2015 COBE Sustainability Report – Student Reporting Process Transcript

Video contains (in order of appearance)

Nandini Ghosh, MBA Candidate – Student Reporter

Taylor Reed, MBA Candidate – Project Director

Kenneth J. Peterson Ph. D., Dean – College of Business and Economics

Connor Sheldon, MBA Candidate – Student Reporter

Hannah Coad, MBA Candidate – Student Reporter

Rylee Lewis, Junior – Student Reporter

San Johnson, MBA Candidate – Student Reporter

[intro music]

NANDINI GHOSH: The College of Business and Economics at Boise State produces a sustainability report each  year.

TAYLOR REED: It is completely driven, researched, written,  and produced by students. Many universities produce sustainability reports, but Boise State is unique in that students do that, and students are at the center of the project.

DEAN KENNETH PETERSEN: It provides our students an opportunity, by being engaged in the creation of this report,  to learn about sustainability and to take those best practices into industry. That’s  vitally important, and that’s the, that’s at the center of the College of Business and  Economics mission.

TAYLOR: So students have the opportunity not only  to learn the theoretical fundamentals behind sustainability reporting, but they also have the opportunity to put those concepts into action and create a real report that the organization  uses to drive operational change. Students volunteer to participate on the project.  First we identify key areas of research that are of interest to our stakeholders. Then  we split those issues up between students based off of their academic focus or interest.

CONNOR SHELDON: I was assigned sustainability education available to graduate students.

HANNAH COAD: Research among faculty for sustainability and the diversity among students and faculty.

TAYLOR: The audit of COBE courses which identifies if responsible business is being integrated  into the curriculum.

NANDINI: Health and wellbeing of the COBE students,  and faculty, and staff.

RYLEE LEWIS: The paper purchasing policies.

SAM JOHNSON: Transportation and waste.

TAYLOR: Together we engage with leaders and employees across campus to track down metrics and uncover the stories that respond to the issues that  our stakeholders have identified as important.

CONNOR: The sustainability report as a whole was a  bit more challenging than I anticipated.

RYLEE: One of the biggest challenges was getting  answers from the right people, and getting in contact with the right people.

SAM: Collecting the information was… it was a different problem to solve for every question that we had, and we found that there was no one location for all of the information that  we needed to track down. It involved a lot of finding the right person who could help  us answer our question and then approaching them in a way that got us the information  that we needed.

HANNAH: After we met with them and gathered that information  we started writing it down into a concise report.

TAYLOR: After we’ve collected all the data, we analyze it, and that way we can identify its significance  and give it context for readers of the report. This is really the step where raw data and  research is transformed into meaningful content that stakeholders can understand.

NANDINI: I have learned that preparing a sustainability report is a very important step for any organization  to be more sustainable.

TAYLOR: I think sustainability challenges us to innovate.  We are faced with so many challenges across the globe and sustainability is really a way  of thinking about addressing those challenges in a way that’s good for everyone, not only  now, but for generations to come.