oikos Annual Report 2010

www.oikos-international.org

the oikos year 2010 plus an outlook on 2011

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oikos International

students for sustainable economics and management

foreword

mission “oikos strengthens action competence for sustainable development among tomorrow’s decision makers.”

Therefore, we

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increase awareness about sustainability opportunities and challenges, focusing on students of management and economics, foster their ability not only to analyse long-term economic, environmental and social trends, but also implement sustainability-driven innovation, create institutional support for these learning processes through the integration of sustainability issues in research and teaching at the world’s faculties for management and economics.

www.oikos-international.org

Dear members and oikos friends, We are happy to present the annual report 2010 and an outlook on 2011.

2010 has allowed us to continue increasing the oikos impact, growing both in quality and quantity. We welcomed six new Chapters in Germany (Tübingen), India (Kochi), Russia (Moscow), Spain (Barcelona) and The Netherlands (Nyenrode, Maastricht); consequently oikos is now inspiring change at 37 universities worldwide.

The next few pages will show you a selection of the activities our Chapters have been pursuing last year.

The enlarged student network came together for motivational meetings in Reims and Warsaw, and we can now continue our interaction easily through our new online internal network, Ning.

Another new initiative, the oikos Mentoring programme, brings the network closer together, through pairing alumni with oikos members to give sustainability career advice.

Additionally, the recently launched Sustainability Footprint Group is working hard to ensure oikos ‘walks the talk’, and acts upon the sustainability principles we strive to see implemented in this world.

On the academic front, we partnered with the Hub and WWF to launch the oikos Young Scholars Entrepreneurship Academy. The first oikos PhD fellow, Lars Stein, finished his doctoral thesis “summa cum laude” and we welcomed our new fellows Shailee Pradhan (Nepal) and Tim Lehmann (Germany) to the team in February 2011. Our ongoing partnerships with CEMS (CEMS Model UNFCCC), UNDP (oikos UNDP Young Scholars Development Academy), UNPRI (oikos UNPRI Young Scholars Finance Academy) and the launch of the oikos Faculty Development Programme provided additional opportunities for impactdriven research and teaching in sustainable management and economics.

Harriet Jackson

oikos International President 2011

Alexander Barkawi oikos Foundation President

At the same time we obviously have no reason to rest. Sustainability opportunities and challenges are manifold and getting them reflected at business schools and faculties for economics is critical. We will continue pursuing this objective and push our activities further to reach our vision of a sustainable economy. We look forward to taking this journey with you.

Best wishes,

Harriet Jackson Alexander Barkawi

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...in a nutshell Chapters

PhD/Faculty Engagement

oikos Chapters are run by highly skilled and motivated students who energetically work to integrate sustainability at their universities and the local community. The teams work independently and show how responsibility, hands-on project experience and fun go together.As of Jan 2011, oikos had 37 Local Chapters in 21 countries on 4 continents. In 2010, the teams organised over 100 events and projects, including conferences, panel discussions, simulation games, seminars, surveys, lectures, movie screenings and reading circles.

With the oikos Foundation, we organise academic projects to integrate sustainability into innovative research and teaching at the world’s departments and schools for management and economics. Our events, for example the PhD and Young Scholars Academies, prepare aspiring academics for high-impact inquiry into sustainability, and make them change agents for academic innovation globally.

Student Engagement oikos International, located in St.Gallen, is a network hub that supports the existing Local Chapters to develop their activities and maximise their impact. It also stimulates the foundation of new chapters and guides their start-up process. To achieve these goals, we offer coaching, skill seminars, online tools, marketing materials and contacts to decision makers. We also bring together student change makers from the oikos Chapters in our international Spring and Autumn meetings – for exchange of ideas, concepts and experience, and to build lasting networks of future change makers.

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content chapters international academic alumni carbon footprint social entrepreneurship topic spotlight 2010

outlook 2011 Get involved!

Discover the amazing range of chapter activities around the globe

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Find out how we empower student leaders and advance our network

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Learn how we promote academic research excellence and entrepreneurship Check out the opportunities for our ever growing number of alumni to keep involved in our network Get an overview of oikos’ efforts to “walk the talk” and reduce its own carbon footprint Take a guided tour throughout our 2010 activities pertaining to the theme of social entrepreneurship

Look out for key events in 2011... mark your calendars!

