Penn State Net Impact

Penn State Net Impact (PSNI) is among the newest MBA student organizations, founded in the fall of 2003 by members of the MBA Class of 2005. PSNI strives to educate students about the business case for corporate social responsibility and sustainable growth in order to understand, balance, and capitalize on the complex relationship between business success and social and environmental progress.

Through speakers, workshops, field trips, panels, and discussion meetings, PSNI focuses on a collaborative learning environment where all members help educate each other. The role of the Board of Officers is to facilitate this learning and cultivate relationships with professionals and organizations in the business world. We discuss topics related to social entrepreneurship, socially responsible investing, sustainable supply chains, sustainable growth and development, corporate citizenship, social marketing, green building, and community economic development.

Activities Completed

Net Impact Conference

Penn State Net Impact members traveled to Philadelphia for the 2008 Net Impact National Conference in November.

The conference, with 2400 attendees, provided an opportunity for like-minded MBAs and professionals from across the country to discuss the urgency of environmental issues as highlighted by keynote speeches from executives at Coca Cola Enterprises, the World Wildlife Fund, and Wal-Mart. Socially responsible organizations recruited MBAs at the career fair. Two days of seminars provided Smeal students with opportunities to explore green supply chains, nature-inspired design, electric car infrastructure, microfinance, and others. Leaders from other Net Impact chapters shared their success stories and inspired us all to incorporate corporate social and environmental responsibility into all of our business decisions.

Mark Albion

In the world of Net Impact, Mark Albion is like a celebrity. Here is a guy who was a Harvard Professor, started the Social Venture Network way back in 1987, and co-founded Net Impact before "green" was a hot topic. He rubs elbows with the Mandela family. And world leaders from Ronald Reagan to Mother Teresa have praised his work. But most importantly, he is always willing to make time for every individual student.

In Mark’s whirlwind tour of just 22 hours in Happy Valley, he met individually with students, shared his success (and failure) stories about his social ventures, gave a lecture to a near-full auditorium about his book More Than Money, shared drinks at the bar, and woke up early to discuss academia and politics over breakfast.

I still find myself humbled that someone as busy as Mark was willing to share so much of his time and expertise with our group—when you meet Mark, you can tell he is focused on you as a person and not thinking of the 300 things on his to-do list. He is genuinely interested in every person’s story and he takes the time to celebrate the successes of every chapter. The Penn State chapter of Net Impact thanks Mark Albion for sharing his thoughts and his time with us.

DC Career Trek

A crew of Net Impacters set off for Washington, DC, on Thursday, November 13th with the goal of visiting a few companies in the DC area who each practice the Triple Bottom Line—People, Planet, and Profits. The first stop on Thursday morning was with PNC Bank to meet with Larry Miltenberger in order to discuss plans for their new Platinum LEED certified building. We talked about not only the obvious benefits of creating a building that consumes less energy and water on a daily basis, but what went into convincing executives that undergoing this endeavor was worthwhile. Next we dashed off to the Calvert Group. We connected with Ian Joseph, a former PSNI President and current President of DC Net Impact. The Calvert Group focuses on investing in sustainable and environmentally responsible companies. We spoke with a panel of employees who shared the metrics they use to create mutual funds that adhere to the highest social, environmental, and ethical standards.

Day 2 began at NCB, a congressionally chartered non-profit dedicated to providing loans to cooperatives and other non-traditional companies. Both Diahann and Richard were great hosts—the group was especially impressed by a new initiative to fund solar energy systems. After feeling reenergized by knowing that you could still work with money save the world, we headed off to ICF where we were enlightened by their plans to increase the market for ENERGY STAR-branded products. We were joined by a troupe of eco-minded braniacs: Brian Carroll, Josh Smith who is a PSU grad working primarily with Energy Star, and Jackie Garet and Amanda Byrne both Penn State undergraduates who are working in Residential Energy Efficiency and with the Clean Energy Team respectively.

Each Company brought the students a unique perspective to business and we hope to make Career Treks an annual event.

On October 16, 2008, a group of Net Impact members visited Professor Terry Harrison's woodland cabin. His cabin is completely off the grid, and he explained how his solar collection, water filtration, and other home systems function. After the tour, the group grilled up some dinner and roasted marshmallows around the bio-fuel pit... er, wood fire. Dr. Harrison has long been a supporter of Net Impact and was able to share some insight into his experiences in sustainable business practices.

