Greening Business Summer Position

Employment Opportunities
Greening Business Playbook - Seeking Research Assistant

 

Position Status: Open - seeking 1 student research assistant to provide up to 30-40 hours per week of research support between the months of May through August of 2009. Note that this can also be classified as a summer internship.

 

Work Site: Center for Business and the Environment at Yale and the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy

 

Supervisor's Name: Peter Price Thomas, Project Director and co-author of the Playbook. Peter is a global leader in the corporate sustainability arena. He has helped organizations around the globe understand and strategically address the challenges and opportunities of sustainable development for the last decade. Through years of work with The Natural Step, he has contributed to the cutting-edge of strategic sustainability thinking worldwide - developing prize-winning corporate tools such as the TNS Streamlined Life Cycle Assessment to authoring and co-authoring seminal works on the subject including "Sustainable Wealth Creation within Environmental Limits" with Jonathon Porritt. Peter is a Fulbright Scholar, has a Master's Degree in Environmental Science from Yale University and an MA in Geography from the University of Edinburgh.

 

Type of Position: Research Assistant / summer internship

 

Project DescriptionThis project seeks to build on the success of Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage (more than 100,000 copies sold), which showed that business leaders have come to understand that (1) environmental issues have become a critical element of strategy, and (2) the environment is not just a burden but can also be an opportunity. Moreover, business has become a major force for environmental progress. From Toyota to IKEA, from DuPont to GE, companies big and small in manufacturing and services have committed themselves to being part of the solution to climate change and other pollution control and natural resource management challenges. Indeed, the private sector has emerged as a critical point of leverage.

 

The Greening Business Playbook will build on this change in attitudes and help advance the underlying revolution in corporate attitudes toward the environment. While the logic of "going green" has become apparent, many business people remain unclear about how to "green" their operations in practice. A follow-up publication to Green to Gold that offers practical guidance on how to integrate environment considerations into business plans and practices is significant. In the current economic climate, business leaders want a concrete and concise collection of steps that will lead to environmental, social, and economic advantage. As with Green to Gold, the Greening Business Playbook will focus on real-world scenarios in an accessible "how-to guide" format, providing thoughtful solutions to common environmental problems for engaged managers from multi-million dollar companies to small businesses.

 

Geared to small business people as well as corporate executives, the Greening Business Playbook promises to further the transformation of business thinking about the environment and draw thousands of additional companies into the quest for improved energy efficiency, alternative energy, reduced emissions, and better natural resources management. The Playbook will be accessible to businesses of all sizes, a range of industries, and companies in various stages of incorporating sustainability into their business practices. For those who have already taken the green imperative on board, the Playbook will serve as a resource for furthering best practices and deepening commitments. For businesses that have just begun to consider green business practices, the Playbook will be an essential tool for getting started. The Greening Business Playbook will be extensively promoted in media and venues around the world. The goal is to further the Green to Gold revolution in corporate attitudes and advance environmental efforts worldwide.

 

The authors will be publishing the playbook in the fall of 2009. To that end, they are seeking assistance from a student to conduct research for the explicit purpose of developing strategies for companies to green their operations. Research activities will include, but not be limited to, the following: • Small Business Benefit - how have small businesses created business advantage by greening their operations? Practical, proven examples of how and what businesses have achieved, both in the US and around the world. • Corporate Strategies - how have large corporates and multinationals made money from becoming more sustainable? Practical, up to date examples of what can be achieved as well as how to ensure that benefits are maximized.• Importance of Greening in a ‘Credit Crunch' World - Data and recent examples supporting why in the current economic situation it is even more important for companies to be proactive about greening their operations.

 

Required SkillsThe following skills are required for this position:• Must be a self-starter and independent worker as well as someone capable of working on a team and able to work in a flexible and fast-paced environment;• Excellent research, organizational, writing and communication skills;• Strong interest in corporate environmental management and strategy; and• Evidence of prior work experience providing consulting services

 

Submission RequirementsIf you are interested in the Greening Business Playbook research project, then please send a cover letter and CV by no later than April 30, 2009 to:Yale Center for Environmental Law and PolicyC/O Ysella EdyveanRE: Greening Business Playbook301 Prospect StreetNew Haven, CT 06511

 

If you have any questions, please call (203) 432-5967 or write to ysella.edyvean@yale.edu

 

About UsCenter for Business and the Environment at Yale - Joining the strengths of two preeminent professional schools, the Yale School of Management and the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale (CBEY) supports innovative approaches to environmental problem-solving through education, advocacy, and cutting-edge research. More information about CBEY can be found at www.yale.edu/cbey

 

Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy - seeks to advance fresh thinking and analytically rigorous approaches to environmental decision-making - across disciplines, sectors and boundaries. The Center was responsible for spearheading the initial research that went into "Green to Gold". More information on YCELP can be found at www.yale.edu/envirocenter