H.
Smith School of Business
Written by Ryan Steinbach, Communty Engagement Coordinator,
CSVC
CSVC: In your 2010 Faculty Spotlight, CSVC discussed your course called the
Economics of Sustainability and your research on the effect of ownership
structure on a firm’s willingness and ability to be more sustainable. What’s
happened since then?
SAMPSON: A couple of things. In the research domain, things have progressed.
The ownership model project is a large project that center’s around incentives
for energy efficiency and sustainability. What we’re trying to do now is get
estimates of firm specific hurdle rates, which means their investment horizons. There are ways of estimating that for
public firms and we’re trying to do something similar for private firms in order to understand which ones are the more
likely to make longer term investments. These investments are more consistent with investments in energy
efficiency, pollution abatement and other sustainability initiatives.
Another project that I’ve started since we last talked is on worker owned cooperatives. This project is about trying to
understand worker owner cooperatives as an alternative form of organization for start-ups; particularly start-ups that
have a social mission or aren’t just profit focused. But even for those that are profit focused, there are reasons to
think that the worker owned cooperative model can be helpful. The problem is we don’t really know much about why
some worker owned cooperatives work and others don’t. So this project is a first cut at breaking down worker owned
cooperatives in the United States. We’re looking at things like demographics in the community, what industries are
they are involved in, who the worker owners are, and many other details that will hopefully inform when they work
well and when they don’t.
On the teaching side, the Economics of Sustainability continues on and it gets revised every year to keep up with the
rapidly evolving field. I’m also starting an undergraduate class called Sustainability Solutions Business Lab. It’s in
the honors program that will be offered for the first time this Spring, 2015. It’s open to any undergraduate interested
in thinking about ideas to solve some sort of sustainability problem. The problem could be environmental or social
sustainability. Students will come up with a business model around their problems. They’ll work in cross functional
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teams to develop the business model, and they’ll have the opportunity to talk to VC’s, refine their ideas, present to
each other over the course of the term. Hopefully by the end of the term there might be some viable business ideas
that come out of it.
CSVC: What’s inspired you to create the Sustainability Solutions Business Lab?
SAMPSON: I’ve been teaching the MBA class for several years now. It’s a great class and the students are very
engaged, but by and large they’re coming in as career switchers and are going out to work for consulting companies
and other major firms. It’s great to get those sustainability ideas into the corporate world, but what I would like to do
is get broader exposure than just business students. I’ve also always wanted to teach a class in sustainability
focused on startups because I think that a lot of change comes from new businesses. I think that undergrads are in
the best position to do that because of where they are in their lives. I’ve also wanted to work with cross functional
teams. I want to bring sciences people, humanities people and business people together to help them understand
how to work within a cross functional team and understand the strengths of each. I think that’s an important skill for
anyone.
CSVC: So the lab will focus on creating ventures that tackle issues of sustainability as oppose to how startups can
act more sustainably?
SAMPSON: Yes, it’s more focused on the former. But the range of possible ideas is very broad. They can be
anything from thinking about energy efficiency and how to design a better grid to measuring the amount of fertilizer
that’s been put on a crop so you can minimize runoff to solving food desert problems in urban areas. The format of
the class is that each week we have about three hours and spend about half that time talking about content. I have
topics and we’ll have discussion similar to a more traditional class set up, but very discussion based. Then the latter
part of the class is about the groups reporting out and giving feedback from both directions on their ideas. The ideas
have to be formulated fairly early on, and each week students have specific goals or markers that they have to meet.
Ideally, students develop some sort of solution around these problems.
CSVC: What advice do you have for students who want to get involved in sustainability, but don’t want to or can’t
find work in a corporate responsibility role?
SAMPSON: CSR Jobs are very hard to get. They’re very rare. And to be honest they’re not where all the change
happens. In some companies, CSR jobs are meaningful and have obligations to boost sustainability. But in other
roles, it's just reporting. They report on the environmental impact the company is having and don't actually design
office policies. I would say the best way to be involved in sustainability is in whatever department you’re working for.
It's easier to think about sustainability in the context of manufacturing, operations or supply chain because you can
talk about efficiency and waste reduction. But sustainability can also be found in human resources practices that
conserve energy through labor productivity. Examples of these practices include decreasing burnout, increasing flex
time, allowing more telecommuting, and other ways of keeping employees more engaged. It can also be how you
design your workplace. There's a lot of research going on right now at Carnegie Mellon that’s trying to monetize
what high performance task lighting can do for employee productivity.
I would say that people who are spread throughout the organization are better positioned to get involved in
sustainability initiatives than a CSR person. CSR often involves policy implementation which usually requires
executive level sign off. Tackling small projects can be done by employees in every department at once. If you're not
going to launch a startup and you want to do something within a company, those are the things to think about.
CSVC: It sounds like the lessons learned in the Sustainability Solutions Business Lab are applicable to any
sustainability initiative whether you're within a company or trying to start something new.
SAMPSON: Absolutely. The big difference is, if you're launching a startup, you don't have years of culture and
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practices to reverse. Organizational change is really hard, especially when it’s a big cultural shift. A fairly progressive
company can change very rapidly if the change is consistent with their mission. But if it's not than you really need
help at the top to make big changes.
CSVC: What are a couple things that you do outside of your work at the Smith School?
SAMPSON: I play guitar, I paint, I ride my bike, I spend time with my family and I like to get out into the mountains
whenever I can.
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