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  • 1.  Student audits of local firms

    Posted 02-20-2009 15:24

    Greetings ONEites,

     

    I am developing a new entry level class in sustainability management for the summer and fall.  I am considering having my students evaluate the environmental performance of local firms.  The class takes place in Springfield MA, a former mill and machine shop town of 150,000.  One option would be to build the exercise to be similar to an EPA audit.  It has been a number of decades since I worked for the EPA and I imagine the auditing process has improved considerably.  I would appreciate your opinions on the following.  I would be happy to share the results with anyone interested.

    1. Does such an exercise make sense?  Most of the students would be sophomores. 
    2. Do models exist for a general sustainability audit that we could use as a guide?
    3. Has anyone tried a similar approach?  If so, what were your results or lessons learned?

    Thanks in advance for considering this request. 

     

    Best regards,

     

    Bruce

     

    --
    Bruce Clemens PhD PE
    Management Department
    School of Business
    103 Churchill Hall
    Western New England College
    1215 Wilbraham Road
    Springfield MA 01119
    Phone:  413-782-1500 
    Fax: 413-796-2068
    bclemens@wnec.edu
    Campus mailbox number: C5433

    Please consider the environment before printing this email


  • 2.  Student audits of local firms

    Posted 02-20-2009 22:58
    Bruce,
    Strangely, I am just trying to gather information about how to conduct
    a carbon or ecological footprint for my university for a class
    project. I’ll be using grad students. I found a few sites with
    information, but I’m not sure that I have enough info yet for the
    project. I’m including what I found below. If anyone knows of any
    really good instruments or free (or cheap) software to use to
    calculate a footprint for an organization, the information would be
    appreciated.

    In the past I sent undergrads, mostly seniors, to local companies and
    non-profits to do business consulting jobs. For a different course I
    sent undergrads to do a consumer-perspective quality audit of local
    retailers. My warnings to you include:
    **If most of your students are local, they might be able to find
    businesses themselves, otherwise the burden is on you. The Chamber of
    Commerce could be helpful here, especially if you can offer a free
    workshop for local businesses on sustainability issues.
    **Whoever finds the business, you have to have some kind of
    interaction with the owner or manager before the students begin their
    work. Essentially there needs to be an agreement about what the
    students will do and the privacy of information about the business –
    both what the students find on their own and what the business gives
    the students to use. After a few years I developed a one-page
    introduction to the class project written for the owner/manager and
    this helped to clarify things.
    **Although every business is unique, even with a standardized
    ecological audit process, the students need to be given a standard
    plan or set of instructions to follow – from how to conduct the audit
    to how to present the results to the owner, the professor, and the
    class. You need to be available between classes to help with dumb
    questions and unique issues.
    **It is not through the audit itself, but through sharing the process
    issues and results across student groups within the class that I found
    much of the learning. Through sharing in the class, the value of each
    student’s personal experience is multiplied – they can relate to the
    others’ experiences and make more generalizations.
    **It’s a great way for students to learn.
    **I might suggest offering this to non-profits. Eco-audits often find
    areas for savings and no-profits need all the savings they can get.
    **I might also caution against spreading the project out into too many
    different kinds of organizations the first time. With an eco-audit a
    factory will likely have very different issues (air and water
    pollution, chemicals, physical wastes) than a retail store or a
    professional office. It might be easier at first to stick with one
    generic kind of organization and tailor your audit protocol to that.
    Len

    ___________________
    Len Tischler, Ph.D.
    Professor of Management
    335 Brennan Hall
    Kania School of Management
    University of Scranton
    Scranton, PA 18510
    len.tischler@scranton.edu
    570-941-7782


    Calculating Eco or Carbon Footprint
    For a business

    Global Reporting Initiative – G3 Guidelines for Sustainability
    Reporting
    http://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/ED9E9B36-AB54-4DE1-BFF2-
    5F735235CA44/0/G3_GuidelinesENU.pdf
    These are the broad international guidelines for reporting about
    sustainability.
    http://www.globalreporting.org/ReportingFramework/ReportingFrameworkDow
    nloads/
    All of the latest GRI reports

    Level C Report template
    http://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/2AF548A2-5E0A-4C16-92CA-
    951A33B5C142/0/LetsReportTemplate101208_ENG.pdf
    Instructions
    http://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/4EF1F1DC-3E93-46D5-9798-
    C657D89C79A5/0/LetsReportExplanationSummary.pdf
    Note: so far no US university has done a GRI report

    There is software out there
    http://weblog.infoworld.com/sustainableit/archives/2009/02/carbon_calcu
    lat.html

    Microsoft’s software
    http://www.cio.com/article/479964/Microsoft_Offers_Tool_to_Calculate_Ca
    rbon_Footprint
    but it’s only part of a larger software system

    Several calculators - are they any good for our purpose?
    http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/ecological_footprint_calculator.htm


    A list of eco organizations
    http://www.eco-web.com/index/category/10.10.html


    EPA”s audit protocol
    http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/policies/incentives/auditing/ap
    col-cercla.pdf


    EPA’s small business audits
    http://www.epa.gov/compliance/incentives/smallbusiness/index.html


  • 3.  Student audits of local firms

    Posted 02-21-2009 12:02

    Greetings Len,

    Thank you for your prompt and extremely relevant message.  I have had a similar experience with "consultancies" that I do with in my undergraduate strategy class.  I could not support many of your comments, caveats and warnings more strongly.  The bottom line for me is twofold; first they provide FAR better learning opportunities than a traditional on-campus offering.  Second, these types of "real world" projects, consultancies, and audits are FAR more labor intensive and risky for the instructor than a traditional on-campus exercise.  One reason is that instructors have to agree to lose significant control of the learning process.  An instructor has far more control by assembling a presentation, case or in-class simulation than an off-campus exercise.  To provide effective off-campus exercises, instructors need to market, coordinate and supervise with a type of independent contractor (your off-campus sponsor).  The sponsor's top priority is not to provide learning opportunities for our students.  This relationship provides many opportunities for conflicts of interests.    

