In September 2024, the Kelley Institute for Environmental & Social Sustainability (IESS), in collaboration with Kate Gaertner, founder and CEO of TripleWin Advisory, will launch Cultivate: Personal Sustainability for Professional Growth.
This 10-week online course begins with a discussion on how we understand and define personal sustainability, identifying personal values and linking them with sustainable action. It includes consideration of how we talk about successful behavior change to help us rewire our thoughts and actions in order to embrace sustainable living as an everyday norm. The course ends by emphasizing action — at home, with friends and family, and in our work and communities. As Gaertner says, “Scale of action is important, but we must embrace a sustainable mindset in ourselves before we can affect change in our systems of operating economically, culturally, politically, and industrially.”
Between those bookend considerations are modules on the significant areas of sustainable impact. This includes travel, how we source and use energy, the food we eat, and how and what we buy, both consumable and durable. Participants are challenged to think about consumerism and their waste streams, with a particular emphasis on plastics and personal electronics. The course also addresses water use and impacts on the built environment, as well as land and biodiversity.
Cultivate will welcome faculty and corporate experts for live sessions and recorded interviews. They will share how personal sustainability extends to what we do in our professional lives and in our communities.
This fall, we are pleased to welcome Helen Colby, Assistant Professor of Marketing in the Kelley School of Business and an expert on successful behavior change within organizations; Kelly Carmichael, a veteran leader in energy, with over 25 years of experience in advancing corporate and non-profit organizations to the forefront of environmental and sustainability leadership; Jackie Suggitt, the vice president of Business Initiatives & Community Engagement at ReFED, who has spent over 10 years working in sustainable food systems; Mary Embry, Senior Lecturer in the renowned Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture & Design, an expert on sustainability in the fashion industry whose teaching focuses on community engagement and fair trade; Meredith Soward, a Global Plastic Policy Specialist at World Wildlife Fund; Thomas Landis, Senior Lecturer at Kelley, discussing sustainable living within our communities, including lessons from a current house rehab project; and Kelly Bousman, senior vice president of Marketing and ESG at AVI-SPL, a global collaboration technology company with 4,000+ employees and 65 offices worldwide. Bousman spearheaded AVI-SPL’s sustainability journey by creating its multi-year ESG roadmap.
Kate Gaertner is the author of the award-winning book Planting A Seed: Three Simple Steps to Sustainable Living. This is the foundational text for the course. Kate is also a contributing author to BF Nagy’s book Proven Climate Solutions: Leading Voices on How To Accelerate Change, a collection of essays on best sustainable practices.
Kelly Eskew is a Clinical Professor of Business Law & Ethics and the Director of Education for IESS. Her teaching addresses sustainability, climate change, human rights, and poverty law. She has received numerous teaching awards, including the John Bonsignore Memorial Award for Excellence, a national honor for teachers whose teaching or research is interdisciplinary, demonstrates critical thinking skills, and reflects humanitarian concerns.
In addition to earning a professional certificate upon completion of this program, you will also earn a digital badge to showcase your skills on platforms like LinkedIn. These credentials show your network the concrete and in-demand skills you earned from taking this Kelley program.
For more information, visit the Kelley website and register for Cultivate: Personal Sustainability for Professional Growth.
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