Find out whom to contact for what to get involved with oikos

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chapters

oikos Chapters are student groups who drive sustainability at universities and Business Schools worldwide. oikos members initiate change at their university through developing sustainability projects, changing the curricula and greening their university campus. Currently there are 36 Chapters in 20 countries, spanning 4 continents. Over the next few pages you will find examples of projects to illustrate how Chapters promote change at their universities, which include conferences, campus-greening initiatives, seminar series, career fairs and much more.

By connecting oikos members who make a difference in their university and local environment, the oikos network magnifies the impact and creates a global understanding of sustainable economics. oikos Chapters share knowledge and project ideas both in person and online. While our oikos Spring and Autumn Meeting gather many students, we also exchange knowledge and experience through our online platform on oikos-international.ning.com

oikos-international.org/chapters

2010 oikos London

A field trip to the UK’s largest ecovillage BedZED was organised by oikos London, including a demonstration showing how simple habit changes can conserve much energy.

oikos Paris

Baskets are back’ with oikos Paris, who are partnering with a Social Enterprise food provider to bring organic and seasonal food to their university though organic food baskets. This organic food provider focuses on integrating poorly qualified people into work.

oikos Warsaw

oikos Warsaw held a case study workshop “Phoenix Organic: Valuing Sustainability While Desiring Growth” with oikos PhD fellow Liudmila Nazarkina, which inspired them to start a CSR workshop series. oikos Warsaw also hosted the Autumn Meeting.

oikos Barcelona Maastricht

Oslo

Nyenrode Belfast

Hamburg

Paderborn

Opole

Moscow Prague Warsaw

Brussels

Bratislava Reims Ashland

oikos Barcelona is switching University ESADE students’ drinking habits to tap water, in collobaration with Spain’s largest water treatment and distribution company.

Clausthal

Cologne

Budapest Tbilisi

New Delhi

oikos Belfast

Sylhet Dhaka

Paris Kolkata

Witten/ Herdecke Tübingen

oikos Local Chapter

Chennai

oikos Belfast coffee morning to introduce student to oikos and disseminate information on sustainable economics and management.

oikos Reims

60 Organic Vegetable Boxes were sold to Reims Management Students through oikos during oikos Reims’ organic agriculture fair. oikos Reims also hosted the Spring Meeting, on ‘Sustainability and Marketing’ and is famous for its ethical fashion shows!

oikos Brussels

Fairtrade lunches are a regular feature in oikos Brussels, who hold sustainable lifestyle events to promote ethical living.

Chapter in accession as of January 2011

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chapters oikos Bayreuth

The Sustainability Report of the University of Bayreuth was released, after much hard work of data-gathering. The report is a comprehensive review of university practices and identifies the best areas for improvement. oikos Bayreuth designed a debate with experts about Biogas, photovoltaic power plants and the new Renewable Energies Act around a film screening of the ‘The Fourth Revolution: Energy Autonomy’.

oikos Clausthal

Members of oikos Clausthal organised a debate about ‘The oil catastrophe: is producing oil offshore still controllable?’.

oikos Witten-Herdecke

oikos Witten-Herdecke completed a consulting project measuring the carbon footprint of the main products for a major German bakery.

oikos Cologne

For the fourth year oikos Cologne organised a lecture series, this year in cooperation with the Institute of Energy Economics and it is on the topic ‘Energy, Environment and Wealth’. Around 100 students attended the lectures, 50 of which gain credit points by writing papers on the topics covered.

oikos Constance

The ‘Day of the Environment’ organised by oikos Constance featured debates on climate protection measures, a clothes-swap stall, a clown performance for the university creche and a natural cosmetics oikos Zagreb demonstration.

Members of oikos Zagreb organised their second international student conference, this time themed ‘Time to Rethink Economics 2010’. The organising team were awarded the prestigious University of Zagreb Special Rector’s Award.

oikos Paderborn

The oikos Paderborn Summer School was a three- day conference addressing the topic “Sustainability in the Economy of 2030”.

oikos Graz

oikos Graz organised an oikos Action Day- with three workshops on sustainable consumption, tourism and ecological footprint, a sustainable food counter at a party for over 1000 students, and climate cookbook of regional and affordable food

oikos Bratislava

Film screenings and dialogues with NGO leaders on topics such as overfishing and the economic crisis have been organised in by oikos Bratislava

2010 In 2010, oikos members actively involved almost 5000 students of economics and management through their projects. A further 10’000 students were reached passively, through events such as exhibitions and energy saving campaigns. year

people members reached events

oikos Monrovia

advisors

2010

941

14,701

145

90

2009

863

35,249

181

81

2008

499

21,614

126

59

2007

404

12467

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oikos Monrovia attracted over 150 partipants to one of their Microfinance panel disucssions, just one event in the larger Microfinance Project.