    Also I did not receive 100% support from my management.  It seemed my management never adequately valued the benefit of these types of learning opportunities.  My management did provide lip support to the ideas of experiential exercises (possibly partially due to recent AACSB philosophical approaches).  However several times my management complained about the results obtained and methodologies that I used to conduct the consultancies.  Many academic managers are risk averse.  It seems one partial failure is more important than nine successes.  I caution any non-tenured faculty about undertaking these off-campus adventures. 

    You identified and highlighted several of the important aspects of these exercises.  Let me respond and add to several of your recommendations directly. 

     "Len's comment #1:  **If most of your students are local, they might be able to find businesses themselves, otherwise the burden is on you.  The Chamber of Commerce could be helpful here, especially if you can offer a free workshop for local businesses on sustainability issues."

    Extremely few (perhaps 1 to 5%) of my students are local and thus I had to identify and recruit the sponsors myself.  Whenever I go out to eat, do dry-cleaning, have a beer, take my bike to be repaired, buy camping or sporting equipment; I am always on the lookout for potential sponsors.  It drives my wife and kids crazy.

    "Len's comment #2:  **Whoever finds the business, you have to have some kind of interaction with the owner or manager before the students begin their work.  Essentially there needs to be an agreement about what the students will do and the privacy of information about the business – both what the students find on their own and what the business gives the students to use.  After a few years I developed a one-page introduction to the class project written for the owner/manager and this helped to clarify things."

    I end up having to buy at least two overpriced cups of coffees or lunches to meet with my sponsors and make arrangements for the consultancies.  I have a "letter of engagement" that I have my students and sponsors sign to specify the work at hand.  You will need to negotiate the wording with your management and general counsel.  I would be glad to send the instrument to anyone interested as Charles (Charles, you continually impress me with your support for the division) and our listserver do not allow attachments (for very important and valid reasons).

    "Len's comment #3:  **Although every business is unique, even with a standardized ecological audit process, the students need to be given a standard plan or set of instructions to follow – from how to conduct the audit to how to present the results to the owner, the professor, and the class.  You need to be available between classes to help with dumb questions and unique issues"

    Again, this preaches to the choir.  I could not agree with these statements more strongly.  I have a several pages of instructions that I include in my syllabus on the consultancy process.  It includes several stages throughout the semester to provide mid-course corrections.  Bundled with the letter of engagement, the students prepare a 2-5 page proposal describing the planned consultancy.  The students also supply 1 to 2 page bi-weekly reports updated their progress.  Half-way through the semester, the students deliver a mid-term report and do a brief presentation in class.  The final paper (typically 30 pages) is presented in class and to the sponsor.  Again, think: tons of instructor work.

    "Len's comment #4:  **It is not through the audit itself, but through sharing the process issues and results across student groups within the class that I found much of the learning.  Through sharing in the class, the value of each student's personal experience is multiplied – they can relate to the others' experiences and make more generalizations."

    I have found the in-class presentations of the proposals, mid-term and final reports to be an extremely strong learning experience.  The students end up learning from each other – quite the reward for the instructor. 

    "Len's comment #5:  **It's a great way for students to learn."

    In addition to this consultancy I do the Business Strategy Game (BSG), in-class day long simulations, a few cases, and the requisite lectures from the text book in the first days of the course to provide the theories, buzz words and tools.  Needless to say, after reading my syllabus, no student looking for a 'gut' signs up for my sections.  At the end of the course I have students compare the learning experiences of the BSG, cases, lectures, in-class simulations and consultancies.  Invariably, students feel they learn the most from the consultancies.

    ###

    In conclusion, I feel passionately that students learn FAR more doing these off-campus activities than they do in the classroom.  While they entail significantly more work than the traditional in-class approaches, the rewards dwarf the additional work.  I was amazed at the number of interesting, insightful postings on this topic (Tom Bryant, Dayna Simpson and Paul Shrivasta).  I intend to bother each of you with my additional 2 ½ cents on your comments.  Perhaps someone wants to take the initiative to turn this issue into a paper, a symposium or a Professional Development Workshop.  Let me know if I can help in any way.  Our field needs to support, nurture and facilitate these types of learning opportunities.

    Best regards,

    Bruce  


    On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 10:58 PM, Len Tischler <tischlerl1@scranton.edu> wrote:
    Bruce,
    Strangely, I am just trying to gather information about how to conduct
    a carbon or ecological footprint for my university for a class
    project.  I'll be using grad students.  I found a few sites with
    information, but I'm not sure that I have enough info yet for the
    project.  I'm including what I found below.  If anyone knows of any
    really good instruments or free (or cheap) software to use to
    calculate a footprint for an organization, the information would be
    appreciated.

