Leveraging ROI from sustainability

The first sustainability manager at Chapman University in Orange, California, Mackenzie Crigger, 2010, changed both the administrative mindset and student behavior.

She used her limited face time with decision makers persuasively: "If we spend a little money making changes, here's our payback." A recent example? Mackenzie made the news for capturing human energy on campus exercise equipment and feeding it back to the electrical grid.

At Duquesne, Mackenzie developed a zero waste strategy for Westinghouse and prepared a social entrepreneurism launch plan for the Pennsylvania Environmental Council. She modeled the sustainability audit in the environmental science and policy course that she teaches at Chapman after the projects in our MBA program.

A native of Kentucky, Mackenzie studied political science, philosophy and environmental science at Transylvania University, then headed for Japan to teach English. Her inspiration is to manage limited resources as smartly as Japan does.

My ability to succinctly demonstrate ROI has made all the difference.