Ten further peer-to-peer workshops were held after the panel discussion to spread the knowledge to those who were unable to attend the panel discussion

oikos Dhaka

oikos Prague

oikos Prague organised a lively debate and tasting session with two coffeehouses at opposite ends of the industry: global Starbucks and local MamaCoffeee. oikos Prague will also organise the oikos Spring Meeting 2011 on the theme of “Sustainable Architecture”.

oikos Kolkata

Students in oikos Kolkata have been pushing to make their campus sustainable through a paperless admissions process, targeting specific departments about conserving energy and is working on an improved waste managementt

oikos Sylhet

oikos Chennai

oikos Ahmedabad organised a short film competition called ‘Sustainability and My City’ for students of CEPT University and IRMA.

oikos Chennai organised a poster exhibtion for a Sustainable Chennai for the World Sustainability Day 8

Stand for Sundarbans was a campaign comprising of lectures, childrens workshops and an exhibition to raise awareness for the protection of the world’s largest mangrove forest oikos Sylhet organised a day long seminar on Climate Change, covering the international perspective and the role of students. model for the university.

oikos Ahmedabad

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international

2010

oikos Spring and Autumn Meetings

Project Leadership Programme

The oikos Spring and Autumn Meetings are a key point of the year for oikos, bringing together oikos students from around the world for an event co-organised by oikos International and a Local Chapter. oikos Members gather to exchange experiences, discuss projects, and learn new skills. The programme is balanced between sessions based on strengthening knowledge exchange within oikos, and content based on the theme of the meeting, which is specific to each meeting. We welcome all Local Chapter members, alumni and potential founders of new oikos Local Chapters. These meetings fuel the personal connections in the oikos network that drive members to continue working together and inspiring each other throughout the year. oikos Reims hosted the Spring Meeting 2010, with the theme ‘Sustainable Marketing: Goals and Processes’.

Together we explored whether marketing can make sustainable

The oikos Project Leadership Programme (PLP) is an actionlearning programme for oikos members leading the most exciting sustainability entrepreneurship projects in the oikos network. Students learn a variety of project management skills through three coaching weekends, culminating with successful projects and a presentation to the oikos network at the oikos Autumn Meeting.

The PLP accompanies the students on their learning journey, providing coaching on topics from sponsorship and project management to team leadership and engaging with stakeholders.

The participants gain tangible skills, knowledge and meet a great group of like-minded sustainability leaders.

Eight students participated in the PLP in 2010, including Hans George from oikos Monrovia, who organised ‘Microfinance: Insight and Impact

development more fashionable, and whether marketing can change consumption patterns or if consumers are being greenwashed.

The highlights of this meeting included an Ethical and Ecological Fashion Show, and a tasting trip to an Organic Champagne Cellar deep underground the ancient city.

The oikos Autumn Meeting was organised by oikos Warsaw, on the theme ‘Social and Economic Changes in Central and Eastern Europe after the Collapse of Communism’. This meeting saw the launch of the oikos Sustainability Footprint Strategy and an increased involvement of oikos Alumni in the meeting, which we will build on in the coming year.

“Sure, the weeks before were tough, but seeing happy faces of fellow oikees during the Meeting was definitely worth it!”

Tomasz Hajduk, Head Organizer of the oikos Autumn Meeting 2010

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Host a Spring or Autumn Meeting in 2011! Bring together the oikos chapters by organising an outstanding meeting for up to a hundred oikees.

You will recruit new members, gain more funding, and raise the profile of oikos at your university! Find out more at:

oikos-international.org/projects/meetings

“PLP was one of the best experiences in oikos. Having had the opportunity to exchange ideas and to get feedback on my project from oikees from around the world is somethnig you can experience only by being an oikos member and participating in oikos International projects.

