Alyssa Rome was the Program Manager for the M.S. in Sustainability Management Program at the Earth Institute. The M.S. in Sustainability Management, co-sponsored by the Earth Institute and Columbia’s School of Continuing Education, trains students to tackle complex and pressing environmental and managerial challenges. The program requires the successful completion of 36 credit points. Those credit points are divided among five comprehensive content areas: integrative sustainability management, economics and quantitative analysis, the physical dimensions of sustainability, the public policy environment of sustainability management, and general and financial management.
Current Master of Science in Sustainability Management student Jocelyn Gan is a programs associate at Building Energy Exchange. In this role, Jocelyn manages the Daylight Hour social media campaign, an annual event that encourages offices to turn off the lights for one hour in day-lit spaces.
Master of Science in Sustainability Management professor Kitty Kay Chan was drawn to the program because she felt the curriculum’s interdisciplinary learning environment was the perfect catalyst for future sustainability managers to effect real change.
Current student Chris Meissner started the Master of Science in Sustainability Management program to make a career change from strategy and corporate development into water related issues. However, upon beginning the program, Chris realized that the complex nature of sustainability demands a multi-disciplinary practitioner.
“I’ve worked my entire career within the private sector, and have a good understanding of how the company is driven by the shareholders. I hope to understand how sustainability decisions are compromised by business decisions, and to truly recognize where that happy medium currently is, and how far it can be pushed while still making business profitable.”
Current Master of Science in Sustainability Management student Jeremy Simpson joined the program because it allowed him to examine his interests in economics, business, and operations research through the lens of sustainability. Jeremy was inspired to work in sustainability because he believes that it is the best way to make a positive impact globally. Now he is doing just that as an analyst at Recyclebank, a startup company that helps communities across the United States to improve their residential recycling programs by providing economic incentives to residents.
Master of Science in Sustainability Management graduate Tara Helms (’15) has a background in supply chain management in the energy sector and was drawn to the program as a way to shift her focus towards sustainability. Throughout her time in the program, Tara took advantage of various networking and certification courses and served as a Curriculum and Grading Assistant. Recently, Tara landed a new job with the new product development team at L’Oreal.
Flip through any fashionable design annual, and you’ll read of something called “Human Centered Design.” The practice of HCD places emphasis on user testing, interviews, field research and high-touch iterations to solve problems. As contemporary design, and especially sustainable design, increasingly comes to rely on HCD-inspired techniques, greater attention is being paid to social features.
Recent M.S. in Sustainability Management graduate Luke Apicella works as an impact investor in the Office of Corporate Social Responsibility at Prudential. In this role, he provides investment recommendations based on social, environmental and financial merits. Luke credits the program with giving him skills to analyze actual deals, furthering his passion for finding ways to profit within “nature’s ability to regenerate ecosystems and resources.”
The Sustainability Management program is seeking candidates for curriculum and grading assistant positions for the fall 2015 semester. Read on for details.
Inspired by his childhood fascination with the outdoors, current Sustainability Management student Zach Bogoshian joined the program to implement lessons from nature to our current environmental challenges. In the program, this hopeful notion has manifested itself as a passion for creating innovative networks to connect people with sustainable solutions that don’t discount financial return. As Zach says, “If sustainability doesn’t make economic sense, the intrinsic motivation generated by pursuing sound environmental outcomes simply is not enough to effect change on the scale we need.”
