Skip To Renew, a Bay Area cleantech company, became the Western Region Finalist in the Air, Water, and Waste category of the 2012 Cleantech Open. Skip To Renew develops petroleum-free, non-toxic, and biodegradable lubricants for industrial applications, while striving to use 100% plant and algae oils cultivated in the US. Their passion is reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions and accidental toxic releases associated with the spills and burning of conventional petroleum-based lubricants.

The firm won $20,000 in cash and in-kind services as they proceed to the National Round of the Cleantech Open, to be held November 8-9 in Santa Clara, CA. "This has been a great opportunity to work with major industry players and raise investment. It gives our startup the chance to make a real difference at large scale, enabling companies to skip the petroleum and skip the toxins" says Skip To Renew Co-Founder Janine Elliott.

Welcome to the School of Business and Leadership at Dominican University of California where we enhance the professional and personal development of our students through highly personalized and engaged learning experiences.

By Hannah Albarazi
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Excerpt from the article:

In San Rafael, Dominican University of California has been offering an M.B.A. in Sustainable Enterprise for ten years. Dean Dan Moshavi said the university’s School of Business and Leadership program is designed to “help students combine their own social value sets with what’s going on in the world … to align their career goals more closely with their personal views.”

“People are using good business acumen to transform, meet and exceed social needs,” Moshavi said.

Rachel Stauffer, a 2009 almunus of the Green MBA program at Dominican University, who is designing a retreat and farm in Occidental, called Tree of Life Farm, described Ecological Economics, as the most valuable class she took during her M.B.A.

“It incorporated how to use recycled and reused materials to make products in major industries. It taught you to think about the lifecycle of what you were doing and design it appropriately,” said Stauffer.

Get Leaner, Greener and More Profitable - New sustainability workshops for Marin businesses

Two Green MBA Alumni businesses are featured in this month’s Sunset Magazine on the same page!

The Penny

Eco-friendly M.B.A. programs now offer combo degrees and green electives.

Source Article Environmentally conscious M.B.A. students are increasingly looking for more from their education than a patina of financial acumen and a degree that will ratchet up their income. These students have adopted the goal of sustainability; that is, conducting business in a way that keeps the world in good physical shape for future generations. Over the next decade, M.B.A. programs will increasingly offer courses that consider the social, environmental, and financial impact of every business decision—the "triple bottom line," says Paul Rowland, executive director of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.

Gabriel Kauper is one of the new wave of students exploring how businesses can develop eco-friendly policies and products while still turning a profit. When researching M.B.A. programs, Kauper consulted the Washington-based Aspen Institute's "Beyond Grey Pinstripes" survey, which ranks b-schools that integrate environmental and social issues into their curricula. The George Washington University School of Business in the nation's capital ranked highly in the think tank's report. Kauper, 28, from Virginia Beach, applied to GWU and was accepted to the class of 2012. When he took his first course in sustainability, he says, "it was like I had found my tribe—other students and professionals who shared my values." In fact, Kauper's "tribe" has grown as universities have expanded their green offerings. Currently, a handful of business schools, like Dominican University of California in San Rafael and the Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco, feature programs where every course from marketing to accounting includes an environmental and social impact angle. At Dominican, graduates can receive an M.B.A. in sustainable enterprise, which the school markets as a "GreenMBA." Other institutions are adding sustainability courses as electives or creating combo-degree programs. At the Stanford University Graduate School of Business in Palo Alto, Calif., for example, students can combine an M.B.A. from the business school with a master's in environment and resources from the School of Earth Sciences. These environmentally enhanced degrees can lead to greater professional opportunities. Of course, nonprofits and federal agencies, like the Environmental Protection Agency, are always hiring. But private employers, including leading consultancies like Booz Allen Hamilton and large companies like Westinghouse and PepsiCo, are also recruiting. Even graduates with an entrepreneurial bent are capitalizing. For example, in 2005, Atlanta native Jen Boulden, 37, used her M.B.A. in environmental management from GWU to cofound Ideal Bite, a free E-mail newsletter offering eco-friendly tips on how to make a difference in the world. By 2008, the newsletter had amassed 500,000 subscribers, and Boulden was able to sell the company to Disney for $20 million. She credits her degree with convincing investors that "I was not just a Johnny-come-lately to the green business field. I was an expert." Erwann Michel-Kerjan, who teaches a class on environmental sustainability and value creation at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, cautions students that they can't just dream about the environment. They need to show the bottom-line profitability of business decisions to boards of directors. If you master "both sides of the equation, you are very powerful" in the market, he says. Joel Makower, executive editor of Greenbiz.com, agrees, noting that many businesses still do not actively recruit green M.B.A.s. He suggests students develop critical business skills, like marketing or finance, or learn organizational development, to get hired. Once in the door, they can then find ways to apply their passion for the environment to their job. Contributing Editor Kerry Hannon is the author of What's Next? Follow Your Passion and Find Your Dream Job (Chronicle Books).