    In the past I sent undergrads, mostly seniors, to local companies and
    non-profits to do business consulting jobs.  For a different course I
    sent undergrads to do a consumer-perspective quality audit of local
    retailers.  My warnings to you include:
    **If most of your students are local, they might be able to find
    businesses themselves, otherwise the burden is on you.  The Chamber of
    Commerce could be helpful here, especially if you can offer a free
    workshop for local businesses on sustainability issues.
    **Whoever finds the business, you have to have some kind of
    interaction with the owner or manager before the students begin their
    work.  Essentially there needs to be an agreement about what the
    students will do and the privacy of information about the business –
    both what the students find on their own and what the business gives
    the students to use.  After a few years I developed a one-page
    introduction to the class project written for the owner/manager and
    this helped to clarify things.
    **Although every business is unique, even with a standardized
    ecological audit process, the students need to be given a standard
    plan or set of instructions to follow – from how to conduct the audit
    to how to present the results to the owner, the professor, and the
    class.  You need to be available between classes to help with dumb
    questions and unique issues.
    **It is not through the audit itself, but through sharing the process
    issues and results across student groups within the class that I found
    much of the learning.  Through sharing in the class, the value of each
    student's personal experience is multiplied – they can relate to the
    others' experiences and make more generalizations.
    **It's a great way for students to learn.
    **I might suggest offering this to non-profits.  Eco-audits often find
    areas for savings and no-profits need all the savings they can get.
    **I might also caution against spreading the project out into too many
    different kinds of organizations the first time.  With an eco-audit a
    factory will likely have very different issues (air and water
    pollution, chemicals, physical wastes) than a retail store or a
    professional office. It might be easier at first to stick with one
    generic kind of organization and tailor your audit protocol to that.
    Len

    ___________________
    Len Tischler, Ph.D.
    Professor of Management
    335 Brennan Hall
    Kania School of Management
    University of Scranton
    Scranton, PA 18510
    len.tischler@scranton.edu
    570-941-7782


    Calculating Eco or Carbon Footprint
    For a business

    Global Reporting Initiative – G3 Guidelines for Sustainability
    Reporting
    http://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/ED9E9B36-AB54-4DE1-BFF2-
    5F735235CA44/0/G3_GuidelinesENU.pdf
    These are the broad international guidelines for reporting about
    sustainability.
    http://www.globalreporting.org/ReportingFramework/ReportingFrameworkDow
    nloads/
    All of the latest GRI reports

    Level C Report template
    http://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/2AF548A2-5E0A-4C16-92CA-
    951A33B5C142/0/LetsReportTemplate101208_ENG.pdf
    Instructions
    http://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/4EF1F1DC-3E93-46D5-9798-
    C657D89C79A5/0/LetsReportExplanationSummary.pdf
    Note: so far no US university has done a GRI report

    There is software out there
    http://weblog.infoworld.com/sustainableit/archives/2009/02/carbon_calcu
    lat.html

    Microsoft's software
    http://www.cio.com/article/479964/Microsoft_Offers_Tool_to_Calculate_Ca
    rbon_Footprint
    but it's only part of a larger software system

    Several calculators   - are they any good for our purpose?
    http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/ecological_footprint_calculator.htm


    A list of eco organizations
    http://www.eco-web.com/index/category/10.10.html


    EPA"s audit protocol
    http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/policies/incentives/auditing/ap
    col-cercla.pdf


    EPA's small business audits
    http://www.epa.gov/compliance/incentives/smallbusiness/index.html



    --
    Bruce Clemens
    Management Department
    School of Business
    103 Churchill Hall
    Western New England College
    1215 Wilbraham Road
    Springfield MA 01119
    Phone: 413-782-1500
    Fax: 413-796-2068
    bclemens@wnec.edu
    Campus mailbox number: C5433

    Please consider the environment before printing this email


  • 4.  Student audits of local firms

    Posted 02-21-2009 12:38
    The City of Seattle has made a great carbon calculator spreadsheet avail for
    free here
    http://www.seattle.gov/climate/SCPresources.htm

    3 years ago I worked with North Seattle Community College to design a credit
    course on green business assessments. The idea is to use the class to teach
    students, then they go do assessments of companies within say 1/2 mile of
    the college. Turns out there are lots - office buildings, gas stations,
    restaurants, a few small mftrs. A 40-hour curricula is fine to teach the
    basics. The instructors can be drawn from the local utilities eg the city
    electric utility can teach basic energy conservation, the water utility on
    water conservation, the waste mgmt folks for waste reduction and recycling,
    etc. We can draw on our local lean manufacturing assistance services for
    process analysis instructors.

    You might find a lot of support from the public utilities they are always
    trying to get business to be more energy efficient and generate less solid
    waste. For them this is outreach for demand-side management of public
    services.

    Here is a good article from ULSF on student audits of campus and local firms
    http://www.ulsf.org/pub_declaration_curvol32.html

    Have fun!

    Burton Hamner
    Cleaner Production International LLC
    www.cleanerproduction.com
    206-491-0945, wbhamner@cleanerproduction.com
    5534 30th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105
    Fax 206-666-4752

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Organizations and the Natural Environment Discussion
    [mailto:ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Len Tischler
    Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 7:58 PM
    To: ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: Re: Student audits of local firms

    Bruce,
    Strangely, I am just trying to gather information about how to conduct a
    carbon or ecological footprint for my university for a class project. I'll
    be using grad students. I found a few sites with information, but I'm not
    sure that I have enough info yet for the project. I'm including what I
    found below. If anyone knows of any really good instruments or free (or
    cheap) software to use to calculate a footprint for an organization, the
    information would be appreciated.

