Business & Environment

2009 Deans Awards: Students Honored for Service to the School and Society

Typically, Harvard Business School courses emerge from faculty research, but the second-year field study seminar Building Green Businesses is an exception. A team of four graduating students -- Rye Barcott, Alex Ellis, Neil Wagle and Kate Wattson -- created this new offering, which debuted in the School's curriculum this year.

The four members of the HBS Energy Club (Wattson is co-president) believed that the course "would be an important capstone of their personal education." They also wanted to encourage and nourish the groundswell of interest in clean technology on campus and accelerate the School's involvement and leadership in an area that is becoming increasingly important to the entrepreneurship and investment world.

"Though there are many ways to get involved at HBS, the classroom plays a pivotal role in career development," said Wattson, who has an undergraduate degree from Harvard and worked at a wind development company in Houston before HBS. "We wanted to make green business a part of students' HBS experience, because as the industry grows, it is important that HBS alumni be present in leadership positions."

Wattson, Barcott, Ellis, and Wagle discussed at length how the new course would be structured and delivered. Then they met last spring and summer with various members of the HBS faculty and administration, as well as fellow students, to lobby for its introduction into the curriculum. Professor Joseph Lassiter of the Entrepreneurial Management Unit and Professor Forest Reinhardt, who heads the Business, Government and the International Economy Unit, agreed to sponsor and help shape the class. When the course was expanded conceptually to include work originating from the HBS Science-Based Business Initiative (SBBI), Professor Lee Fleming and Visiting Associate Professor Andrew King of the Technology and Operations Management Unit became involved. Formalized in 2008, SBBI seeks to transfer discoveries made in Harvard laboratories into society while creating leaders for science-based businesses.

With the help of these faculty members and a small cohort of others on campus, the four students organized and established the Building Green Businesses seminar in time for the fall 2008 registration period. Forty-one students from HBS, the Harvard Kennedy School, and MIT enrolled, attending a total of 10 classroom sessions during the winter term.

As part of the course, student teams completed a project on building a green business-working with existing startups or exploring possibilities for launching their own clean-technology venture. Other requirements included a final written report and an oral presentation about their findings. The seminar was "phenomenal and offered an exhaustive syllabus addressing every major issue in the industry," wrote one participant.

The faculty members who helped organize the course assign virtually all credit to Barcott, Ellis, Wagle, and Wattson. "All four were absolutely critical in getting the field study seminar off the ground," said one professor.

In addition, the four students generated momentum that led to another event benefiting HBS, the first Building Green Businesses Conference, held in March on the HBS campus. The conference, sponsored by the School's External Relations group and the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, brought together alumni and industry leaders active in the "green/clean" movement to share insights and ideas. Approximately 80 alumni and friends of the School attended.

Barcott, Ellis, Wagle, and Wattson hope that the interdisciplinary field study seminar they organized, along with the conference, will continue to advance the School's research and course development efforts in the area of clean technology. All four are passionate about renewable energy and "trying to help the environment by applying practical business knowledge," wrote one of their nominators for the Dean's Award.