If you have a project and you would like to discuss it with one of the best teams you can get, apply for PLP!” Josip Zekic, oikos Zagreb, PLP participant 2010

on Sustainable Development’. This project raised Microfinance awareness and education at the University of Liberia through a Microfinance week and panel discussion. Salik Shadab from oikos Kolkata also participated in the PLP, with his project of bringing all the oikos Local Chapters in Asia together for the ‘oikos Asia Meeting’ to discuss and work towards solutions for problems in sustainability in the Asia region. The oikos Asia Meeting will take place in September 2011.

Interested in the oikos PLP?

Shailee.Pradhan @oikosinternational.org

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international oikos Winter School

oikos Project Development Fund

The oikos Winter School brings together the twenty highest potential change-makers from around the world for a week of exchanging knowledge in an interactive learning environment.

The Winter School is has been running annually since 2004. The programme comprises lectures, discussions and project development workshops on sustainability challenges, placing strong emphasis on insights into institutional change and stakeholder dialogue.

Aimed at undergraduate students of Business Administration and Economics with a proven interest and knowledge in sustainability, the oikos Winter School enables participants to delve deeper into the role of business in meting sustainability challenges, build up expertise in how to communicate sustainability, and to design concrete projects in the field of sustainability.

This year the oikos Winter School was themed ‘Beyond Sustainability’, entering a critical dialogue between

The oikos Project Development Fund (PDF) supports projects organised by oikos Local Chapters. oikos Members get both feedback and coaching

culture and economics concerning sustainability. Each day focused on how to move beyond the conventional debates on four different themes: Climate Change, Property, Money and Leadership. Participants came from ten different countries, ranging from Denmark and India to Egypt and Brazil, and the event was hosted by oikos Witten-Herdecke.

oikos-winterschool.org 12

2010

“Conferences and workshops are always the same, you go there (kind of worried about whats going to happen), you sit, listen, discuss and bring in your opinion. The oikos Winter School for me was different. The group dynamic was great and I loved that. At the same time each and every participant was treated like an individual and not only as part of a group. It was an amazing balance which makes this experience one of the most beautiful and exciting ones to remember for me.”

Soraya Abouleish Egypt, participant oikos Winter School 2010

on their project proposal, and the opportunity for seed funding if the project has been approved by the oikos Executive Board. The PDF is generously funded by oikos Alumni and friends of oikos.

In 2010, the Project Development Fund financially supported eight projects, ranging from the ‘I want to be Sustainable!’ oikos Opole students conference to the Sustainable Innovator lecture series in oikos Witten-Herdecke.

oikos President and Advisors Retreat The oikos Presidents and Advisors Retreat is an annual two-day event that brings together oikos Advisors and Local Chapter Presidents from across the oikos network. The Retreat is designed to further leverage the great potential oikos Advisors offer to the organisation and to ensure that their time and commitment leads to a maximum impact within oikos. oikos Advisory Councils do not only provide support to active oikos members in the form of feedback, sustainability competence, access to social networks and managerial

know-how. Advisors also turn into motivating role models, bearing the organizational memory that is so crucial in sustaining oikos Chapters.

During the 2010 oikos Presidents and Advisors Retreat, 34 participants from 18 different chapters gathered to develop creative ways of collaboration for moving oikos closer to its vision and mission.This year’s retreat took place on 3/4 September in Switzerland, in the beautiful surroundings of Glarus, an hour from Zurich.

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academic The oikos academic projects aim at promoting academic innovation and entrepreneurship in research and teaching at the intersection of Sustainability, Management and Economics, laying special focus on faculty development. To reach these objectives, we have expanded our activities considerably over the last year. These pages provide you with an overview of major milestones in 2010, such as the launch of the first oikos Young Scholars Entrepreneurship Academy, which further enriches our existing portfolio of Academies covering the fields of Development and Finance respectively. In addition, we have been organizing the first oikos Young Scholars Alumni Meeting at the Academy of Management Conference in Montreal and expanded the oikos Global Case Writing Competition.

oikos UNDP Young Scholars Academy 2010 in Costa Rica The second oikos UNDP Young Scholars Academy on “Inclusive Partnerships for Sustainable Market Innovations” moved its location to Costa Rica in 2010. With CATIE and the INCAE Business School as local hosts, the Academy offered participants strong academic coaching, discussions and an immersion into an exciting country in the heart of Latin America. With Geoffrey M. Kistruck, from Ohio State University, Patricia Marquez from San Diego University and Cláudio Boechat from Fundação Dom Cabral in Brazil, a strong faculty joined the selected Young Scholars from 5 continents.