    In the past I sent undergrads, mostly seniors, to local companies and
    non-profits to do business consulting jobs. For a different course I sent
    undergrads to do a consumer-perspective quality audit of local retailers.
    My warnings to you include:
    **If most of your students are local, they might be able to find businesses
    themselves, otherwise the burden is on you. The Chamber of Commerce could
    be helpful here, especially if you can offer a free workshop for local
    businesses on sustainability issues.
    **Whoever finds the business, you have to have some kind of interaction with
    the owner or manager before the students begin their work. Essentially
    there needs to be an agreement about what the students will do and the
    privacy of information about the business - both what the students find on
    their own and what the business gives the students to use. After a few
    years I developed a one-page introduction to the class project written for
    the owner/manager and this helped to clarify things.
    **Although every business is unique, even with a standardized ecological
    audit process, the students need to be given a standard plan or set of
    instructions to follow - from how to conduct the audit to how to present the
    results to the owner, the professor, and the class. You need to be
    available between classes to help with dumb questions and unique issues.
    **It is not through the audit itself, but through sharing the process issues
    and results across student groups within the class that I found much of the
    learning. Through sharing in the class, the value of each student's
    personal experience is multiplied - they can relate to the others'
    experiences and make more generalizations.
    **It's a great way for students to learn.
    **I might suggest offering this to non-profits. Eco-audits often find areas
    for savings and no-profits need all the savings they can get.
    **I might also caution against spreading the project out into too many
    different kinds of organizations the first time. With an eco-audit a
    factory will likely have very different issues (air and water pollution,
    chemicals, physical wastes) than a retail store or a professional office. It
    might be easier at first to stick with one generic kind of organization and
    tailor your audit protocol to that.
    Len

    ___________________
    Len Tischler, Ph.D.
    Professor of Management
    335 Brennan Hall
    Kania School of Management
    University of Scranton
    Scranton, PA 18510
    len.tischler@scranton.edu
    570-941-7782


    Calculating Eco or Carbon Footprint
    For a business

    Global Reporting Initiative - G3 Guidelines for Sustainability
    Reporting
    http://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/ED9E9B36-AB54-4DE1-BFF2-
    5F735235CA44/0/G3_GuidelinesENU.pdf
    These are the broad international guidelines for reporting about
    sustainability.
    http://www.globalreporting.org/ReportingFramework/ReportingFrameworkDow
    nloads/
    All of the latest GRI reports

    Level C Report template
    http://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/2AF548A2-5E0A-4C16-92CA-
    951A33B5C142/0/LetsReportTemplate101208_ENG.pdf
    Instructions
    http://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/4EF1F1DC-3E93-46D5-9798-
    C657D89C79A5/0/LetsReportExplanationSummary.pdf
    Note: so far no US university has done a GRI report

    There is software out there
    http://weblog.infoworld.com/sustainableit/archives/2009/02/carbon_calcu
    lat.html

    Microsoft's software
    http://www.cio.com/article/479964/Microsoft_Offers_Tool_to_Calculate_Ca
    rbon_Footprint
    but it's only part of a larger software system

    Several calculators - are they any good for our purpose?
    http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/ecological_footprint_calculator.htm


    A list of eco organizations
    http://www.eco-web.com/index/category/10.10.html


    EPA"s audit protocol
    http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/policies/incentives/auditing/ap
    col-cercla.pdf


    EPA's small business audits
    http://www.epa.gov/compliance/incentives/smallbusiness/index.html


  • 5.  Student audits of local firms

    Posted 02-21-2009 14:53
    Len, I would recommend use of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol developed by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development & World Resources Institute.  Spreadsheets have already been programmed with formulas, there are several versions specific to different industries, and they are freely available.  You can use the tools for a simple Scope 2 GHG inventory or you can do a comprehensive scope 1, 2, & 3; depending upon how detailed and complex you want the footprint to be.
    http://www.ghgprotocol.org/
     
    Regards,
    Nancy

    ----- Original Message -----
    From: Len Tischler <tischlerl1@SCRANTON.EDU>
    Date: Friday, February 20, 2009 10:24 pm
    Subject: Re: Student audits of local firms
    To: ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU

