Our Trip Cross Country

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, my husband Dan and I have decided to trade in our winter jackets and snow boots for the sunny (and ok, sometimes overcast) skies of San Francisco.

To get there, we’ve decided to take two weeks and drive cross country. After all, after two years of business school, I think we’re both in need of a little vacation!

For anyone who’s curious, here’s our proposed route:

Although it’s definitely going to be nice to unplug and take a break, that doesn’t mean The Changebase will go silent. My hope is to blog from the road – and I’m sure that there will be plenty of inspiration along the way.

I’m especially curious to see how areas along the Gulf Coast, including New Orleans, are faring in the wake of the BP Oil Spill. While that might be my most obvious story, I’m generally just curious to see how local communities throughout the U.S. are approaching issues like recycling, local food, education and public transportation.

Should be an incredibly fun and eye-opening trip! In the meantime, I hope you had a great Fourth of July and that you're enjoying the summer.

See you from the road,

-Ashley and Dan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving Sustainably

Things have been a little light on The Changebase recently, as I’ve traded my school books and CSR projects for cardboard boxes and packing tape.

Yep, the Jablows are leaving Boston and heading back to the San Francisco Bay Area, where we’ll both be based while we look for jobs and get settled again on the West Coast.

As my husband Dan and I prepare to pack up our apartment, we’re trying to be as discerning as possible with what we keep and ship back West. If it hasn’t been worn, used or enjoyed in the last few months, we’re getting rid of it.

This has been a tough challenge to give ourselves (and not just because it means parting with my “favorite” clothes that I, ahem, never wear anymore).

No, it’s been tough because it’s hard to know how best to dispose of everything we no longer want.

As cliché as it might sound, I care about protecting our environment. I fret over trees being cut down to make my notebook paper; I’m vigilant about turning off my lights when not in use; and when it comes to this move, I worry that every single scrap I throw out is going to end up in a landfill (or worse, someplace like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch).

What’s amazing is just how much stuff we seem to have collected – not just since we moved to Boston two years ago, but since who knows when! The amount of paper, trinkets, clothing and other items we’ve managed to accumulate is staggering.

In an effort to be responsible movers, we’ve taken a proactive approach to ensuring that as little as possible actually ends up as trash. Here’s how:

First, we were lucky to have access to basement storage where we could save all of our cardboard boxes from our last move. So, no new boxes – which is great.

Next, when it comes to determining what goes in those boxes, we sorted everything into three categories: “Keep, Donate, or Sell.”

For donations, our main go-to is the Goodwill. As you probably know, all new or gently used items donated to Goodwill are sold in their retail stores to support community initiatives that help people in need.

Beyond Goodwill, Dan and I recently discovered Buffalo Exchange as another place to donate and sell our clothes. We brought in a bunch of stuff to our local Buffalo Exchange the other day – some of it got bought by the store (which earned us a store credit and some cash) but most of it got donated, in this case to a local epilepsy society. The coolest part? When we used our store credit but said no to a plastic bag for our new items, the store gave us 5c to donate to a local charity of our choosing. Might not seem like a whole lot, but it turns out this “Tokens for Bags” program has led to almost $358,000 donated to local nonprofits since 1994 and saved 7.2 million plastic bags. And it definitely left us feeling the warm fuzzies.

For other donated items beyond clothes and accessories, we’re just starting to try out Freecycle. Started in 2003 in Arizona, Freecycle keeps everyday items out of landfills and puts them into the hands of happy freecyclers. Simply sign up for your local chapter, browse current listings to see what people are giving away, or put up an ad for something you no longer want. In just one day, I’ve seen postings for TVs, tennis rackets, baby toys, even couches! By their estimates, the Freecycle program is keeping 500 tons a day out of landfills.

Besides donations, we’re making good use of for-sale sites like Craigslist and eBay for our furniture, electronics, and other household goods. After all, why not make a little money to pay for our upcoming cross country road trip?

While we’re trying to be smart about finding new homes for our things here in Boston, I still deal with a nagging uneasiness around what happens when we get to California. Selling our couch in Boston means it won’t go to a landfill, but eventually we will need something to sit on in our new apartment out West. Which leaves me wondering:

How can we not only responsibly dispose of things now, but also responsibly consume in the future?

I don’t think there’s an easy answer to that question because, in many ways, consumption is a necessary evil. We all need beds to sleep on, clothes to wear, and food to eat. That said, how much more do we need?