For the first time, the faculty

featured the “responsAbility Paper Development Grant” of 1,500 USD, which was awarded to the paper of Christopher Sutter from Ohio State University, USA – “Routine replication among rural Nicaraguan dairy farmers”. – The 2011 oikos UNDP Young Scholars Development Academy (“From Models to Markets for Inclusive Development”) will take place at IIM Bangalore, one of India’s leading business schools from 21-26 August 2011. It aims to attract papers fostering new ideas and solutions how businesses, governments and other stakeholders can build inclusive market opportunities for sustainable development. Participating faculty

are Ana-Maria Peredo, University of Victoria, Canada, Harry Barkema, London School of Economics, UK, Johanna Mair, IESE Business School, Spain, and Sourav Mukherji and Raghavan Srinivasan, IIM Bangalore, India. The application deadline is 31 March 2011.

“Amazing! This was a unique opportunity to get great feedback on my work, meet people from all over the world with different backgrounds and thus help me to plan my next steps in my career.

Congratulations!”

Flávia Alvim, Fundação Dom Cabral, Brazil

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2010 oikos Faculty Development Initiative: A short history and outlook Founded in 2000, the annual oikos PhD Summer Academy quickly developed into a leading global PhD Academy on Sustainability challenges.

High level academic inquiry, carefully selected faculty and participants combined with challenging alpine hikes and a taste of swiss cuisine proved to be an attractive combination to gather aspiring researchers.

In recent years the demand and research on Sustainability issues virtually exploded. oikos therefore started to develop partnerships with other respected institutions to expand the supply of disciplinary PhD academies: In 2007 we started cooperating with ETH Zurichs annual PhD Academy on Sustainability and Technology (Prof. Volker Hoffmann) and since 2008 with the Richard Ivey School of Business PhD Academy on Sustainability (Prof. Oana Branzei).

In 2010 oikos organized three oikos Young Scholars Academies in Entrepreneurship (with WWF and

The Hub), Development (with UNDP and responsAbility Ltd.) and Finance (with UN PRI and SAM Sustainable Asset Management). All academies are based on some basic common principles and profit from a regular information exchange between the organizers. In 2010 the programme was enriched with a first Academy Alumni event at the Academy of Management Conference in Montreal – and it was impressive to see how many Academy Alumni have made

their ways into respected faculty positions in academia.

We are happy to announce, that – with strong support of the Mercator Foundation Switzerland - the programme will be further expanded in 2011: The first oikos Young Scholars Organizations Academy will take place from Sep. 4-9 and the first oikos Young Scholars Academy in International Economics is scheduled for Aug. 28 - Sep. 2. Watch out for the Call for Papers!

Partners:

“amazing academy atmosphere” and “Insightful feedback from a great faculty and felllows students”

academic

Nuno Oliveira London School of Economics, UK oikos Entrepreneurship Academy 2010

oikos-international.org/academic/phd 15

academic oikos Global Case Writing Competition

PhD Fellowship Programme: First Alumnus

The oikos Global case writing competition attracted more cases than ever before. Michael Gordon (Ross School of Business, U. Michigan) won the first prize in the oikos Case Writing Competition 2010 in the Social Entrepreneurship track with his case “So You Want to Be a Social Entrepreneur: Starting Out, Scaling Up and Staying Committed”. The First prize in the corporate sustainability track went to Madeleine Pullman (Portland State University) for the case “Portland Roasting Company: Farm Friendly Direct”. The winning cases were presented by Prof. Gordon and Prof. Pullman at the Academy of Management Conference (Montreal) in August 2010.

With more than 40 accepted submissions from four continents, the 2010 Competition received an excellent feedback from the global case writing community. The 1st place prize for the best case in social

Lars Stein is the first alumnus of the international oikos PhD Fellowship Programme. He completed his PhD studies in Summer 2010 “summa cum laude” for his dissertation on “Corporate Sustainability Management Practices – How Companies design their contributions to a life-serving world” at the

entrepreneurship and corporate sustainability tracks is CHF 5000.- .