    > Bruce,
    > Strangely, I am just trying to gather information about how to
    > conduct
    > a carbon or ecological footprint for my university for a class
    > project.  I'll be using grad students.  I found a few
    > sites with
    > information, but I'm not sure that I have enough info yet for
    > the
    > project.  I'm including what I found below.  If anyone
    > knows of any
    > really good instruments or free (or cheap) software to use to
    > calculate a footprint for an organization, the information would
    > be
    > appreciated. 
    >
    > In the past I sent undergrads, mostly seniors, to local
    > companies and
    > non-profits to do business consulting jobs.  For a
    > different course I
    > sent undergrads to do a consumer-perspective quality audit of
    > local
    > retailers.  My warnings to you include:
    > **If most of your students are local, they might be able to find
    > businesses themselves, otherwise the burden is on you.  The
    > Chamber of
    > Commerce could be helpful here, especially if you can offer a
    > free
    > workshop for local businesses on sustainability issues.
    > **Whoever finds the business, you have to have some kind of
    > interaction with the owner or manager before the students begin
    > their
    > work.  Essentially there needs to be an agreement about
    > what the
    > students will do and the privacy of information about the
    > business –
    > both what the students find on their own and what the business
    > gives
    > the students to use.  After a few years I developed a one-
    > page
    > introduction to the class project written for the owner/manager
    > and
    > this helped to clarify things. 
    > **Although every business is unique, even with a standardized
    > ecological audit process, the students need to be given a
    > standard
    > plan or set of instructions to follow – from how to conduct the
    > audit
    > to how to present the results to the owner, the professor, and
    > the
    > class.  You need to be available between classes to help
    > with dumb
    > questions and unique issues.
    > **It is not through the audit itself, but through sharing the
    > process
    > issues and results across student groups within the class that I
    > found
    > much of the learning.  Through sharing in the class, the
    > value of each
    > student's personal experience is multiplied – they can relate to
    > the
    > others' experiences and make more generalizations.
    > **It's a great way for students to learn.
    > **I might suggest offering this to non-profits.  Eco-audits
    > often find
    > areas for savings and no-profits need all the savings they can
    > get. 
    > **I might also caution against spreading the project out into
    > too many
    > different kinds of organizations the first time.  With an
    > eco-audit a
    > factory will likely have very different issues (air and water
    > pollution, chemicals, physical wastes) than a retail store or a
    > professional office. It might be easier at first to stick with
    > one
    > generic kind of organization and tailor your audit protocol to that.
    > Len
    >
    > ___________________
    > Len Tischler, Ph.D.
    > Professor of Management
    > 335 Brennan Hall
    > Kania School of Management
    > University of Scranton
    > Scranton, PA 18510
    > len.tischler@scranton.edu
    > 570-941-7782
    >
    >
    > Calculating Eco or Carbon Footprint
    > For a business
    >
    > Global Reporting Initiative – G3 Guidelines for Sustainability
    > Reporting
    > http://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/ED9E9B36-AB54-4DE1-
    > BFF2-
    > 5F735235CA44/0/G3_GuidelinesENU.pdf
    > These are the broad international guidelines for reporting about
    > sustainability.
    > http://www.globalreporting.org/ReportingFramework/ReportingFrameworkDow
    > nloads/
    > All of the latest GRI reports
    >
    > Level C Report template
    > http://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/2AF548A2-5E0A-4C16-
    > 92CA-
    > 951A33B5C142/0/LetsReportTemplate101208_ENG.pdf
    > Instructions
    > http://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/4EF1F1DC-3E93-46D5-
    > 9798-
    > C657D89C79A5/0/LetsReportExplanationSummary.pdf
    > Note: so far no US university has done a GRI report
    >
    > There is software out there
    > http://weblog.infoworld.com/sustainableit/archives/2009/02/carbon_calcu
    > lat.html
    >
    > Microsoft's software
    > http://www.cio.com/article/479964/Microsoft_Offers_Tool_to_Calculate_Ca
    > rbon_Footprint
    > but it's only part of a larger software system
    >
    > Several calculators   - are they any good for our purpose?
    > http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/ecological_footprint_calculator.htm
    >
    >
    > A list of eco organizations
    > http://www.eco-web.com/index/category/10.10.html
    >
    >
    > EPA"s audit protocol
    > http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/policies/incentives/auditing/ap
    > col-cercla.pdf 
    >
    >
    > EPA's small business audits
    > http://www.epa.gov/compliance/incentives/smallbusiness/index.html


  • 6.  Student audits of local firms

    Posted 02-21-2009 16:19

    Hi Burt,

    Great to hear from you!  Thank you for all the information.  I was speaking with a colleague in finance about the level of collegiality on ONE-L.  I showed him the thread that began with my request.  He was completely blown away.  He offers that in the two decades his finance list-server has been operating, he has never seen this level of collegiality. 

    Anyway, I really like Seattle's carbon calculator.  The article by Bruce Kohrn, Walter Simpson, Julie Barrett-O'Neill and Joseph A. Gardella is also a great resource.  Thank you once again.  I will make sure to post my eventual syllabus on the ONE AoM web site.  I truly hope we can have time to share more about this, perhaps as a Professional Development Workshop in the future.  I will also try to keep a list of those who are interested.  The following colleagues were extremely helpful and all seem to be interest in student audits:

    Raymond Paquin rpaquin@jmsb.concordia.ca

    Paul Shrivastava shrivast@coral.bucknell.edu

    Len Tischler len.tischler@scranton.edu

    Burt Hamner wbhamner@cleanerproduction.com

    Nancy E Landrum nelandrum@ualr.edu

    Robert B. Pojasek rpojasek@sprynet.com

    Best regards,

    Bruce  


    On Sat, Feb 21, 2009 at 12:37 PM, Burt Hamner <wbhamner@cleanerproduction.com> wrote:
    The City of Seattle has made a great carbon calculator spreadsheet avail for
    free here
    http://www.seattle.gov/climate/SCPresources.htm

    3 years ago I worked with North Seattle Community College to design a credit
    course on green business assessments.  The idea is to use the class to teach
    students, then they go do assessments of companies within say 1/2 mile of
    the college.  Turns out there are lots - office buildings, gas stations,
    restaurants, a few small mftrs.  A 40-hour curricula is fine to teach the
    basics.  The instructors can be drawn from the local utilities eg the city
    electric utility can teach basic energy conservation, the water utility on
    water conservation, the waste mgmt folks for waste reduction and recycling,
    etc.  We can draw on our local lean manufacturing assistance services for
    process analysis instructors.

    You might find a lot of support from the public utilities they are always
    trying to get business to be more energy efficient and generate less solid
    waste.  For them this is outreach for demand-side management of public
    services.

    Here is a good article from ULSF on student audits of campus and local firms
    http://www.ulsf.org/pub_declaration_curvol32.html

    Have fun!

