Purpose Prize

Marc Freedman Portrait

The Latest from CoGenerate

Documentary Brings the Beauty of Cogeneration to PBS

Documentary Brings the Beauty of Cogeneration to PBS

A new documentary film, Ink & Linda, chronicles the unexpected friendship between Inksap, a Vietnamese-American street artist in his 20s, and Linda, a white modern dance teacher in her 70s. Shortly after a chance encounter brings these two together, they begin...

Announcing the CoGen Challenge to Advance Economic Opportunity

Announcing the CoGen Challenge to Advance Economic Opportunity

We’re out to show the world that older and younger people can help solve pressing problems when they work together. To that end, today we’re launching the CoGen Challenge to Advance Economic Opportunity, a partnership with the Ares Charitable Foundation to elevate...

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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.