Other prizes went to case writers from New Zealand (Waikato Management School and Auckland University of Technology), the USA (University of Nebraska-Omaha) and India (ICMR Center for Management Research, India) The winning cases were selected in a double-blind review by the oikos judging committee comprised of distinguished scholars from more than 30 universities from all around the world including Prof. Stephen Kobrin (Wharton, USA), Prof. Julie Battilana (Harvard Business School, USA), Prof. Johanna Mair (IESE Barcelona, Spain), Prof. P.D Jose (IIM Bangalore) and other leading faculty.

The complete list of the 2010 winning cases as well as their downloadable inspection copies can be accessed on our case website.

Project Partners:

Forthcoming: Thinking about including innovative, prize-winning cases into your classes?

Check our case collection and download inspection copies on e.g. Lululemon, Better Place, Seventh Generation and many others at oikos-international.org/academic/case-collection

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2010

Want to learn more on case teaching and keep up with the latest developments in the area? Subscribe to our quarterly newsletter on our website, or send an email to case@oikosinternational.org

We are happy to announce the 2nd volume of the oikos Case Collection: Case Studies in Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainability - The oikos collection: Volume 2 320 pp Hardback, ISBN 97819060393-47-1, USD 45 / Euro 35

University of St. Gallen.

The Fellowship Programme has been launched in order to enable outstanding junior researchers to conduct their PhD research on sustainability related topics and support the development of the oikos organization. It is supervised by an international academic advisory

board including professors from renowned universities in Europe and North America. oikos PhD Fellows commit to invest 30% (1.5 days) per week to support international oikos activities, enabling them to shape key projects. Watch out for the call for applications 2011!

Two new oikos PhD Fellows starting as of 2011!

Tim Lehmann holds a Master degree from Witten/Herdecke University, Germany, where he graduated summa cum laude in economics and entrepreneurship. His master thesis about the scaling impact strategy of a social enterprise in India was

awarded the highest faculty award.

During his studies Tim gathered firsthand research and work experience in the field of social enterprise and development in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

Prior to his oikos PhD Fellowship, Tim worked as a programme consultant at Bertelsmann Foundation, a

management consultant at a nonprofit consultancy in Germany, and a research fellow at UNDP’s growing inclusive market initiative.

He also has a banking background with Deutsche Bank. Tims’ interest lies at the intersection between grassroot practices and strategic discourses in social entrepreneurship.

Shailee Pradhan holds an MA in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School and an MS in Food Policy and Applied Nutrition from Tufts University’s School of Nutrition and Policy. As a Tufts Institute of Environment Fellow and an Empower Fellow for Social Entrepreneurship, she wrote her Master’s thesis entitled

“Biofuels and its Implications for Food Security, Climate Change, and Energy Security”. Shereceived her BA in Mathematics-Economics magna cum laude from Agnes Scott College, Atlanta. Prior to oikos, Shailee worked at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, in the School of Environment, Resources, and Development. She has also worked in organizations such as The Asia

Foundation (USA) in their Economic Reform and Development Program, Plan International (Thailand), MicroLoan Foundation (Malawi), Winrock International (Nepal), and the Integrated Development Foundation (Bangladesh), among others. Shailee’s research focuses on the role of regional trading arrangements in sustainable economic growth in South Asia.

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alumni

2010 Mentoring Programme

Every year, oikos witnesses an ever-growing alumni network of former student activists that enter the job market, and often take up key positions in business, academia or government. On the one hand, their experience provides a great source of inspiration for current students. On the other hand, our alumni network offers the possibility to tap into a vast and diverse pool of sustainability experts and leaders, which is of great value for alumni themselves for advancing their own careers and ideas for sustainable change. Therefore, nurturung alumni relations is a key part of our activities. You will find on these pages an overview of our alumni projects in 2010.

Alumni convenors meetings Since the end of 2009, a core group of passionate alumni comes together twice a year to brainstorm new ideas, evaluate current projects and share experiences on their life as a sustainability professional. For some people, this group serves as the perfect

sounding board for discussing new ventures or projects within companies that they are starting. Others are excited to strengthen synergies between oikos students and alumni.

