We at Presidio Graduate School are thrilled to join the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. Though for years we’ve been delighted to collaborate with the Leadership Group on energy and environmental projects, now we see even more synergy between our organizations – around racial justice and equity as well.
Aligned Missions
Based in San Francisco, Presidio Graduate School (PGS) is the country’s first and only independent graduate school exclusively focused on social and environmental sustainability. With a curriculum fully integrating sustainability and social justice, we’re building a global community of inspired changemakers with the mindset and skills necessary to build a flourishing future for all.
Since 1977, SVLG has championed environmental and energy advancements and policy, and starting in 2020 the Leadership Group placed a special emphasis on racial justice and equity. More than ever, our two organizations are fostering business leaders and policymakers’ strides toward a more sustainable and just future. We were eager to join the SVLG and are honored to help support its members’ efforts to achieve these aims.
Meaningful Collaborations
Though we are a new member, we are certainly not new to the Leadership Group. Dozens of our alumni hold leadership roles in sustainability and other key functions at SVLG member organizations, many of our faculty have worked at SVLG member organizations, and since 2019 our alumni, faculty, and students have conducted several research projects for the Leadership Group and its members. Research topics have included these essential corporate and public policy aspects of sustainability:
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- Achieving zero waste to landfill at corporate campuses
- Transitioning corporate facilities’ equipment and appliances from running on natural gas to renewable-energy sourced electricity
- Benchmarking SVLG members’ corporate sustainability and social-equity goals
- Analyzing impacts of the rising waters of the San Francisco Bay on commerce and policy
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We have presented at the Energy & Sustainability Summit on some of the above topics as well as the circular economy. Our PGS Consults teams of Presidio Graduate School alumni and faculty have provided sustainability management consulting to more than a dozen SVLG member organizations.
More collaborations are in progress, to be shared in a future post.
If you want to change the world…
We encourage our students to look beyond the ways business has always been conducted, in favor of environmentally sustainable and socially-just models. The New York Times wrote, “If you want to change the world, go to Presidio Graduate School.” Now, as a member of the SVLG, we at Presidio Graduate School look forward to changing the world – for the better – together.
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About the Author
Pamela J. Gordon is Managing Director of PGS Consults, the sustainability management consultancy at Presidio Graduate School. There she deploys Presidio’s sustainability thought leaders to solve organizations’ needs for profitable, responsible solutions. Herself an acclaimed sustainability consultant and speaker, she has trained more than one thousand product designers in Eco-Design and Circular Economy, and is an award-winning author of books and articles on the intersection of environmental-and-social sustainability and business value. Pamela grew up in Silicon Valley in a family of engineers and backpackers, earned her degree at San Jose State University, and founded the consultancy Technology Forecasters Inc. to help electronics companies build responsible supply chains. After the publication of her book Lean and Green: Profit for Your Workplace and the Environment, she expanded her firm’s services to include profitable sustainability strategies. She has guest lectured at Presidio, Santa Clara University, UC Berkeley, and several more universities.
April 2, 2021
