Matt has over 14 years Experience in organic and fair trade cottage industry production and has been responsible for Spearheading a new production financing model for fair trade knitting cooperatives throughout South America. In addition to their memberships with Co-op America, Social Venture Network, BALLE, Organic Trade Association, and the Organic Fiber Council, Indigenous Designs is a Founding B Corporation.
• Leadership Training for a Sustainable Future • Policy-Maker Outreach • Community Education • Leadership Networking
Sustainability
Sustainability recognizes that the planet’s resources are finite, and that if we want to be responsible stewards of the earth, we have to use those resources wisely, so they last indefinitely. To act responsibly in this regard, we must look beyond our day to day lives. We must examine the impact of our actions in a broader context. We must demonstrate leadership to our friends and neighbors, and embrace ecological sustainability as a continual process of improvement.
A Focus on Policy Makers
Existing laws, regulations, and economic policy make it costly and difficult to live a sustainable lifestyle. There is a growing consensus that government must make it easier to protect our natural environment, foster social equity, and support a prosperous local economy. Most elected and appointed officials want to do the right thing—they need encouragement, education, and support. The political will to change will come from a grassroots movement, not from city hall.
Leadership Training for a Sustainable Future
Our core program educates community leaders to be more effective in shaping public policy. Participants meet for a full day a month, from September through May. Class members work with key political and civic leaders, attend workshops on sustainability, take field trips, and engage in leadership training exercises. The class emphasizes the links between economic viability, ecological sustainability, and social equity. The issues range from global to local, the topics are relevant, and the discussions are lively and informative. Graduates of the program have held elected or appointed office in every community in Sonoma County.
Policy-Maker Outreach
We educate and inform elected and appointed officials with non-partisan analysis, research, and studies that help them make the right decisions for sustainable communities. Graduates of the Leadership Training for a Sustainable Future regularly act in advocacy roles in their communities, influencing public policy and building healthy communities.
Community Education
A key part of our mission is to raise public awareness about the linkages between economics, sustainability, and social justice. We sponsor public workshops and forums, often working cooperatively with other organizations. Our website, www.ecoleader.org, is a powerful tool to link individuals and organizations with resources and information.
Leadership Networking
There are now more than 200 graduates of the Leadership Training for a Sustainable Future. These Fellows of the Institute are a dynamic, highly-motivated group of individuals who want to make a difference in their communities. The Fellows have vastly different economic, social, cultural, and political backgrounds, yet they share an interest in a just and sustainable future. We offer regular networking opportunities for the Fellows, many of whom are also involved in the ongoing work of the Institute.
The School of Business and Economics (SBE) at Sonoma State University (SSU) was founded amid change in the 1960s. A group of forward-thinking professors moved north from San Francisco to challenge the status quo and establish a new campus and new approach to learning, free from the ivory tower. SBE’s mission is to create extraordinary learning experiences and advance best business practices in the North Bay and beyond. Values of community, sustainability, creativity, and progress are essential to its story and instilled in students through competitive undergraduate and graduate degree programs, professional certificates, and custom corporate partnerships.
Graduate programs include the Sonoma MBA for Professionals program, offered in part-time (two-years) or full-time (one-year) formats, and Sonoma Executive MBA program, designed with a schedule, relevance, and leadership focus for professionals at the senior manager, director, and executive levels. The Wine Business Institute is an education and research institute within SBE and offers the first professional certificates and degrees in the U.S. specializing in the business of wine. Undergraduate degree programs include a B.S. in Business, a B.A. in Economics, and a range of cross-disciplinary minors. The business degree has concentrations in accounting, finance and financial management, management, marketing, and wine business strategies.
SBE programs and degrees are accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), a standard of excellence earned by the world’s top business schools. To learn more, please visit www.sonoma.edu/sbe.
About SSU
Located in California's premier wine country 40 miles north of San Francisco, Sonoma State is a small campus with big ideas. With a tradition of promoting intellectual and personal growth, leadership opportunities and technological proficiency, SSU offers its 8,500 students a friendly, safe and informal atmosphere on a beautiful campus setting of 269 richly-landscaped acres. Currently, campus housing accommodates 2,400 students in both apartment and residential suite style facilities.
The university also owns and operates the 411-acre Fairfield Osborn Preserve nearby and the 3,200 acre Galbreath Wildland Preserve in Mendocino County. Both offer major opportunities for research in the natural sciences rare for students.
One of the most requested campuses in the CSU system and regularly named a “Best Value” College by Princeton Review, SSU has also been named one of the “most wired” campuses in the nation by Forbes magazine. It is the only California university that is a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges, the prestigious group of 19 universities and colleges across the nation that are often described as the “Public Ivies.”
Founded in 1960 as a teacher education center for the North Bay, Sonoma State University is now a liberal arts and sciences university dedicated to providing high-quality undergraduate education and selected professional graduate programs. Dedicated to the liberal arts and sciences and known for its active use of technology., the SSU educational experience fosters intellectual, cognitive, social and personal growth. The faculty and staff of Sonoma State provide close mentoring relationships and an education that fosters ethical exploration, civic engagement, social responsibility, and global awareness combined with a solid foundation in an academic discipline.
