DSW Collective, LLC. » Uncategorized http://dswcollective.com Designs for a Sustainable World Mon, 22 Nov 2010 05:37:51 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Darcy Winslow’s Back in School at MIT http://dswcollective.com/darcy-winslow%e2%80%99s-back-in-school-at-mit/ http://dswcollective.com/darcy-winslow%e2%80%99s-back-in-school-at-mit/#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:39:04 +0000 Darcy http://dswcollective.com/darcy-winslow%e2%80%99s-back-in-school-at-mit/ For the 2008-2009 school year, Darcy Winslow served as an Executive-in-Residence and Senior Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management.  She couldn’t get enough of Beantown and is back for the 2009-2010 school year and assisting with the Leadership Lab: Leading Sustainable Systems course with Wanda Orlikowski and Peter Senge.  The “L-Lab” is a unique course that blends traditional classroom learning, case studies, workshops, simulations, guest speakers, and projects developed in partnership with host companies.  The course culminates in Sloan’s hallmark Lab experience of a three-week on-site field engagement, during which students apply their systems thinking approach.

On October 22nd, Darcy will be guest lecturing as part of the Fall Sloan Innovation Period, and again sharing her Sustainable Inspiration: Lessons from Antarctica presentation. During this session she will focus more deliberately on the student experience and how this expedition has shifted their studies and entrance into the business world. She will be joined by several of the MIT students who also joined the expedition.

Here’s to getting A’s (or 4.0), Darcy!

]]> http://dswcollective.com/darcy-winslow%e2%80%99s-back-in-school-at-mit/feed/ 2 Jim Ure’s Thoughts on Go Green 09 http://dswcollective.com/jim-ures-thoughts-on-go-green-09/ http://dswcollective.com/jim-ures-thoughts-on-go-green-09/#comments Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:10:47 +0000 Darcy http://dswcollective.com/?p=292 Jim Ure, a participant at Go Green 09, emailed his reflections from Darcy Winslow’s panel “Eco-Visionaries: Creating the New Sustainable Business Landscape” to us at DSW Collective and we wanted to share them with our blog readers.

I thought the Eco-Visionaries panel as one of the most thought-provoking sessions of the day.  Your panel members [Sheri Flies, Costco, Sarah Severn, Nike and Joyce Lavalle, Interface] all brought good reflection and preparation.  Most importantly, all 4 of you used it as a forum to present ideas and models for action.  Your point that we have a lot to do and a long way to go was a welcome and appropriate message.

Some of the other observations Ure made included:

  1. Leveraging market presence for change: Organizations can leverage their market presence to affect real business practice change with suppliers, competition and customers.  This was Ure’s biggest takeaway from the whole day.  The examples discussed showed results with real impacts (Costco & product pricing, Nike & competitors + Green exchange).
  2. The power of ideas & their expression in mantras:  Mission Zero, Get off oil, Closed loop products, Eliminate VOCs, Paul Hawken and Ray Anderson.
  3. Valuable Wisdom: We can only be as sustainable as our suppliers and our partners (Darcy Winslow).  If you don’t hit bumps, you aren’t going hard enough or fast enough (Darcy Winslow).  Stay true to your highest intentions (Sarah Severn).  Meet people where they are (Joyce LaValle).  The person who disagrees with you is your best teacher (Sheri Flies).

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Jim Ure!  Did you attend Go Green 09?  Post your thoughts below!

]]> http://dswcollective.com/jim-ures-thoughts-on-go-green-09/feed/ 0 Kevin Manahan’s Thoughts on Go Green 09 http://dswcollective.com/kevin-manahans-thoughts-on-go-green-09/ http://dswcollective.com/kevin-manahans-thoughts-on-go-green-09/#comments Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:19:22 +0000 Darcy http://dswcollective.com/?p=290

Kevin Manahan, online editor for Oregon Business, posted his thoughts on Go Green 09 in an article called “On The Scene: Going green takes a team.” Darcy Winslow, a 21 year former Nike employee, led a panel “Eco-Visionaries: Creating the New Sustainable Business Landscape”.  An excerpt of Kevin’s article follows:

In a panel discussion on the new sustainable business landscape, Darcy Winslow, founder of DSW Collective with 21 years of experience at Nike, used an example from Nike’s past to illustrate the need for collaboration. When the activewear company decided to switch to water-based compounds in its products (because of the health risks organic compounds posed), it came across a problem: Even though Nike successfully came up with the technology to make the switch, its products were running down the same factory lines as Adidas and Reebok. The solution? Nike shared its technology with its rivals, at no cost. “Had we just implemented that on our product, we would not have solved the problem because you still have the volatile organic compounds coming from the other lines,” Winslow said. “So it was our first real initiative at collaborating with our competition.”

Check out Kevin’s entire article here:  OregonBusiness.

Did you attend Portland’s Go Green 09?  Share your thoughts with us!

]]> http://dswcollective.com/kevin-manahans-thoughts-on-go-green-09/feed/ 0 DSW + Willamette University = Powerful Education http://dswcollective.com/dsw-willamette-university-powerful-education/ http://dswcollective.com/dsw-willamette-university-powerful-education/#comments Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:46:46 +0000 Darcy http://dswcollective.com/?p=268 When I was graduating from high school, I viewed my ticket out of Oregon as my college acceptance letter from Bentley University (nee College).  Needless to say, I didn’t look at or apply to any college in Oregon.  But if I had, Willamette University would have definitely been on my list.

Lucky for me, Darcy Winslow recently accepted the position of Program Manager of the Sustainable Enterprise Certificate (SEC) Program at the Executive Development Center, which is an extension of Atkinson Graduate School of Management at Willamette University for the 2009-2010 school year.  For more information on this collaboration please click here.

Willamette University was recently named one of the nation’s greenest universities by Sierra, the official magazine of the Sierra Club.  The only Oregon university ranked 17 out of 20 schools based on Willamette’s recognition as a green school.  This adds to the 2008 recognition from the National Wildlife Federation that named Willamette first in the nation for sustainability activities.  Click here to read the article.

On top of this, Forbes Magazine named Willamette’s Atkinson Graduate School of Management a “Best Business School” for 2009.  Willamette was the highest ranked school in Oregon and one of only three programs in the Northwest the make the list, which recognizes the top 75 schools in the U.S.  Click here to read the article.

DSW Collective is so excited to be working with Willamette University this year and is proud be part of such a prestigious school that is in our own backyard.  They clearly have their head in the game from their gold LEED certified buildings, purchasing and energy efficiency policies, and student run Bike Shop.  We are also excited to announce that Drew Jones and the Climate Simulator will be a part of the program!  Want to learn more about the Atkinson Graduate School of Management and their Sustainable Enterprise Certificate please click here.

What is your school (or organization) doing to be more sustainable?

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