    Burton Hamner
    Cleaner Production International LLC
    www.cleanerproduction.com
    206-491-0945,  wbhamner@cleanerproduction.com
    5534 30th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105
    Fax 206-666-4752

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Organizations and the Natural Environment Discussion
    [mailto:ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Len Tischler
    Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 7:58 PM
    To: ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: Re: Student audits of local firms

    Bruce,
    Strangely, I am just trying to gather information about how to conduct a
    carbon or ecological footprint for my university for a class project.  I'll
    be using grad students.  I found a few sites with information, but I'm not
    sure that I have enough info yet for the project.  I'm including what I
    found below.  If anyone knows of any really good instruments or free (or
    cheap) software to use to calculate a footprint for an organization, the
    information would be appreciated.

    In the past I sent undergrads, mostly seniors, to local companies and
    non-profits to do business consulting jobs.  For a different course I sent
    undergrads to do a consumer-perspective quality audit of local retailers.
    My warnings to you include:
    **If most of your students are local, they might be able to find businesses
    themselves, otherwise the burden is on you.  The Chamber of Commerce could
    be helpful here, especially if you can offer a free workshop for local
    businesses on sustainability issues.
    **Whoever finds the business, you have to have some kind of interaction with
    the owner or manager before the students begin their work.  Essentially
    there needs to be an agreement about what the students will do and the
    privacy of information about the business - both what the students find on
    their own and what the business gives the students to use.  After a few
    years I developed a one-page introduction to the class project written for
    the owner/manager and this helped to clarify things.
    **Although every business is unique, even with a standardized ecological
    audit process, the students need to be given a standard plan or set of
    instructions to follow - from how to conduct the audit to how to present the
    results to the owner, the professor, and the class.  You need to be
    available between classes to help with dumb questions and unique issues.
    **It is not through the audit itself, but through sharing the process issues
    and results across student groups within the class that I found much of the
    learning.  Through sharing in the class, the value of each student's
    personal experience is multiplied - they can relate to the others'
    experiences and make more generalizations.
    **It's a great way for students to learn.
    **I might suggest offering this to non-profits.  Eco-audits often find areas
    for savings and no-profits need all the savings they can get.
    **I might also caution against spreading the project out into too many
    different kinds of organizations the first time.  With an eco-audit a
    factory will likely have very different issues (air and water pollution,
    chemicals, physical wastes) than a retail store or a professional office. It
    might be easier at first to stick with one generic kind of organization and
    tailor your audit protocol to that.
    Len

    ___________________
    Len Tischler, Ph.D.
    Professor of Management
    335 Brennan Hall
    Kania School of Management
    University of Scranton
    Scranton, PA 18510
    len.tischler@scranton.edu
    570-941-7782


    Calculating Eco or Carbon Footprint
    For a business

    Global Reporting Initiative - G3 Guidelines for Sustainability
    Reporting
    http://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/ED9E9B36-AB54-4DE1-BFF2-
    5F735235CA44/0/G3_GuidelinesENU.pdf
    These are the broad international guidelines for reporting about
    sustainability.
    http://www.globalreporting.org/ReportingFramework/ReportingFrameworkDow
    nloads/
    All of the latest GRI reports

    Level C Report template
    http://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/2AF548A2-5E0A-4C16-92CA-
    951A33B5C142/0/LetsReportTemplate101208_ENG.pdf
    Instructions
    http://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/4EF1F1DC-3E93-46D5-9798-
    C657D89C79A5/0/LetsReportExplanationSummary.pdf
    Note: so far no US university has done a GRI report

    There is software out there
    http://weblog.infoworld.com/sustainableit/archives/2009/02/carbon_calcu
    lat.html

    Microsoft's software
    http://www.cio.com/article/479964/Microsoft_Offers_Tool_to_Calculate_Ca
    rbon_Footprint
    but it's only part of a larger software system

    Several calculators   - are they any good for our purpose?
    http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/ecological_footprint_calculator.htm


    A list of eco organizations
    http://www.eco-web.com/index/category/10.10.html


    EPA"s audit protocol
    http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/policies/incentives/auditing/ap
    col-cercla.pdf


    EPA's small business audits
    http://www.epa.gov/compliance/incentives/smallbusiness/index.html




    --
    Bruce Clemens
    Management Department
    School of Business
    103 Churchill Hall
    Western New England College
    1215 Wilbraham Road
    Springfield MA 01119
    Phone: 413-782-1500
    Fax: 413-796-2068
    bclemens@wnec.edu
    Campus mailbox number: C5433

    Please consider the environment before printing this email


  • 7.  Student audits of local firms

    Posted 02-22-2009 16:16

    To follow up on Nancy Landrum's comments regarding the level of scope/detail for your analysis...

     

    A detailed LCA tool is available through www.eiolca.net/ .  This free LCA tool is based on over a decade of data collection, is very detailed, and makes for an interesting benchmarking tool for manufacturing firms.  Users can choose between different data sets (models and years collected) to start, industry groups, and industry sector of a product example.  The example chosen displays the NAICS information, a brief description of this code and lists product examples.  The output displays economic outputs and the user can choose between conventionally pollutants, GHG, energy, toxic releases, and employment as the output.  Users can also look at the number of other manufacturing sectors involved in the product examples supply chain. 