At the end of the day, I do think it’s about being conscious with our purchases and not just blindly handing over our credit cards. It’s about understanding our options for buying new versus used, and making use of sites like Freecycle or eBay to help us find hidden gems.

Ultimately, it’s about prioritizing what we really need over what we really want.

This doesn’t have to mean sacrificing our comfort for the sake of sustainability. But it does mean putting in a little extra effort and research to make smarter purchase decisions.

I’m very aware of the irony of donating or selling everything now, only to go out and buy it again later. And yes, some of that may happen. But I’m also going to do my best to be more of a conscious consumer going forward and make smarter, more responsible choices.

I encourage you to take a look around your home or apartment sometime and ask yourself: how much of your stuff is really necessary? Maybe it’s time for a little spring cleaning?

What Do You Love?

One of the best things about being in grad school and conducting a job search is getting to do informational interviews.

As an MBA student I had the opportunity to connect with and ask questions of professionals in CSR, philanthropy, social enterprise and sustainable business. Luckily, even though business school is over, I’m still able to call on friends and others in my network for in-person coffees, lunch dates and phone calls.

In total I’ve met with probably 80 people over the last year and a half – definitely a good sample size! Why do I do it?

First and foremost, these conversations are a lot of fun – I enjoy talking to people and hearing their own stories about the career choices, successes, and even mistakes they’ve made along the way.

But more than that, it’s a great learning opportunity. As someone trying to carve out my own path and figure out my next steps, I find it incredibly helpful to get other people’s perspectives and advice.

What’s funny is that even though I talk to someone different each time, the advice I receive is often similar from conversation to conversation.

For example, I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the number of times people have told me: “If you want to work “in-house” in a corporate responsibility team, get a functional job first (ie: marketing, strategy etc) and work your way in to a CSR job later.” (Seriously – if you also want to work in CSR, I can’t stress enough how often this bit of wisdom has come up in conversation!)

Sometimes I get frustrated hearing the same thing over and over again. Yet other times the messenger relays the advice in a way that’s just different enough to make it stick.

The best and most recent example was a phone call I had last week with a woman who previously worked in CSR communications and reporting at a major consumer products company. As is customary for most of my conversations, I ended our talk by asking what advice she might have for me as someone who wants to get into the field.

Her response: “Think about what you love.”

Now ok, I’ll admit it: at first I rolled my eyes a little. I have definitely heard this one before! Still, she pressed on: “Don’t think about what brand you want to work for,” she cautioned, “or what function you want to work in. Instead, think about what you love to do, what you love to talk about – and find a job doing that.”

What’s funny is that even though this idea wasn’t new, the way in which this woman said it really resonated.

Since our talk last week I have challenged myself to identify what I really love. And to be honest, it’s not a simple question to answer!

Think about it this way – how often do you ever give yourself the freedom and the space to actually stop and think through what you love to do, what you love to learn about, or what you love to share with others? And how often to you actually bring what you love to work?

Some people know right out of the gate what it is they love. For me, I’ll admit it – I’m still working on it. But I guess, in the end, that’s the point.

People like us – that is, people who are motivated to make change in our communities and have an impact on the world – have to follow our hearts. That’s really, in my opinion, the only way we’ll actually be sure that we successfully accomplish what we set out to do!

Sometimes it’s easy to overlook the importance that enthusiasm and passion can play in our jobs. Instead, we focus on salary, title, or prestige. I know as a recent graduate it’s been easy for me to get hung up on these issues.

At the end of the day, though, I think we’re all actually motivated by questions of greater value:

• Do we feel satisfied at work?
• Are we having the impact we wanted or hoped for?
• Do we need to explore something new?

Ultimately, it comes down to figuring out your passions – that is, the things that make you feel complete and fulfilled – and finding ways to make them your life’s work.

And yes, often this is easier said than done. Many of us have family or other commitments that make it tough to simply “follow our bliss” all of the time. But my hope is that you will take just a moment to sit quietly, listen to your heart, and figure out what you love. I know that’s my goal right now and I’ll be sure to update you when I have some answers.

In the meantime, my job is to find a job. And hopefully that job will touch upon those things I love – once I know what they are!

The Business of Business

Well folks – I’m all done with business school!

After a whirlwind week of celebrations – and just a little pomp and circumstance – the dust is finally settling and life is returning to normal (although, one quick plug, I'm still looking for a job!)

But before we close this chapter completely, I wanted to share a quick story.

My mom was in town for graduation, and practically as soon as her plane touched down, she told me she needed to go to a book store. She wouldn’t tell me why.

