Sunny, warm.
There are three people meeting in the lobby of E51. There is an international student focused on making sustainable business a core subject taught in business schools. There is a New York Times subscriber with a pulse on the changing U.S. energy landscape with oil prices at $100/barrel. There is an entrepreneur itching to get out from under the cover of silo-work and bureaucratic organizations with a passion to make things happen.
I realized how important it is that these three people talk after I read the New York Times Op-Ed article about drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The sustainability student would argue that the amount of oil that could be extracted from the region is not enough, and not of a high quality, to merit destroying the irreplaceable resources there. Additionally, the pollution created in the region would affect not only the many wild species living there, but also the businesses that depend on them for their livelihoods, and even salmon-eating households in New York, Chicago, or California.
The energy enthusiast would agree that the U.S. economy would simply collapse without affordable energy. A sense of urgency would roll over her or him, knowing that the energy and economic future of the U.S. depends in part on investments in the innovations created in institutes like MIT. Whether it be carbon sequestration processes or more efficient solar panels, smart-grids or flywheels for storing energy generated from renewable sources, the investment decisions with positive projected cash flows have to be made.
The entrepreneur may consider creating a company in the opportunities found among the cracks of the current energy landscape, or in the worst case scenario, selling real estate in outer space.
This summer, I had the chance to be all three of these people. My two internships exposed me to new thinking on energy finance, entrepreneurship, and sustainability. Now back on campus, I'm overwhelmed with the future that we face as MBA students. We are going to have to build and manage the organizations that are the primary actors in these three arenas. The MBA class of 2010 is already well into the core. Only a semester here, they are in the midst of an intellectually and academically challenging time. Their lives are about to change, if they are willing to question some of their assumptions, and do some hard thinking and reflecting with their classmates and professors.
The career trajectories of these three students are each important, which is why they meet here at the Sloan School of Management. Despite their seemingly diverse interests, they have a lot in common: they want to learn and do; they are not afraid of challenges; they are willing to speak their minds; and most importantly, they are all concerned with and focused on the future.
Read more about Sustainability@MIT, the MIT Energy Club, and the Entrepreneurship Center.
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