I’ve heard the question so many times from people interested in cogenerational programming: “Are young people really going to show up to connect with older people?” We know, from our nationally representative study with NORC at the University of Chicago in 2022, that...
Purpose Prize
The Latest from CoGenerate
Want to Recruit Younger People? Look Within
For the past five years, I’ve been working as an advocate for the causes I believe in and for more intergenerational collaboration. Young people like me want more opportunities to work across generations for change, but we also want to be treated as equals. To...
What Young Leaders Want — And Don’t Want — From Older Allies
We know from our nationally representative study with NORC at the University of Chicago in 2022 that 76% of Gen Z and 70% of Millennial respondents wish they had more opportunities to work across generations for change. In a new report, What Young Leaders Want — And...
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Libby Pinchot
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.