Earth Day in Review: A Year of Sustainability Wins at Darden

Students, staff and faculty at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business work hard to pursue the school’s 2030 sustainability goals, and this Earth Day, we pause to highlight successes from the past year.

Darden Ranked No. 1 for Carbon Footprint Reduction Efforts

In February, the “Financial Times” ranked Darden the No. 1 business school in the US for Best Carbon Footprint. The School achieved carbon neutrality through energy reduction projects on Grounds and an agreement with Dominion Energy to purchase electricity generated from renewable energy sources, allowing the company to build a new solar facility that supplies UVA.

“What excites me about this recognition is the work underlying it,” said Ali Mehlsak (MBA ‘16), director of impact at Seed Health. “Themes of creative problem solving, multistakeholder partnership and community engagement permeate the general management curriculum at Darden. To see those same principles deployed by the School in service of its own climate impact is a moment of real pride for me as an alum working in sustainability.”

“The climate challenges businesses and institutions will face in the future are only becoming more complex, and Darden is demonstrating – through theory and practice – how innovative, purpose-led leaders can rise to meet them,” Mehlsak said.

Darden Staff Received UVA Leadership in Sustainability Award

This month, Becky Duff, director of thought leadership at the Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology, received the UVA Award for Leadership in Sustainability. Duff was nominated for her work co-leading the 2030 sustainability goals task force and the School’s new Sustainability Advisory Council and leading several research and thought leadership efforts including the Business Innovation and Climate Change Initiative. Duff also co-authored a book with Professor Mike Lenox titled “The Decarbonization Imperative: Transforming the Global Economy by 2050.”

“I am thrilled to receive this award, which I share with so many innovative and passionate people at Darden who have supported and helped to guide my work over the years,” Duff said. “It truly takes a village to enact change within an organization and I am proud of what we are building around sustainably at the School.”

Duff joins 11 faculty, staff and community organizations recognized by UVA for their dedication to sustainable practices.

Darden Students Exceled in Rice CleanTech Innovation Competition

A team consisting of Darden students Betsy Brandon, Wesley Brown, Gabrielle Evans, Evan Rabb and Prateek Palled were named the national runners-up and the top first year MBA team at the Rice CleanTech Innovation Competition (RCIC), part of the Rice Energy Finance Summit. Their competition team, nicknamed “Alternative Fools,” focused on Sublime Systems, a company dedicated to decarbonizing the cement industry. First year student Rabb noted that the strong general management perspective he developed in the classroom set him up for RCIC success.

“While we were just in our first quarter, our team was able to leverage lessons from several core classes at the RCIC, and ultimately take learnings from the competition back into the classroom throughout the rest of the year,” Rabb said. “At Darden, students learn to lead across industries and sectors, each of which play a vital role in stewardship of our planet, whether that is by reducing harm or by doing good. Business students who are well versed in, and committed to, sustainability can make a transformational impact.”

New Sustainability Initiative Launched

The Institute for Business in Society and Batten Institute launched a new Sustainability Initiative this year. The initiative website will feature the work of more than 20 faculty, student engagement opportunities, alumni stories, new ventures, events and articles on sustainability topics.

“The initiative promotes Darden’s longstanding expertise in sustainability, connecting it to the classroom and practicing world,” said Maggie Morse, director of the Institute for Business and Society. “In addition to highlighting faculty research, work is underway to incorporate sustainability into the core curriculum so that all Darden students build an understanding that sustainability is a multi-industry business issue.”

For students interested in diving deeper into sustainability, a new ESG Concentration was launched this past year that offers students a variety of courses including Sustainable Global Value Chains, Impact Investing, Global Economics of Water, and Communicating Financial and Sustainability Performance. In its first year, 130 students signed up for the concentration.

“Sustainability is part of Darden’s core mission to develop responsible leaders for business,” said Carolyn Miles, senior advisor to the dean and chair of the Darden Sustainability Advisory Council. “Faculty, students and staff at Darden work together to meet commitments like reducing energy, waste and water use, and increasing sustainable food as well as developing courses, cases and other teaching materials for the classroom.”

For more information about Darden’s sustainability efforts visit Darden.edu/sustainability.