The following initiatives all evolved from these convenors meetings.

oikos Newsletter

oikos Alumni month

The oikos newsletter is published four times per year and every time, one page is dedicated to alumni news.

One important feature that aims to bring alumni closer to oikos students, is the portrait of an alumnus/alumna including a photo, career profile and advice to oikos students.

Aside from the local meetings that take place throughout the year, most chapters spotlight their alumni during oikos alumni month. Every year in November, activities around the world take place to bring alumni and oikos students closer together.

Jump Start Alumni felt that many oikos students are insecure about their career perspectives and this is why they launched Jump Start. This halfday workshop takes place during international meetings and shows students the possibilities to become a sustainability change maker. So far we have realized one workshop focusing on social entrepreneurship and one workshop on intrapreneurship – change-making within companies. All Jump Start workshops are prepared and moderated by alumni.

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“How can we, as alumni, support oikos students in their development as sustainability professionals?”

This question led to the development of the oikos Mentoring Program that connects alumni to oikos students with the aim to further their growth as change makers and project engineers.

Outlook 2011

oikos Perspectives

Local Meetings

Alumni @ international meetings: Both alumni and oikos students have really appreciated the increased exchange through the different projects. To allow them to meet each other more often, we will be hosting alumni gatherings during the Spring and Autumn meetings.

Aside from moderating Jump Start, we will encourage more alumni to be actively involved in the programs for the student meetings, i.e. as a guest speaker, as a panel discussant, as an on-the-spot coach etc.

What trends do we see in sustainability? And how can we share our ideas with oikos actors and people outside of the organization? These questions encouraged two alumni to initiate the oikos Perspectives, an overview of trends that aim to inspire oikos projects. The trends will be published in the oikos annual report as to inspire other stakeholders inand outside of our organization.

Alumni in cities like Cologne, Paris, Vienna, London, Dhaka and Zürich, regularly organize informal dinners.

In several occasions, local chapter members join these meetings to further the exchange and inspiration.

Interested in our alumni work?

Kim.Poldner @oikosinternational.org 19

carbon footprint ustainability Footprint

topic spotlight

Action Plan

oikos Sustainability Footprint Action Plan

social entrepreneurship @ oikos

During the Spring Meeting 2010 that took place in Reims, oikos members gathered in a workshop to discuss a strategy to reduce our carbon footprint, help oikos to “walk the talk” and lead by example. The need for taking a holistic approach to its footprint, not focusing only on the carbon emissions, was one of the main outcomes of the session. A small working group composed by 2 oikos PhD Fellows and 2 chapter representatives took the lead in developing an action plan to deal with the organisation’s Sustainability Footprint, based on the following principles:

In 2010, oikos activities around the topic of social entrepreneurship have accelerated.

In August, the oikos Young Scholars Entrepreneurship Academy provided PhD students in the field of Entrepreneurship, Management, Strategy and Sustainability a platform to present and discuss their ongoing research projects with fellow students and senior faculty. Professors Tina Dacin, Filipe Santos and Mark Starik all gave valuable feedback to the work of the students and inspired them to further pursue research in the field of (social) entrepreneurship.

Several of the oikos PhD Fellows have made social entrepreneurship the core of their research activities.

Liudmila Nazarkina’s main interest

. . . .

We believe that oikos should proactively engage in reducing its sustainability footprint. As a first step, we will focus on our environmental impacts.

We also believe that reducing environmental impacts should and can be EXCITING and INSPIRING! We choose a qualitative approach towards impact evaluation inspired by The Natural Step Framework (www.naturalstep.org) and we quantify and tackle our transportation impacts.

We put a bigger emphasis on positive actions and innovation rather than solely on problems.

We have defined 3 dimensions for a sustainable oikos: The low hanging fruits

Seeding for the future

Let it blossom!

At this dimension, oikos can immediately implement the recommended practices.

A long list of actions has been developed and aims at highlighting the numerous possibilities of reducing our impact just by a slight change of behaviour in our daily routines.

At this dimension, the different suggestions developed seek to target different sources of impact simultaneously, challenging oikos to think of projects that have synergic positive impact. By practicing the initiatives on Dimension 1, oikos will be able to expand its sphere of influence, raising awareness to different stakeholders. New projects and initiatives can be developed within and across chapters and in collaboration with oikos International.

