Presidian Blog

Mara Slade has always been concerned about the environment. She cared about sustainability and even had a couple of Paul Hawken books lying around. But after immersing herself in an MBA program with a deeply embedded systems sustainability focus, Slade considers herself “totally transformed.” “I’ve been exposed to so many great thinkers,” she says. “Really, …

“Action is at the heart of sustainability,” says one Presidio Graduate School student who has been moved from thinking about sustainability to acting on it. “It’s all good and well to talk about it, but doing something is more important,” Karin Meyer says. As Meyer prepares to finish her sixth semester and graduate from the …

This weekend at Presidio Graduate School, fire was reinvented – the era of taking immediate and long-term action toward climate stabilization (CS) is well upon us. On a foggy Saturday in the Presidio, a multigenerational, multicultural, and multidisciplinary group of 17 students, practitioners, academics and activists discussed the current state of climate and reviewed different …

In 2004, Darcie Renn was a volunteer with the Peace Corps and teaching Chinese University students about a new policy tool called cap and trade.  At the time, it was only an idea. Now, Darcie will be at the forefront of helping California implement the second-largest cap and trade program in the world. The Presidio …

Sustainability work (and life) is full of vexing questions for which we have incomplete data but need to make decisions about today. As a consumer, do I hand wash or machine wash my dishes? As a manager, do I focus on the material of a product, or the energy it uses during its life? I …

Impact Investing – More to the Story! On March 20th, Presidio Presents featured a panel of entrepreneurs at the leading edge of impact investing in conversation with Presidio President and CEO, William Shutkin. Prior to attending, I assumed the panel would indicate that traditional philanthropy and government resources alone will be unable to fully address …

John Heylin is the first to smile at his own idea of a bug-based protein powder, but he says the idea is gaining momentum in the food industry. The genetic alteration of meat and soy protein, along with sustainability issues for both, makes insect protein a far better choice. Crickets, freeze-dried and ground to a …

  Our team (made up of Presidio MBA candidates Sarah Cabell, Mara Slade, Megan McDonald, David Stripling and Shaun Webb) walked into the Friday afternoon registration and information session a little nervous. Not because we were overwhelmed by the craziness of it all or the diversity of people and schools from all over the world. …

Our team came together last spring informally deciding that we wanted to compete in a case competition before graduating from business school. We are as varied in our backgrounds as in our reasons for wanting to participate – but shared a demonstrated commitment to issues of social or environmental sustainability coupled with a desire to …

Over the fall semester, I interned with New Island Capital Management, an impact investing firm dedicated to helping its clients find ways to achieve financial returns while transforming the way natural resources are used, businesses are built and communities thrive. Thanks to generous support from the Fink Foundation, I was given the opportunity to support …