President's Corner

We enter Presidio's sixth year as the largest graduate school designed around the principles of sustainability. We marked the anniversary with record growth in enrollment, the addition of of our one-of-a-kind MPA in Sustainable Management, and four new sustainablity leaders on our Board. See more on what year six and beyond hold in my fall President's letter. 

Presidio Welcomes Four New Board Members

As Presidio grows, so does our network of sustainability leaders. We marked our six year anniversary by announcing four new members to our Board of Directors. William Leimbach, MBA, is a financial management executive and consultant with the Reznick Group, PC, serving renewable energy clients. Steve Newcomb is a successful serial entrepreneur and Founder, CEO and Board Chair of Virgance, an incubator that builds and owns social enterprises. Teresa Pahl, JD, is head of the Business & Corporate Section at the Hanson Bridgett law firm. And Toni Rembe, JD, is President of the van Loben Sels Foundation and senior advisor/retired partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pitman LLP.  "It’s an honor to join the Presidio Graduate School board at this exciting time and I look forward to working with Presidio’s leadership to further expand this innovative and forward-thinking sustainability learning community," said Steve Newcomb.

New Faculty Join the Country's First MPA in Sustainable Management

As the first and only Masters in Public Administration that has sustainability integrated into every course, our new program has gained interest from practitioners, academics and students alike. Program faculty has grown to include Dr. Deniz Zeynep Leuenberger, a leader in the field of sustainable public management and development. Leuenberger is the author of many articles on sustainable development and strategic planning and recently co-authored the book Sustainable Development in Public Administration. Having worked in the field for decades, Dr. Leuenberger is "excited to join this unique program. There is a real need for public administrators who fully understand sustainability."

Her mission is to assist citizens and leaders from all sectors by providing them with tools to increase community environmental sustainability, improve resource use efficiency, and integrate outcomes measurement in decision making. Dr. Leuenberger specializes in sustainable development, public sector economics, public budgeting and finance, and non-profit and non-governmental organization management.

As part of the Presidio MPA curriculum, Dr. Leuenberger works to empower students with the confidence and competencies to shift policy and public management in ways that both benefit society and create lasting change.

This is an unprecedented time to join our pioneering program and we are accepting full and part-time MPA applications for Spring 2010. To apply for Spring 2010, you must first schedule an interview prior to submitting your application.

Alumni Spotlight: Leilani Latimer Greening the Travel Industry

Presidio Graduate School’s Executive Education offers participants a unique opportunity to gain a deep understanding of Sustainable Management principles and the tools to put that learning into place. Like other graduates of the Executive Program, Leilani Latimer, Director of Sustainability Initiatives at Travelocity, is using that learning to lead her company and her industry to a sustainable future.

Presidio’s Executive Program gives participants the opportunity to engage with leading sustainability experts such as Gil Friend, Fritjof Capra and Bonnie Nixon Gardiner as well as senior-level peers who are entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders and corporate managers. Leilani was attracted to the program's modules that allowed her to start implementing sustainability initiatives in her company immediately. She echoes the sentiment of many other program participants when she says she "needed to get her wheels while driving." Leilani attributes her experience in the Executive Program, and specifically faculty member Bob Willard's "Sustainability Advantage" model, with allowing her to build a business case for sustainability. She has ultimately gotten the endorsement of her CFO through proof that implementing sustainable practices is not only the right thing to do but would conservatively yield the company at least a 1% return.

The next cohort of executives will convene in spring of 2010, to learn how to gain practical sustainability skills to advance their career and benefit their organization's bottom line. The application deadline for Spring 2010 is December 18, 2009. Learn more about how to apply to the Executive Program.

Presidio MBA Students Honored with Scholarships

Congratulations to Presidio MBA students Ann Cleaveland and Aileen Sweeney! The Financial Women's Association of San Francisco (FWASF) recently awarded them scholarships based on their academic achievements, demonstrated leadership skills and an in-depth interview process. The organization annually awards a select number of scholarships to Bay Area women who are undergraduate or graduate students pursuing a career in finance or financial services.