At this dimension, oikos will implement a new initiative to REDUCE the impacts from transportation of the international meetings and COMPENSATE for the unavoidable impacts. At the same time it will make the GLOBAL aspect of oikos truly viable in a low carbon world. oikos will do so by: internalizing the compensation mechanism; providing equal opportunities for all local chapters; contributing to the overall oikos vision and mission.

evolves around sustainable growth strategies of entrepreneurial firms. One of her papers proposes a theoretical model explaining the choice made by many socially and environmentally progressive businesses to finance their growth by selling equity to a strategic investor (competitor) rather than to a financial investor (venture capital firm). Liudmila also works on a paper on the topic of education for social entrepreneurship.

Kim Poldner’s work, rooted in a social constructionist epistemology, highlights social entrepreneurship in the ethical fashion industry. In 2010, she finished her data collection with a second set of interviews undertaken in Canada. She is currently in the

Veja Sneakers

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For more information on the oikos Sustainability Footprint group and action plan, join oikos-international.ning.com/group/oikossustainabilityfootprint or contact Patricia Mesquita at patricia.mesquita@oikosinternational.org

process of analyzing and comparing this data to her European data set. In 2010, Kim has written a case study on eco sneaker brand VEJA and her first academic publication will appear in 2011 in the International Journal for Entrepreneurship and Small Business.

Our new PhD Fellow Tim Lehmann has started in February 2011 and will take institutional theory as the basis for his PhD project on social entrepreneurship. Tim already has an impressive track record, both as an active oikos member and alumnus and as a social entrepreneur himself.

Many oikos Chapters also featured social entrepreneurship activites this year. Our two French chapters, oikos Reims and oikos Paris, both teamed up with small local organic food stores to bring organic vegetable baskets to the student market. oikos Paris chose ‘“les jardins maraîchers de CergyPontoise’ because it is a WISE (Work Integration Social Enterprise) firm which integrates poorly qualified people into the labour market. In Germany, oikos Witten/Herdecke organized the oikos ‘Sustainable Innovator Speaker Series’, featuring speakers such as Dr. Michael Rass, CEO of the “Teutoburger Ölmühle” and Prof. Frithjof Bergmann from the University of Michigan.

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outlook Who knows what the future brings? What we know about selected key events in 2010, you will find below.

Be informed, get involved, make a difference!

alumni month oikos Young Scholars International Economics Academy

NEW

aug 29

Jump Start on mar 26

- sep 2

jul 24-27

may

20-21

Project Leadership Programme

Deadline for oikos Perspectives

Spring Meeting in Prague!

mar

2011 2011

nov

nov

going

4-9

aug 21-26

jun

Presidents and Advisors Retreat

oikos UNDP Young Scholars Organisations Academy

12-17

oikos Young Scholars Entrepreneurship Academy

sep

on-

NEW

oikos Winter School 2011

oikos UNDP Young Scholars Development Academy

oikos Student Reporters at CEMS Model UNFCCC in Barcelona

oikos International

students for sustainable economics and management

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…on PhD and faculty projects? …on potential involvement as a donor?

?

?

…on Chapters? …0n international projects?

Harriet Jackson, oikos International, President 2011 harriet.jackson@oikosinternational.org skype ‘harriet_oikos’

@oikos_internat

whom to contact on what

…on the oikos case teaching initiative?

Liudmila Nazarkina | oikos PhD Fellow liudmila.nazarkina@oikosinternational.org

...on chapter advisor’s relations and crosschapter collaboration Patricia Mesquita | oikos PhD Fellow patricia.mesquita@oikosinternational.org

Dr. Jost Hamschmidt oikos Foundation, Managing Director jost.hamschmidt@oikosinternational.org phone +41 (0)71 224 2595

…on oikos communication?

Johannes Schwarzer| oikos PhD Fellow johannes.schwarzer@oikosinternational.org …on how to stay in touch as alumni?

Kim Poldner | oikos PhD Fellow kim.poldner@oikosinternational.org

…on member coaching and training?

Shailee Pradhan | oikos PhD Fellow shailee.pradhan@oikosinternational.org

…on oikos awards? ...on international projects?

Tim Lehmann | oikos PhD Fellow tim.lehmann@oikosinternational.org

donors

oikos Circle of Donors

www.oikos-international.org Concept, Content and Design: oikos International