In October 2008, several Penn State Net Impact members toured the Nucor Steel recycling and bar manufacturing facility in Auburn, NY. NuCor Steel, the most productive steel company in the world, has found strategic advantages through a culture of environmental stewardship and an innovative approach to employee-management relations. NuCor Steel is the nation’s largest recycler of scrap metal, uses a mini-mill process to keep production close to distribution, and even sells a waste byproduct of its process as zinc for vitamin supplements. The non-unionized process offers the highest wages in the industry through production-based incentive programs for the good times and a “pain sharing” program to prevent layoffs in the not-so-good times. PSNI members had the opportunity to interact with management across the organization and were joined by MBA students from the Johnson School at Cornell University.

PSNI would like to thank Ted Jeske, Nucor Auburn’s Sales & Shipping Manager, for organizing our visit.

More than a billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water. This deficiency kills approximately 5,000 children daily from infectious diarrhea alone. Population Services International (PSI) has responded to this global crisis by providing sachet’s of Proctor & Gamble’s PUR water purifier powder.

In order to support PSI’s campaign, Penn State Net Impact organized a Smeal MBA "Green BBQ" fundraiser with proceeds going directly to the purchase and distribution of PUR sachets. While enjoying organic local foods using biodegradable utensils, many students munificently purchased tickets for a 50/50 raffle. The winner, Nick Mahen from the Class of 2008, generously donated his winnings to the PSI initiative. Through these contributions, we were able to provide 16,000 liters of safe drinking water to children and adults in Africa and Latin America.

To learn more about the PSI initiative, please visit the safe water website at http://www.psi.org/safewater/.

Officer Bios

Chris Anderson, President

A native of the Washington, DC area, Christopher attended Virginia Tech and earned undergraduate degrees in Business Administration and Architecture.  Christopher has worked in Washington, DC for the Federal Trade Commission and Nixon Peabody, LLP. He also spent over a year working and studying in China, partially in the renewable energy sector. Christopher returned stateside and spent several months riding a motorcycle across the US before commencing law school at Penn State, where he is currently pursuing both a JD and an MBA.  Christopher has a strong desire to make significant contributions in renewable energy proliferation and sustainability.

Chris enjoys art, exercise, family, and friends.

csa137@psu.edu

Robert Carlson, VP of Projects

Robert Carlson is the Vice President of Projects for the Penn State chapter of Net Impact and is the Co-President of the Penn State Microfinance fund.  Prior to coming to Smeal, he served as an economist at the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and as a consultant to the National Institutes of Health. He is originally from Wichita, Kansas, and has an undergraduate degree in economics from The University of Kansas.

rdc179@psu.edu

Evan Weiss, VP of Events

Evan grew up in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and earned his bachelor’s degree in organizational communication, learning, and design from Ithaca College. Prior to enrolling at Smeal, Evan worked as a business analyst at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey. Evan is currently working on his MBA degree with concentrations in Marketing and Finance or Entrepreneurship (depending on the day of the week you ask him). When Evan is not getting crushed with work, he enjoys playing soccer, skiing, and reminiscing about the days when he was in shape.

ebw122@psu.edu

Brent Gee, VP of Development

Brent grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and graduated from the University of California at Davis in Economics in 2001.  Prior to attending Smeal, he worked in the tax M&A division at PriceWaterhouseCoopers.  Brent has been an active member in the San Francisco chapter of Greenpeace and Junior Achievement.  He is working towards an MBA with a concentration in Entrepreneurship and Marketing.  In his free time, Brent enjoys basketball, road biking and skiing.

bug132@psu.edu

Jared Freer, VP of Operations

Jared Freer hails from Bethesda, MD where he grew up with parents who have spent their entire careers in the oil and natural gas sectors. In 2004 he graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in Political Science and a minor in Global Climate Change. Jared is pursuing his MBA at the Pennsylvania State Smeal College of Business in order to begin a career in the energy and sustainability field. This summer he will be working for Marathon Oil as an intern in its Emerging Technology division. Prior to his matriculation at Smeal, Jared was a policy analyst and lobbyist for an optical trade association.