It’s no secret that business decisions are largely driven by the bottom line. Historically, that’s how sustainability has been viewed, as a financially driven concept, said Scott Blankman (Accounting ‘89), director for energy and air programs at Clean Wisconsin, a nonprofit environmental policy advocacy organization.
In short: Does sustainability make me money? More recently, that question is becoming easier to answer.
It’s no secret that business decisions are largely driven by the bottom line. Historically, that’s how sustainability has been viewed, as a financially driven concept, said Scott Blankman (Accounting ‘89), director for energy and air programs at Clean Wisconsin, a nonprofit environmental policy advocacy organization.
In short: Does sustainability make me money? More recently, that question is becoming easier to answer.
In the world of data, you can know everything and still know nothing.
We are creating more data than ever before. Every minute, Google conducts 3.8 million searches. Amazon ships more than 1,000 packages. YouTube users watch 4.3 million videos. Every minute. And that was in 2018. By 2020, it’s estimated that 1.7 MB of data will be created every second for every person on the planet.
As I write this, I am attending a class, Alternative Economic and Monetary Systems, in Vienna.
I chose to spend some of my summer in this manner, because I have had increasing concerns about capitalism as a viable economic system, given its role in global climate change and increasing financial inequality. But leave it to my Strategy and Business Ethics students to ask the most relevant question: if not capitalism, then what is better? I have no answer, so I came to Vienna looking for one.
Ryan Mahaffey (Economics ’11, Grinnell, Iowa) sees a lot of parallels between coaching and economics. Both require logical, analytical thoughts. Both require the important skill of articulating those thoughts in a concise and cohesive manner. Both demand a high level of precision.
“Those are things that continue to apply each and every single day as a coach,” said Mahaffey, now the offensive coordinator for UNI’s football team.
Al Faisal Yasin (Accounting ’20, Jordan) came to understand the value of compromise during his time as leader of UNIBusiness’ team for the Deloitte Regional FanTAXtic Competition. Compromise was essential because being open to new ideas and working as a unit were the keys to success.
Al Faisal Yasin (Accounting ’20, Jordan) came to understand the value of compromise during his time as leader of UNIBusiness’ team for the Deloitte Regional FanTAXtic Competition. Compromise was essential because being open to new ideas and working as a unit were the keys to success.
The Iowa Realty Scholarship helped change the course of Allison Ries’ (Accounting, Real Estate and Finance ‘19) college path. She received the money in advance of her junior year, and because of the financial burden it eased, Ries added accounting as her third major.
“I was really excited,” Ries said. “This was the first scholarship I was awarded at UNI, and it was a huge help for my junior year. I was planning on graduating a year early, but when I got the scholarship, I added my additional major.”
Bob Inglis, a former U.S. congressman from South Carolina, has a friend in the recycling business. Whenever Inglis discusses the topic of sustainability, the environment and how to tackle these issues, he gets a simple but practical answer from his friend: “Sustainability means making a profit.”
“That’s what he tells me,” Inglis said. “Fixing economics is key, and sustainability becomes sustainable because it’s profitable.”
Inglis is truly trying to make sustainability profitable. That’s how he believes everyone can get behind the sustainability cause.
“The man who dies rich, dies disgraced.” – Andrew Carnegie
Not content with income redistribution, many politicians are advocating a “wealth tax” to redistribute wealth. The top one per cent of American households own a large proportion of wealth in America.
