Sustaining Society Through Business
As a double major in Business and Environmental Studies, David Gordon dedicated his undergraduate years to growing the sustainability movement at William and Mary. David's story is below:
Experiential Research
Throughout my undergraduate years I performed research with Professor Maria Ivanova under the Global Environmental Governance Project. The project seeks to improve how international environmental institutions function. On my specific part of the project I looked at how businesses interact with international environmental institutions.
My first opportunity in this research was traveling with Professor Ivanova to Nairobi, Kenya to attend the 12th Conference of the Parties for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This was an awesome experience. At the conference, I interviewed people on the interactions of business, non-profits, and government.
While there, we traveled with the Green Belt Movement to the mountains up north. We stayed in a small town where the nonprofit hires women to plant trees. The organization's work does wonders for the environment and empowers women. There I lived with a family involved in the non profit for a few days, helping to plant trees. The scenery was beautiful and so were the people.
My most recent research involved digging through the archives of Winifred Armstrong, a woman involved with the business community when the first international environmental meeting was taking place back in 1977. Ms. Armstrong has an amazing collection of old memos and documents. Her documents are locked away in a building that used to be a manufacturing plant in the still industrial Long Island City. I would stay there for hours, taking picture after picture of the documents while trying to balance myself on a large dolly, the only place available to sit. This was all done in an effort to discern how business engagement has evolved over the years.
Highlights
One of the highlights of my college career was my study abroad experience. I spent a semester in London working for a non-profit environmental organization called CIWEM. It was great because I had the opportunity to use my business experience to help find ways to partner with industry.
Also, in the summer of 2008, I worked for a small environmental start-up company called TerraCycle. This company takes consumer waste and converts it into new products. That was definitely a challenge. It was great seeing the intersection of environmental concerns and business.
Defining Moment
My defining moment was when our Net Impact Undergrad chapter had our first ever Spring Sustainability Symposium. Net Impact is an organization dedicated to training the future leaders of business and social responsibility. The business school actually has the first undergraduate chapter in the state of Virginia. It is incredibly important that we give everyone the opportunity to learn the importance of social responsibility in business. Our symposium was the culmination of over a year of planning. We were able to bring-in Aaron Schiller from Saatchi & Saatchi S. He was a really dynamic speaker and we had a great showing. People left excited and wanted to see more events like this in the future.
Future Plans
I am going to Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment for a two year program to receive my Masters in Environmental Management. The program focuses on giving students the skill sets they need to become experts in environmental analysis. As a plus, they also do a lot of research in corporate responsibility! It will be exciting to take the business skills I received while at W&M and apply them to a focused environmental program.
