Graduate students in the Poole College of Management are organizing an event to highlight career opportunities in sustainability.
Zach Tinkler , a graduate student in business administration and the president of the University’s Net Impact chapter, wanted to create the event in order to give students a good perspective on how sustainability has business opportunities.
“Sustainability is larger and more impactful than just saving the planet or going green. There is a new business side to it as well,” Tinkler said.
The event, on Oct. 15 at the McKimmon Center, will give students a chance to talk to companies about sustainability and how they use it in their daily work. And those conversations could lead to employment, Tinkler said.
“This is a good opportunity to meet with local companies that are hopefully going to have jobs available,” Tinkler said.
Dragana Mendel, a graduate student in business administration and the vice president of Net Impact at the University, said this event is a step forward for Net Impact.
“This is the first event of this scale we have been able to organize, so it’s very exciting,” Mendel said.
Mendel said sustainability is growing in the business world and hopes that students will take the opportunity to learn more about how a career in sustainability could benefit them.
“It’s important to use our creative skills to solve our energy problems,” Mendel said.
The Poole College of Management has been making an effort to support the growth of sustainability on campus since Loni C. Poole donated $37 million to the college. Poole had an interest in the growth of sustainability programs according to Scott Showalter , a teaching assistant in the College of Management who is heading up a task force on sustainability within the college.
“We want to honor [Poole’s interest],” Showalter said.
It is still being decided how the funds donated by Poole will be used to help increase sustainability and awareness about it, according to Showalter .
“As part of that sustainability interest, we are currently exploring how to use that money in the classroom and throughout campus,” Showalter said.
According to Showalter , interest in sustainability has been growing in all of the colleges at the University. Tinkler also said that the University has been doing a good job of embracing sustainability in the past few years.
“We saw an opportunity to bring a larger awareness to sustainability with this event,” Tinkler said.
Tinkler said that he hopes to see the Net Impact organization grow more in the undergraduate level. Part of this event is getting the word out about the organization to as many students as possible.
Tinkler and Mendel both said that they want this event to help students look at sustainability from a business perspective rather than from a strictly environmental one.
“It really builds a bigger picture to look at all of this as a business. We hope to bring a larger awareness of what the business opportunities are,” Tinkler said.
