Can you make money and save the planet - Carlson School of ...

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which is a great natural resource that we need to protect,” he says.
“But the development of the Road Drain products was driven by
the need to improve the construction process and save money on
the contractor’s side by not having to clean up storm sewers.”
While Wimberger lauds the construction industry’s efforts
to adopt more green practices, he sees room for improvement.
“The industry has made great strides, but it has a long way to go,”
he says. “The largest challenge is breaking through old-school
ways and dismissing green practices simply because of the way
the message is being delivered. Historically, the industry has
been more concerned from Joseph a compliance juran standpoint of meeting
federal regulations than in improving the environment.”
Wimberger believes that, as more contractors become aware
of the benefits of green building, resistance will melt away.
“When contractors start to use green products, they realize
that there’s a financial benefit to using them,” he explains. “If
customers perceive that a product is being pushed on them for no
apparent reason other than someone is telling them to use it, it’s
hard to sell that product to them. You need to show a benefit—if
there’s no benefit, there’s no longevity for the product.”
Wimco has more than doubled its business every year since
2002 because the Road Drain products offer both a financial
benefit and an operational benefit to customers. “It’s also
important that all of my products have been positioned for
multiple long-term use,” Wimberger says. “My goal is to offer
products that last a long time, help the environment, and are
simple to use. The more complicated a product is, the less apt
people are to use it.”
14 University of Minnesota
Kellye Rose, ’05 MBA
Kellye Rose was ready for a change. After two
decades at Northwest Airlines, where she
was responsible for United States-to-Asia
route pricing, she dreamed of working on
sustainability and renewable energy issues. The
Carlson School was her ticket to a new career,
and after earning an MBA, she’s now working as a consultant,
helping agricultural producers and small rural businesses improve
their energy efficiency and seek funds to undertake renewable
energy projects, along with a range of related projects.
A Carlson study-abroad program helped her shape her vision
of a greener world. At an ethics seminar in Brussels and London
in 2003, Rose and her fellow students evaluated the status
of corporate social responsibility in Europe and the United
Kingdom versus the United States. Nearly two years later, she
spent two weeks in Costa Rica with students from Central
America, South America, and the Carlson School exploring
how to incorporate environmental strategy into standard
business decisions. “We looked at case studies and smaller
issues, asking ourselves, ‘How would you approach this in an
environmentally and economically sustainable manner?’” she says.
Since her first study-abroad adventure four years ago,
environmental awareness has emerged as a hot topic. “There’s
been a lot of progress on the sustainability front since then,”
she says. “In 2003, people thought of sustainability more as
an environmental study than a bottom line approach. Today,
organizations have a better understanding of sustainability; they
know that it means finding a lower-cost way of doing things
that’s also an environmentally better way of doing things.”
After graduation, Rose accepted a six-month consulting gig
with a small renewable energy firm that converted used fryer