MIT Sloan Student Travel Goes Carbon Conscious with Jetset Offset Program
Over spring break, 100 MIT Sloan students will travel the world to study while immersing themselves in different cultures. It’s a wonderful opportunity with one problem. There’s a pretty significant carbon impact—300 metric tons of carbon dioxide to be exact. But now, a new Jetset Offset pilot program could help lessen that negative impact.
When we fly, we can’t choose the energy efficiency of our plane, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t travel. Instead, it means we should try to lessen our impact on the environment by purchasing carbon offsets, and that’s exactly what the Jetset Offset program does.
In its first year, the pilot program will purchase carbon offsets for four study tours over spring break 2018—three MBA groups and one Master of Finance group. The carbon offsets will take the form of projects that help with carbon emissions. Such projects include reforestation or building renewable energy sources.
According to Yakov Berenshteyn, a ‘19 Leaders for Global Operations Fellow and the creator of the Jetset Offset program, while the impact might not be immediate, it’s a step in the right direction. “This is raising awareness of, and starting to account for, our environmental impacts from student travel,” he said.
The idea for Jetset Offset came about after Berenshteyn realized how many air miles students and staff were logging. In January, for the two-week Leaders for Global Operations Domestic Plant Trek, MIT logged more than 400,000 miles. Berenshteyn couldn’t help but think that there needed to be a counterbalance to all the burned jet fuel. After talking to MIT Sloan Professor John Sterman, he realized that applying carbon offsets and carbon-neutral practices was the best way to make a difference. Duke University had already implemented such a program.
So, for the January trip, the Leaders for Global Operations program purchased 67 metric tons of offsets through Gold Standard, which will go toward reforestation efforts in Panama. For future MIT Sloan trips, the MIT Sloan Student Life Office will pick up the tab.
“Yakov’s idea is exactly the kind of student initiative we love to support,” MIT Sloan associate director of student life Katie Ferrari said. “He is practicing principled, innovative leadership with an eye toward improving the world.”
To read the full news release, visit the MIT Sloan Newsroom.
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from our sister site, Clear Admit.
Georgia Tech EMBA Sets Up Students for International Success
Every year, the EMBA program at the Georgia Institute of Technology at the Scheller College of Business brings new opportunities to students in the program, expanding their global leadership abilities through hands-on projects that asks them to work outside of the classroom and around the world.
The EMBA program at Scheller is focused around two major parts of a rigorous curriculum: a capstone project that requires students to work with a company on a real-time business challenge, along with hands-on international visits. Just within 2017, EMBA students would travel both to China and to Panama for a visit to the Georgia Tech Logistics Innovation and Research Center.
The reasons why a business professional might apply to the Global EMBA program at Scheller can vary, yet by graduation all students can claim indelible new skills and global experiences. For Fard Pasha, Global IT Director at the Coca-Cola Company, Scheller’s Global EMBA was a natural next step to enhance his business skills abroad and help him be a global leader. For Kara Mayo, approaching the program with an undergraduate degree in engineering, the program’s focus on innovation, technology resources and global business helped make up her mind.
While their reasons for choosing the Global EMBA and their plans after graduation may have varied, both Pasha and Mayo observed the invaluable benefits of the program, observing six main skills they had gained in the program that would set them apart from other global leaders. Mayo and Pasha observed a focus on strategic perspectives, the integration of innovation and technology, cultural awareness, corporate social responsibility, core values and a powerful network of classmates and advisers that would help set Scheller EMBAs apart from the rest of the pack.
Mason MBA Alum named International Consultant of the Year
Jonathan R. Snowling, a senior partner at SR Strategic Communications and George Mason MBA alum, was honored with the 2015 American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) Campaign Excellence Award for International Consultant of the Year.
Winning this award wasn’t easy, and neither was Snowling’s task of steering Juan Carlos Varela’s presidential campaign in the Republic of Panama. A U.S. invasion in 1989 ended the dictatorship of Manuel Noriega in the country. Since then, there have only been 5 free elections. Continue reading…
