The Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University held its annual Social, Environmental, & Ethical Responsibility (SEER) Symposium on February 5, 2016.
Graziadio’s SEER Certificate enables MBA students to complement their studies with cross-disciplinary courses that combine sustainability, ethics, and corporate social responsibility.
SEER differentiates itself from similar programs with its focus on product delivery. Led by Robert Bikel, Graziadio faculty member and independent strategy consultant, SEER was voted by the Princeton Review as one of the nation’s best Green MBA degrees. SEER also received the prestigious Page Prize for Sustainability Issues in Business Curricula in 2012.
With the theme of “Beyond the Horizon”, this year’s event provided a forum for participants to interact with business leaders who are transforming the way that they deliver products and services to consumers via sustainable business methods. Speakers included Paddy Spence, chairman and CEO of Zevia; Steve Glenn, founder and CEO of LivingHomes, LLC; Dirk Ahlborn, CEO of Hyperloop Transportation Strategies; and Lori Steele Contorer, founder of Everyone Counts.
According to the program’s website, “Great products or service are embedded with the SEER values from the early product development stage or idea generation. The values are not simply ‘added on’ to the product or service before launch. These four macro-values – Corporate Social Responsibility (‘People), Environmental Stewardship (‘Planet’), Financial Strength (‘Profits’), and Product/Service – illustrate the crux of the SEER philosophy… [These values] function as a system with many areas of overlap and interaction. Decision-making is rarely, if ever, guided by one of the four values individually.”