JetBlue's Secret for Sustainability Liftoff: People
The Sustainable MBA
Sarah Bodley, Amy Davila Sanchez, Rochelle J. March and Stephanie Milbergs
This Q&A is an edited excerpt from a Nov. 21 Sustainable Business Fridays conversation held by the Bard MBA in Sustainability program, based in New York City. This twice-monthly dial-in conversation features sustainability leaders from across the globe. The previously published interview was with Lew Blaustein, who writes at the intersection of sustainability and sports at the GreenSportsBlog.
As head of sustainability for JetBlue, Sophia Mendelsohn is responsible for both the long-term vision of environmental responsibility and the operational reality of implementing change.
Through change-management, Sophia has worked to bring composting to airports, and established a recycling system that connects more than 50 airports and 800 flights a day. She also works on fuel savings and a program that has offset over 200 million pounds of carbon.
Bard MBA: How did you first get into sustainability?
Sophia Mendelsohn: China got me thinking about corporate sustainability. I lived and worked there for 10 years while I was in the manufacturing and export business. There I first-hand began to see the chemical impacts on people and the environment: grey skies and speaking with children who had never seen a sunset because there was so much coal and soot in the air.
Read more of the original article on GreenBiz.
