Green Building Code in the Works

The development of a national green building code to guide the planning and construction of green commercial buildings in the U.S. is underway. Building codes typically cover a host of issues as related to a structure's reliability. A green building code would do the same, but from a more global perspective - considering "the health, safety and welfare of the planet."

Pennsylvania is one of only two states with a government representative on the 28-member drafting body. A final version of the code is expected to be adopted in late 2011.

Attention Temple Students: share or find a ride!

Need a ride? Want to offer a ride?

Log onto Temple's online "Need-a-ride" forum to find fellow students commuting throughout Philly and the surrounding suburbs.

Currently there are more than 4,100 Temple community members participating.

This holiday season, reduce your food packaging waste.

As we approach the busy holiday season, this post from GOOD reminds us to consider the packaging waste resulting from our food choices.

In short, awareness of your actions is the first step. From there, try to choose items that are free of packaging, or wrapped in paper or glass. It is that easy to control the amount of waste you contribute!

Learning a thing or two about CSR in big companies from Dave Stangis

On November 3, Fox School of Business's Net Impact chapter - Fox Net Impact - was privileged to host a talk by Dave Stangis, the Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability at Campbell Soup Company. Dave is relatively new at Campbell's, having priorly been at Intel for 12 years where he created and led the Corporate Responsibility function there. Dave is responsible for leading Campbell’s overarching CSR/Sustainability strategy and for overseeing the development of CSR goals, policies and programs for the company. Since becoming the head of Campbell Soup's CSR initatives, Dave has endeavored to prove that CSR and a successful business strategy are not mutually exclusive.

Dave's speech and the discussion that followed was engaging and interesting. It gave the Fox students who attended the event rare insight into how a large company like Campbell's is making CSR a more serious part of its overall business plan. CSR is now one of Campbell's seven main strategies connected to its overall mission. Its strong focus on CSR is designed to give it a particularly innovative approach to business operation that that builds employee engagement, improves environmental performance, and creates positive social impacts. All of this, Dave is convinced, creates business advantage and makes Campbell's more competitive within its industry.

One of the most striking comments was made during Dave's story about how he got his current job. A lot of the push for a stronger emphasis on CSR and Sustainability at Campbell's actually came from the firm's CEO, Douglas Conant. Doug strongly believes that it is the responsibility of a large company like Campbell Soup to give back to the people and communities that buy and create its products. It was through Doug's leadership and vision that the VP of CSR and Sustainability position was created in the first place. The message from this is clear - it often takes strong leadership from the top of large companies to make CSR a priority. Mr. Conant's forward-looking decisions about CSR's place at Campbell's and Mr. Stangis's strong leadership will no doubt pay off in better long-term operational efficiencies, cost reductions, faster innovation, and stronger relationships with customers and consumers. With exemplary results like these, Campbell Soup will put even more pressure on its competition as well as the larger business community to reexamine their attitudes towards CSR.

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MBAs and Social Entrepreneurship

I just read an interesting article in the New York Times about MBA students shifting from investment banking and consulting jobs to social entrepreneurship. Given the current economy, students are looking beyond the "get-rich" positions and seeking positions that will also benefit society. Business schools are developing programs in response to the growing desire to combine personal gain and social benefit. In fact, the Fox School of Business and Management at Temple University is offering a course on Social Entrepreneurship in the Spring 2010 semester. The seminar will explore the central challenges raised by the possibility of managing for more than just profit.