     

    We just looked at this tool in class last week as part of a module on Carbon and Auditing tools where we focused on electronic computer manufacturing and the output linked around 400 industry sector manufacturers within this products supply chain.  Users do not have to input numbers, so the interface is simple enough, but it really gets at the level of detail that could be involved a very comprehensive scope 3 assessment and it is an interesting way to highlight top emissions within a product category so that students can get an idea of where to look for the real impacts and opportunities.  All of the output is downloadable into excel.  The level of detail shocks students and reveals the depth to which we could go to try and fully understand a product with a large Bill of Materials and complex supply chain.  It might be a good tool to compare to other more simple assessments while stressing the keep it simple principles of life. 

     

    Some other interesting work has come out of this same group that provides the tool above.  One notable finding is that they compared six different tools for carbon footprinting and found six different results.  Since users do not know the underlying assumptions of the models, we should be careful as to what we can claim.  Measurement is a good starting point.  What we do with that measurement becomes exponentially more important as we look at the implications for changing management practices, creating new policy, and making good decisions.

     

    As part of our graduate program we also conduct student consulting projects year round with our MBAs and concentrate on Audits in the fall, Process Improvement in the spring, and Change Management in the summer.  The earlier comments about these types of projects being of high risk and that the outcomes will be out of your full  control were right on.  We try to work with the clients to properly scope the projects to start as the scope is a critical start to the project.  We also work to update the scope when necessary and not allow for scope creep if possible.  We have weekly updates to clients, mid semester updates to faculty sponsors and the instructor before the teams get to present to clients, and we have the same approach in that students present first to faculty sponsors and the instructor before they present the final  deliverables (presentation and report) to the client.  This way we (instructors) can try to better control some aspects of the interface and reduce risk.  Projects have the potential to be a great cross-functional undertaking if you can invite other faculty to help act as coaches for the student teams.  One or two faculty sponsors per team in addition to the instructor is a great way to pull in other disciplines and let them see the opportunities the projects provide in finding new material and examples for faculty to use in their classes.  These types of projects are a lot of work, but the learning and real consequences the students experience are outstanding.
     

    Best Regards,

    Robert Sroufe

    Murrin Chair of Global Competitiveness

    Duquesne University

    412.396.1909

    sroufer@duq.edu

     

     

    From: Organizations and the Natural Environment Discussion [mailto:ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Bruce Clemens
    Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2009 4:19 PM
    To: ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: Re: Student audits of local firms

     

    Hi Burt,

    Great to hear from you!  Thank you for all the information.  I was speaking with a colleague in finance about the level of collegiality on ONE-L.  I showed him the thread that began with my request.  He was completely blown away.  He offers that in the two decades his finance list-server has been operating, he has never seen this level of collegiality.

    Anyway, I really like Seattle's carbon calculator.  The article by Bruce Kohrn, Walter Simpson, Julie Barrett-O'Neill and Joseph A. Gardella is also a great resource.  Thank you once again.  I will make sure to post my eventual syllabus on the ONE AoM web site.  I truly hope we can have time to share more about this, perhaps as a Professional Development Workshop in the future.  I will also try to keep a list of those who are interested.  The following colleagues were extremely helpful and all seem to be interest in student audits:

    Raymond Paquin rpaquin@jmsb.concordia.ca

    Paul Shrivastava shrivast@coral.bucknell.edu

    Len Tischler len.tischler@scranton.edu

    Burt Hamner wbhamner@cleanerproduction.com

    Nancy E Landrum nelandrum@ualr.edu

    Robert B. Pojasek rpojasek@sprynet.com

    Best regards,

    Bruce 

     

    On Sat, Feb 21, 2009 at 12:37 PM, Burt Hamner <wbhamner@cleanerproduction.com> wrote:

    The City of Seattle has made a great carbon calculator spreadsheet avail for
    free here
    http://www.seattle.gov/climate/SCPresources.htm

    3 years ago I worked with North Seattle Community College to design a credit
    course on green business assessments.  The idea is to use the class to teach
    students, then they go do assessments of companies within say 1/2 mile of
    the college.  Turns out there are lots - office buildings, gas stations,
    restaurants, a few small mftrs.  A 40-hour curricula is fine to teach the
    basics.  The instructors can be drawn from the local utilities eg the city
    electric utility can teach basic energy conservation, the water utility on
    water conservation, the waste mgmt folks for waste reduction and recycling,
    etc.  We can draw on our local lean manufacturing assistance services for
    process analysis instructors.

    You might find a lot of support from the public utilities they are always
    trying to get business to be more energy efficient and generate less solid
    waste.  For them this is outreach for demand-side management of public
    services.

    Here is a good article from ULSF on student audits of campus and local firms
    http://www.ulsf.org/pub_declaration_curvol32.html

    Have fun!

    Burton Hamner
    Cleaner Production International LLC
    www.cleanerproduction.com
    206-491-0945,  wbhamner@cleanerproduction.com
    5534 30th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105
    Fax 206-666-4752

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Organizations and the Natural Environment Discussion
    [mailto:ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Len Tischler
    Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 7:58 PM
    To: ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: Re: Student audits of local firms

    Bruce,
    Strangely, I am just trying to gather information about how to conduct a
    carbon or ecological footprint for my university for a class project.  I'll
    be using grad students.  I found a few sites with information, but I'm not
    sure that I have enough info yet for the project.  I'm including what I
    found below.  If anyone knows of any really good instruments or free (or
    cheap) software to use to calculate a footprint for an organization, the
    information would be appreciated.

