Thunderbird Student Voices

By Melanie McKinney ‘10, MBA Global Management

Greetings from San Francisco! We just finished Day 2 of the 2010 CSR/Cleantech TREK. This year 18 Thunderbirds participated in this 3-day school-sponsored trip focused on visiting companies active in CSR and/or cleantech. If there’s any place in the the U.S. where such companies are found, it’s San Francisco–land of innovation, entrepreneurship and ambitious energy! Here’s an overview of what we’ve been up to so far:

Day 1

7:45 a.m. – Depart PHX and begin a very long day!
12:00 p.m. – Visit BSR (Business for Social Responsibility), the world leader in corporate social responsibility (CSR) research and consulting. Here we learned more about their various initiatives across the globe, including projects focused on energy, sustainable supply chains, and improving womens’ health. This presentation was given by a ‘07 Tbird alumn, and especially enjoyed by the CSR junkees in the group.
3:00 p.m. – Visit New Resource Bank, an innovative bank that provides unique services tailored to non-profit organizations, foundations, and entrepreneurial businesses, as well as the personal banking client. One such unique service they offer is Solar Home Equity Financing, which they explained to us in detail, which was particularly enjoyed by the cleantech junkies in the group. Also, the office is located in a LEED Gold certified building, and their CEO greeted us at the door.
5:45 p.m. – Young Professionals in Energy (YPE) event with Peter Darbee, CEO of PG&E. Five of us on the TREK attended this event and had the privilege of listening to Mr. Darbee speak on issues facing the utility today, including energy conservation and state incentives, nuclear energy, and the smart grid. The lecture, food, and networking opportunities were all fantastic!

Day 2
Not to be outdone by Day 1, Day 2 was as packed as it could get with events!
6:45 a.m. – Depart hotel.
8:00 a.m. – Visit Cisco. Here we met with a sustainability manager and learned about the numerous and impressive CSR initiatives Cisco is involved with, including their Network Academy, GetIdeas.org, and other global education initiatives. We were hosted by two Tbird alumns (’08).
11:00 a.m. – Visit Tesla Motors, the world’s first manufacturer of a 100% electric sports car. Not only did we learn about the specs of the Tesla Roadster, but we also got to see it being assembled and driven. (For just $107,000 it could be yours.) We learned a lot about Tesla’s business model and the development of the S-series 7-passengar car to be released in 2 years. We were wishing we were employed so we could put the $5,000 down payment down to secure the car, which isn’t slated to be released for 2 years!
2:00 p.m. – Visit Better Place, a company that creates electric car infrastructure: battery leasing and recharge services (electric car charging and battery exchange stations) and computer software services. This was a very inspiring company to visit because the whole reason the company was founded was literally, to make the world a better place by accelerating the global transition to sustainable transportation. A Tbird alum (’88) helped us secure this company visit.
4:00 p.m. – Visit Solar City, the nation’s leading full-service solar provider for homeowners, businesses and government organizations. This was a short and sweet visit (about an hour) because, as the executive who spoke to us said, “It was the busiest day ever a Solar City.” The day before they just launched into Texas. We learned more about their projects and the financing of their projects. The table in the conference we were in was made of solar panels!
7:00 p.m. – An alumni networking dinner topped off the busy day.

Day 3 is just beginning here on the West Coast. Activities slated for today:
Free morning
1:00 p.m. – Visit Wells Fargo Bank.
3:00 p.m. – Visit to the Net Impact Headquarters.
6:00 p.m. – Closing Reception and networking event.

This year’s CSR/Cleantech TREK to San Francisco has been great. We’ve been able to, largely due to the strong alumni network, visit some pretty amazing companies and learn more about their leading iniatives and business plans in the CSR and/or cleantech space.

Posted: 02|26|10 at 10:24 am.
Filed under: Melanie McKinney, Summerims.
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