Purpose Prize

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The Latest from CoGenerate

Got a Digital Illustration that Shows Generations Working Together?

Got a Digital Illustration that Shows Generations Working Together?

CoGenerate recently teamed up with Fine Acts, a global creative studio for social impact, to launch an open call for illustrations showing generations working together for change.  We’re looking for illustrations that show older and younger people coming together to...

A New Conversation About Service That Crosses Generations

A New Conversation About Service That Crosses Generations

Can a single meal begin to bridge divides? Back in January, two major partners in CoGenerate’s work teamed up to find out. On the MLK Day of Service, Generations Over Dinner and AmeriCorps joined with senior living communities across the country to host more than 100...

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Gifford and Libby Pinchot

Bainbridge Graduate Institute
Purpose Prize Fellow 2010

The Pinchots designed a new MBA program to train future business leaders to focus on environmental sustainability and innovative solutions to climate change.

The 9/11 attacks spurred Elizabeth and Gifford Pinchot to rethink how they could give back to the world. Long interested in environmental causes, they committed themselves to doing something for the health of the planet.

The Pinchots had spent decades running a successful consulting firm training executives at Fortune 500 businesses in innovation and saw a need to develop a new generation of business leaders interested in innovative environmental and social sustainability practices.

The Pinchots thought: “If business doesn’t get involved in solving climate change, pollution and poverty, change is not going to happen.”

In 2002, they created the Bainbridge Graduate Institute on Bainbridge Island, Wash., the first graduate school to offer an MBA in sustainable business. The Pinchots were hands on: They designed the initial curriculum, raised money, recruited students, handled marketing and more. In seven months, they launched the MBA program, starting with 15 students.

The institute has since grown to more than 200 students. Success stories include Erin Gately, who made Hewlett-Packard Company inkjet printers recyclable and power efficient.

2016 Update: The school formerly known as Bainbridge Graduate Institute is now Pinchot University.