Learning By Doing: Students Tackle Real-World Issues

Experiential or applied learning is a hallmark of Presidio’s curriculum design and is required at a significant depth and frequency across all of our programs. Students work with a variety of companies and organizations on hands on sustainability projects such as these at REI and the Center for Resource Solutions (CRS).

MBA Team Helps REI Move Ahead with Sustainability Initiatives

Last year, a team of Presidio MBA students (Jaime Lehner, Jeannie Linam, Doug MacLennan, Trung Pham and David Zwerin) partnered with REI to identify sustainable packaging alternatives for a bicycle line to help the company reduce costs and its environmental impact. The team delivered a comprehensive report that included a data-driven framework, useful for REI in reducing its operational footprint.

Now, a year later, REI project partner Kirk Myers says, "We have have taken much of the information from the study to potentially gain efficiencies in logistics, packaging waste reduction, and greenhouse gas avoidance in moving product. The bike project was very relevant given today’s economic climate, let alone its impact on environmental climate change. Thinking beyond our current logistics methodology was the true impact from the Presidio team.”

MBA Students Lend Muscle to Nonprofit's Renewable Energy Programs

Presidio MBA students (Sudha Reddy, Jaime Lehner, Eunice Barnett, Sandra Kwak) teamed up with the Center for Resource Solutions (CRS) to develop national standards for the nonprofit's renewable energy programs called Green-e. As a result of the team's analysis and recommendations, CRS was able to swiftly respond to the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange, part of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), which was looking to adopt the standards.

CRS Executive Director Arthur O'Donnell said this about the Presidio student team: "Your team’s work had direct input to CRS’ ability to respond and capture this opportunity. These bright and earnest students brought great energy to the project and provided us with a valuable resource for strategic analysis we otherwise did not have a budget to pursue." CRS reported that they're in the process of negotiating a favorable, revenue generating agreement with the CCX thanks to the student contribution.

Faculty News
 

MBA Faculty Member Appointed to Bay Area Regional Green Team

Nils Moe, Effective Management, Communication & Action course faculty, has been appointed to the East Bay Green Corridor (EBGC) Innovative Policy Committee. This regional committee considers cutting-edge sustainability policies and approaches for the EBGC region. Moe will examine best practice models, standards, incentives and regulations to be applied throughout the region as well as state-of-the art strategies to reduce energy consumption. He will coordinate with Business Development Committees to support the growth of small green businesses in the Corridor through policy initiatives.

As sustainability adviser for the City of Berkeley, Moe, MBA '07, is also working this fall with SustainLane on their Local Action Challenge Campaign. The goal of the campaign is to motivate residents to make positive changes in their communities in conjunction with the global effort at the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen. The campaign will become a component of Ogilvy & Mather's Hopenhagen Project, a global marketing and communications initiative designed to inspire and generate mass global activation.

Presidio Faculty Contribute to Climate Neutral Campus Report

Presidio faculty, Gil Friend and Hunter Lovins, recently contributed feature articles to the Climate Neutral Campus Report. Designed to help all colleges and universities adopt climate neutral policies, the annual report contains peer-reviewed papers and case studies that share strategies, challenges and solutions for higher education institutions striving for climate neutrality. The Climate Neutral Campus Report hopes these feature articles will help build on the growing momentum for leadership and action on climate change.

Gil Friend partnered with sustainability marketer Will Duggan on an article that challenges higher ed schools to use the culture of sports to turbo-charge sustainability efforts. The pair made a strong case for colleges and universities to leverage their mass media reach and iconic power, thereby inspiring fans to make simple carbon-saving behavioral changes. In her article, Hunter Lovins tackled the subject of education "failing in duty to its stakeholders and to society." She highlights Presidio Graduate School's experiential learning curriculum and how it "has led students to create carbon-trading businesses, companies to implement cutting-edge technology for smart meters and destruction of ozone-depleting substances as well as innovative approaches to international development."