Sonoma State University also serves as an educational and cultural resource for its region by offering courses, lectures, workshops and programs that are open to the public and by entering into partnerships with local businesses, industries, and cultural and educational institutions to enhance the quality of life in the North Bay and beyond.
As California's premier public undergraduate institution, SSU has a commitment to graduating students who have the ability to think critically and ethically and can effectively use information technology.
Academic Profile
The SSU educational experience fosters intellectual, cognitive, social and personal growth. The faculty and staff provide close mentoring relationships and an education that fosters ethical exploration, civic engagement, social responsibility, and global awareness combined with a solid foundation in an academic discipline. Many classes average fewer than 25 students, allowing close interaction between students and faculty.
SSU has a commitment to graduating students who have the ability to think critically and ethically and can effectively use information technology. There is a strong move to develop a global perspective in much of the curriculum to prepare students for the needs of the 21st century workplace.
Degree/Program Offerings
The university is comprised of six schools: Arts and Humanities, Business and Economics, Education, Extended Education, Science and Technology and Social Sciences. Degrees are offered in 41 majors and 46 minors at the bachelor's level and 14 at the master's level. The university offers a joint master’s degree in mathematics with San Francisco State University and a joint doctorate in educational administration with California State University, Sacramento and the University of California, Davis. It also offers nine credential programs and eight undergraduate and graduate certificate programs. Sonoma State offers one of the only wine business programs in the country.
Dominican University of California's GreenMBA is an engaged learning community that seeks to promote financial viability, ecological sustainability, and social justice in business and organizations of all types. Students graduate with practical skills and experience, prepared to innovate, communicate, and lead effectively in the face of global challenges.
We provide a culture of collaboration and innovation for those ready to take responsibility in a complex world that needs rethinking.
Dominican’s GreenMBA is an on-site program whose graduates receive a Master of Business Administration degree in Sustainable Enterprise. Students have a choice of two-year full-time and three-year part-time structures to accommodate life/work balance while pursuing the degree.
Skills/Curriculum
The GreenMBA curriculum integrates the stewardship of financial, human, and natural capital – beyond the triple bottom line - into a world-class program. Our collaborative, project-oriented approach integrates the development of entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial skills with critical thinking and leadership capacities. Our emphasis on systemic approaches to understanding complexity equip students to innovate and nurture resilience in organizations of all sizes.
Community
The GreenMBA community is a diverse, multi-generational group with a rich variety of life experience and work backgrounds. We cultivate a sense of place and belonging, and our network extends beyond northern California to global partners and a broad array of organizations and individuals who share our common purpose. Community events for students, alumni, faculty, and guests promote cross-pollination of ideas and the expansion of personal and organizational networks. Small classes, transparent communication, faculty-mentors, and collaborative, project-oriented learning create a supportive, challenging environment.
Transformation
Our guiding principle is: “Transform Yourself. Transform Business. Transform The World.” Program participants begin by exploring their beliefs, purpose, passion, and world view. Students acquire the tools to lead organizations to transcend ‘business as usual’ practices and adapt with a rapidly changing world.
SOMO Village, at last something different! A practical and authentic high quality lifestyle focused on the best of technology and innovation combined with beauty, comfort, food and wellness. A place to enrich and inspire mankind. Internationally recognized as the first One Planet Community in North America and home to a mix of forward-thinking industries with a focus on Food and Innovation. Home to over 50 employers, employing approximately 800 people on-site.
Development plans are approved for a host of shops, offices, apartments, homes and neighborhoods. Convenient and walkable with interconnected streets, public places and a transportation network making a place for all ages, income levels, cultures and races. A place of innovation at home and work. A place respecting our environmental impacts and encouraging economic sustainability. A healthy, happy, high quality lifestyle in the Bay Area’s idyllic Sonoma County – we call it SOMO Living.
Give Something Back, Inc. is California’s largest independent business to business office supply company. GSB was started in 1991 modeled on Newman’s Own food company. Company profits are donated to non-profit groups selected by customers and employees. GSB was named Corporate Grantmaker of the Year in 2003 and Small Business of the Year in 2005 by the US Small Business Administration. They are a Certified Green Business in Alameda County, a founding B Corporation, and have a 50 Kilowatt solar power system on the roof of their headquarters in Oakland.
Stacey Ward came to Sonoma, CA from the Central Valley over seven years ago and fell in love with the area. Her move was motivated by her studies at Sonoma State University where she graduated with a double major in Environmental Studies/Planning and Economics. Soon after her graduation, she extended her formal training by earning an MBA with an emphasis in Environmental Entrepreneurship through the GreenMBA program.
The Sustainable Enterprise Coalition program is specifically geared towards the needs of enterprises and intended to answer the question "We know about sustainability, so what do we do next?"
Relevant and timely, the Sustainable Enterprise 2008 program addresses the needs and interests of businesses with tracks that are based on levels of operation:
Conference attendees will have the opportunity to visit the Sustainability Exhibits showcasing sustainability-related products or services, or educating about sustainability initiatives.