    In the past I sent undergrads, mostly seniors, to local companies and
    non-profits to do business consulting jobs.  For a different course I sent
    undergrads to do a consumer-perspective quality audit of local retailers.
    My warnings to you include:
    **If most of your students are local, they might be able to find businesses
    themselves, otherwise the burden is on you.  The Chamber of Commerce could
    be helpful here, especially if you can offer a free workshop for local
    businesses on sustainability issues.
    **Whoever finds the business, you have to have some kind of interaction with
    the owner or manager before the students begin their work.  Essentially
    there needs to be an agreement about what the students will do and the
    privacy of information about the business - both what the students find on
    their own and what the business gives the students to use.  After a few
    years I developed a one-page introduction to the class project written for
    the owner/manager and this helped to clarify things.
    **Although every business is unique, even with a standardized ecological
    audit process, the students need to be given a standard plan or set of
    instructions to follow - from how to conduct the audit to how to present the
    results to the owner, the professor, and the class.  You need to be
    available between classes to help with dumb questions and unique issues.
    **It is not through the audit itself, but through sharing the process issues
    and results across student groups within the class that I found much of the
    learning.  Through sharing in the class, the value of each student's
    personal experience is multiplied - they can relate to the others'
    experiences and make more generalizations.
    **It's a great way for students to learn.
    **I might suggest offering this to non-profits.  Eco-audits often find areas
    for savings and no-profits need all the savings they can get.
    **I might also caution against spreading the project out into too many
    different kinds of organizations the first time.  With an eco-audit a
    factory will likely have very different issues (air and water pollution,
    chemicals, physical wastes) than a retail store or a professional office. It
    might be easier at first to stick with one generic kind of organization and
    tailor your audit protocol to that.
    Len

    ___________________
    Len Tischler, Ph.D.
    Professor of Management
    335 Brennan Hall
    Kania School of Management
    University of Scranton
    Scranton, PA 18510
    len.tischler@scranton.edu
    570-941-7782


    Calculating Eco or Carbon Footprint
    For a business

    Global Reporting Initiative - G3 Guidelines for Sustainability
    Reporting
    http://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/ED9E9B36-AB54-4DE1-BFF2-
    5F735235CA44/0/G3_GuidelinesENU.pdf
    These are the broad international guidelines for reporting about
    sustainability.
    http://www.globalreporting.org/ReportingFramework/ReportingFrameworkDow
    nloads/
    All of the latest GRI reports

    Level C Report template
    http://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/2AF548A2-5E0A-4C16-92CA-
    951A33B5C142/0/LetsReportTemplate101208_ENG.pdf
    Instructions
    http://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/4EF1F1DC-3E93-46D5-9798-
    C657D89C79A5/0/LetsReportExplanationSummary.pdf
    Note: so far no US university has done a GRI report

    There is software out there
    http://weblog.infoworld.com/sustainableit/archives/2009/02/carbon_calcu
    lat.html

    Microsoft's software
    http://www.cio.com/article/479964/Microsoft_Offers_Tool_to_Calculate_Ca
    rbon_Footprint
    but it's only part of a larger software system

    Several calculators   - are they any good for our purpose?
    http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/ecological_footprint_calculator.htm


    A list of eco organizations
    http://www.eco-web.com/index/category/10.10.html


    EPA"s audit protocol
    http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/policies/incentives/auditing/ap
    col-cercla.pdf


    EPA's small business audits
    http://www.epa.gov/compliance/incentives/smallbusiness/index.html




    --
    Bruce Clemens
    Management Department
    School of Business
    103 Churchill Hall
    Western New England College
    1215 Wilbraham Road
    Springfield MA 01119
    Phone: 413-782-1500
    Fax: 413-796-2068
    bclemens@wnec.edu
    Campus mailbox number: C5433

    Please consider the environment before printing this email



  • 8.  Student audits of local firms

    Posted 02-23-2009 14:41
    Hello everyone,

    Two additional links for Len's list:

    The Clean Air-Cool Planet on-line Campus Climate Action Toolkit (CCAT)
    http://www.cleanair-coolplanet.org/toolkit/

    (the spreadsheets are very thorough from a university operations
    perspective and do a decent job at adhering to GHG protocol norms)

    An impressive example of engaging students in university greening:
    http://sustainability.mit.edu/Generator


    And a thought:
    In the past I've discussed the idea of university carbon footprinting
    with eager 'university admin services' people, and and it would seem
    beneficial to assign students to separate faculties or administrative
    departments. Treating each unit with budgetary autonomy as its own
    entity for project deliverables will mean your students act as
    ambassadors for any university-wide policies/tools that may (or
    should) exist. A potential benefit in and of itself.

    GHG Protocol's definition of boundaries based on 'control' (page 16)
    http://www.ghgprotocol.org/files/ghg-protocol-revised.pdf

    And the GRI's approach (page 18)
    http://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/ED9E9B36-AB54-4DE1-BFF2-5F735235CA44/0/G3_GuidelinesENU.pdf


    Cheers,
    -Shady "inaugural post" Kanfi

    ---
    PhD Student at Desautels Faculty of Management
    Affiliated to the McGill School of Environment
    McGill University, Montreal, Canada
    +1-514-815-5525
    shady.kanfi@mail.mcgill.ca

    On 20-Feb-09, at 10:58 PM, Len Tischler wrote:

    > Bruce,
    > Strangely, I am just trying to gather information about how to conduct
    > a carbon or ecological footprint for my university for a class
    > project. I’ll be using grad students. I found a few sites with
    > information, but I’m not sure that I have enough info yet for the
    > project. I’m including what I found below. If anyone knows of any
    > really good instruments or free (or cheap) software to use to
    > calculate a footprint for an organization, the information would be
    > appreciated.