Green Thinking

Now how many of us really worry about the environment? After we worry how many of us really make the effort to make a difference to our environment or ecology. Then, how many of us actually go about doing it.

One of the main realizations of my past year has been the need to understand the natural systems and work out ways where we can be in sync with it. I have writing about this and other topics on the development of less developed places like rural India on my other blog : World is Green. This would cover also the "Bottom of the Pyramid" ideas.

This blog has helped me to learn and understand the principles, the effort required and also helped in networking with people involved in similar ventures. One of the people who does in a large scale and helps propagate these ideas is Alex Steffan from WorldChanging.com.

In the past week they touched about the topic of Green Campuses.

The MBA schools in the world are always considered to be the place where future business leaders are made. In this scenario, apart from leadership, ethical standards and the latest management techniques MBAs also need to be taught sustainability, respecting the eco-system and the much need "triple bottomline".

A good number of MBA schools have started sustainability as part of their courses. Some concentrate on the ecology, some on the 'bottom of the pyramids' and some on innovative ventures in the not-for-profit world.

WorldChanging is now reporting that a sizable number of these schools are also making their campuses Green.

Alex asks : How much momentum does this campus greening movement have? This overview takes us back to school:

Rob Gogan, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was startled by what he found while accompanying his son on college-campus tours. Sparkling dorms with wireless Internet in every room? Of course. But guides bragging about geothermal energy and furniture made of conscientiously harvested wood? "Unbelievable," Gogan says. He claims such innovations would not have existed even five years ago. ... 91 percent of people ages 16 to 25 say the environment is important to them, according to a poll by Look-Look Inc., a research and marketing company specializing in youth culture.

He provides other examples of Harvard, Columbia, California and other schools are working towards these goals. The interesting part is where students contribute in using "wind energy" or initiating a green building due to a case study. These kind of action examples are need to make a difference in the real world.

If these students actually learn the gospel of sustainability in their courses and take it back to the business world and actually implement it then we have started a small movement which can make a difference.

As for me, I will continue to learn, write and understand how we can make this world an environmentally friendly place.