After a day or two of being reminded regularly of her need to get to a book store, I finally gave in and took her to the closest one I could find. Once there, she bolted away on her quest – leaving me to hang out in the New Releases section and wait for her.

A few minutes later she came bounding back toward me with a bright red book in her hand. In big black letters, striking on the red background, it read: The MBA Oath.

“This,” she said, “is what I wanted to get you.”

The MBA Class of 2010 was just beginning its first year of school when the Financial Crisis really started to accelerate in September 2008.

I remember sitting in finance class when, in the throes of the biggest crash since the Great Depression, my professor decided to skip the theory and formulas and instead devote big blocks of time to breaking down what exactly had happened. It was an engrossing and overwhelming conversation, to say the least.

As the magnitude of the Crisis became clearer, my classmates and I found ourselves faced with an uncomfortable truth: many of the people responsible for this financial collapse were also MBAs.   

Suddenly, everywhere I turned there seemed to be a debate over whether the MBA curriculum had anything to do with this. What role did business education play, people wondered, in churning out managers whose only motive was short-term (and short-sighted) gain?

And, by extension, many asked: Is the MBA a degree to be trusted?

As a fresh-faced first year student, this was a tough pill to swallow. I came to business school to put new tools in my tool kit, to strengthen my analytical and leadership skills – not so I could follow in the footsteps of those irresponsible managers. We all know the saying, “one bad apple spoils the bunch” – and I felt like a handful of bad apples had spoiled it for all of us.

Throughout that first year of school, the question of ethics in business decision making was a constant theme. As students we were challenged by our professors, and by each other, to consider what steps we could and would take to ensure we did not follow the example set by those “bad apples.”

Around the same time, Harvard Business School student Max Anderson and his classmates launched what they called the MBA Oath, a “voluntary pledge for graduating MBAs and current MBAs to create value responsibly and ethically.”

Considered “a Hippocratic oath for business,” the MBA Oath outlines principles and actions each signer must uphold, from accurate reporting to ensuring the health and dignity of employees. You can read the full language of the Oath here.

While it was originally started as a Harvard campus initiative, the MBA Oath has now reached students worldwide and claims over 3,000 signatures from schools and students. Which brings us back to my mom and the book store.

Max and co-author Peter Escher have just released an accompanying book – a guide that not only tells the story of the Oath, but that also takes a look at classic MBA case studies through the lens of business ethics.

It looks like a fascinating read, and you can bet it’s at the top of my summer reading list.

When I reflect back on the education I received over the last two years, I can see now to what extent my thinking and learning has been framed by the Financial Crisis – and ultimately by the short-sighted and dangerous decisions made by people who chose to put profit above all else.

As this year's class of MBA graduates enters the workforce, we must prepare ourselves to face choices, scenarios and decisions that may seem to pull us in opposite directions. Charged with balancing short-term gain and long-term thinking, we’ll continually be asked to make tough decisions and weigh the conflicting interests of multiple stakeholders.

Tools like the MBA Oath can help guide us in our choices – but in the end I believe they are only tools. Ultimately the decision to use both our heads and our hearts is ours alone.

As you go out in to the professional world – whether you’re a newly-minted MBA or a “gray-haired” professional – I ask you to remember to always pack your moral compass with you.

Milton Friedman might have said “the business of business is business” – but I argue it’s about much more than that.

Yes, the goal of business is to make money. But at what cost?

The Changebase Turns 1

I’m incredibly pleased to announce that May marks the one year anniversary of The Changebase! It’s amazing to think that what started out as just a small experiment has actually become one of the most fulfilling projects I’ve ever worked on.

The Changebase has not only been a great vehicle to learn and share ideas, but it has given me an incredible opportunity to meet and connect with people doing great work in our communities and around the world.

I have been overwhelmed by the interest people have shown in my writing and I so appreciate all of the feedback, advice and support each of you has given me.

I’m definitely looking forward to Year Two!

In the spirit of celebrating, I thought I’d create a “Top Ten” list for my most favorite* posts from the last year. Enjoy and thanks again!

-Ashley

The Changebase Top Ten

10. It's Too Late to be a Pessimist

9. Diary of an Intern: My Summer in Corporate Giving

8. Defining Local

7. What Yoga Can Teach Us About Sustainability

6. Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.

5. The Challenge of Translating Sustainability

4. High Risk, High Reward

3. Want a CSR Job? Read This First.

2. The Value of Storytelling

1. Request from a CSR Job Seeker 

*In this context “favorite" means: the posts I most enjoyed writing, as well as the ones that were most popular with readers and on Twitter.