UNC’s entrepreneurial approach to sustainability

I was recently invited to a retreat for city managers from across the United States. One of the questions I asked was, “If you could start from scratch, would you design your city’s waste water treatment plant differently?” All said, absolutely – they would follow the example of developing countries like India and China. Without the burden of existing infrastructure, these countries are designing systems that take advantage of new technologies that improve quality of life and protect the environment.

That’s the type of entrepreneurial attitude toward sustainability we foster here at UNC. We encourage managers to look at sustainability from an innovation perspective. We see the best companies creating new processes, products and business models that are friendlier to the environment and more rewarding to the communities they serve. They are innovating while other companies cling to the old way of doing things. Of course, like our nation’s cities, long-established companies have a harder time changing their processes to become more sustainable, but there is still room for innovation.

In the classroom, we’re studying companies and people who are coming up with new approaches that can be applied to other businesses. For example, the iPod was originally an innovative product designed in a traditional way, with no eye toward making it environmentally friendly. But now iPods are designed to be more recyclable by weight, incorporating fewer and different materials. When you buy an upgraded iPod, you can return your old one to Apple for recycling. Now, the iPod is an innovative product designed in an innovative way. And – also important – Apple is making even more money.

At UNC, we’re turning out managers who consider sustainability as another design constraint – along with consumer appeal and profitability. This attitude carries over into other disciplines – one EMBA student, who is a securities analyst in Charlotte, told me that our courses, Strategic Technology and Sustainable Enterprise, have changed the way he analyzes companies. Now, he examines their sustainability initiatives along with other business factors. If they are not innovative in a sustainable way, he believes the company will not be a good buy for the long term.

While some EMBA students want to shift into careers focused on sustainability, we think the biggest change is with the managers who are climbing the ranks within their company. Many see opportunities for incorporating sustainable approaches into their current company’s business models – and they are initiating change.

I believe the most lasting approach to sustainable enterprise is to marry it to other core business ideas and processes. That’s the only way that today’s interest in sustainability will be sustained.