"Climate Corps 2010: Inside the Energy Efficiency Cubicle" by Jeremy Dommu

I generally don’t like cubicles. Before I started my MBA at the George Washington University, I spent five years working at a cubicle. When I left my job in public accounting, I was relieved at the thought of abolishing cubicles from my life forever. But now as a 2010 EDF Climate Corps fellow at PHH Arval, I have never been so proud to have my very own cubicle. In fact, I don’t even call it a cubicle – this is now my workstation. I’ve even decorated it with EDF and Net Impact signs. I think the reason for my renewed enthusiasm for office life is that I have never felt more passionate about my work.

As an EDF Climate Corps fellow, I am responsible for making the business case for sustainability. I’m helping my host company, PHH Arval, simultaneously improve its bottom line while increasing environmental performance. This win-win situation is created by recommending projects that reduce energy usage and in turn lower utility bills in a commercial office building while cutting harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

PHH takes sustainability seriously. Their award-winning PHH GreenFleet program, for example, works with many of today’s leading transportation companies to encourage less fuel consumption, more efficient driving and the improvement of fuel economy for fleets. PHH also practices what it preaches. Through the dedication of an environmentally conscious facilities department and the commitment of a voluntary Green Team, PHH has already reduced electricity consumption by 20 percent in the past 5 years, obtained an EnergyStar rating that puts it in the top 25 percent of all office buildings in its class and is well on its way to meeting its Environmental Protection Agecny Climate Leaders goal.

Even for such an environmentally responsible organization, I am finding that significant opportunities for lowering energy consumption still remain in all the primary areas of the office building. As I learned during EDF’s week-long Climate Corps training, “low-hanging fruit always grows back.” So, even for the most environmentally conscious organizations, a renewed look at energy consumption is bound to turn up new opportunities to save money as technology changes, cost barriers drop and new standards, regulations and incentives are offered.

After noting that an above-average amount of electricity usage at PHH is attributed to lighting, I’ve been analyzing several projects that I hope will reduce lighting costs:

• The installation of occupancy sensors in closed spaces
• Daylight harvesting to take advantage of the natural light that flows in through the wall-to-wall windows
• A review of nighttime and weekend lighting policies

I’m also reviewing the HVAC system and believe that the heating and cooling loads can be reduced through improvements to insulation, air sealing and window film. Computer Power Management software can also be installed to minimize energy waste from office equipment, and Vending Misers can be installed on all vending machines in the building.

Furthermore, I’ve been thinking about data centers. EDF organizes weekly expert calls by leaders in energy efficiency. On one of those calls, Don Beaty, a lead consultant for datacom facilities and designer for all Google data centers worldwide, explained that there is absolutely no reason for data centers to be cooled to a frigid 68 degrees or lower. Instead, ASHRAE environmental specifications allow for the intake temperature to be set as high as 80 degrees without risk to equipment and without impacting performance. Before the call took place, I reserved a conference room and invited the IT managers from PHH to attend. The message about temperatures in data centers immediately reached its intended audience from a very credible source. Now, I’m working with the energy-conscious IT department to increase the temperature in the data centers at PHH. I am currently working on quantifying the savings from this increase; which I believe will be substantial.

As this example illustrates, energy efficiency is easy money and good business. While there is no upfront cost of increasing the temperature set-point in a data center, some of the other projects I am considering do require an initial investment. Yet, by analyzing these projects from a financial perspective, just like a company does with any other investment they make, I am finding that these projects are smart business ventures with high returns, low risk and quick pay-backs. So, as a business student and environmentalist, I’m proud to sit at the energy efficiency cubicle, formed by the benefits these projects have on the environment, energy usage and to a company’s bottom line.

*Jeremy Dommu is a 2010 EDF Climate Corps Fellow at PHH Arval. This content is also posted on the Environmental Defense Fund Innovation Exchange Blog and Greenbiz.com. Further coverage of the Climate Corps program is available at GreenBiz.com/edfclimatecorps.

"The Seoul of Business School" by Jeremy Dommu

It's 11 a.m. on May 20 in Seoul, South Korea, and 10 students from the George Washington University MBA, including myself, are frantically scrambling to put the finishing touches on a presentation we are scheduled to deliver in three hours. We worked for seven weeks back home in Washington, D.C., researching the wind turbine business and had already spent two weeks in South Korea consulting with Hyosung to develop a strategy to expand its turbine manufacturing business in Korea, Latin America, and the U.S. With just hours until two senior vice-presidents of the wind business are scheduled to arrive at our hotel's conference room, we are still tweaking PowerPoint slides and fine-tuning our oral delivery of slide content.

This is the culmination of my first year in GW's Global MBA program, and like the year that has just preceded it, it's ending with a flurry of activity and a rapid coordination of efforts. Armed with the tools of finance, supply chain management, business strategy, international management, business communications, macroeconomics, and marketing—all part of our recently completed first-year core classes—our team works together seamlessly to add the finishing touches to aid in the delivery of a set of recommendations we hope can help Hyosung achieve its goal of becoming one of the top 10 global providers of wind energy solutions by 2017.

For me, the opportunity to consult in an international setting was one of the driving forces in my decision to attend GW. This residency was more than just a field trip after a 14-hour flight. It was a consulting engagement at its heart and a good opportunity to employ the business skills we have developed over the past year. I chose the trip to Korea over other trip options to India, Sweden, Serbia, and Mexico, because its focus on the intersection of business and public policy and the development of renewable energy resources so closely aligns with my career goals. While my excitement grew as the trip approached, my wildest expectations couldn't have prepared me for the learning experience, networking opportunities, and sheer enjoyment I was so fortunate to get during GW's international residency project in Seoul.

FROM WIND TURBINES TO CHICKEN FEET

The focus of our trip was exploring South Korea's green growth strategy. Korea has pledged to stimulate its economy through the development of green technologies and innovation. Twenty GW students were on the trip, divided in two teams. While 10 of us worked with Hyosung on wind turbines, the other 10 consulted with SK Energy on the development of lithium ion batteries, which will be used to power a new fleet of electric vehicles worldwide.

Both of these projects provided ample opportunities to apply practical MBA skills to new industries. But beyond the education, this trip was an amazingly good time characterized by karaoke nights, Korean baseball, sleep dancing (what happens at 6 a.m. at the club when your mind and body shut down on the dance floor), chicken feet, and more soju than I care to remember. Shepherded down the streets of Seoul by our faithful TA and patient guide, Sungha, all 20 GW MBAs made the most of this incredible opportunity, and I believe all of us are significantly better off after this experience.

I think what truly made the trip such a success was the leadership of our professor and guide, Danny Leipziger. Simply put, Leipziger is a rock star in Korea. He joined GW's MBA faculty in 1997 after a long career at the World Bank, where he led the bank's first economic recovery loan to South Korea after the Asian financial crisis. While we were in South Korea, Leipziger set up a series of meetings with various officials, economists, assemblymen, business leaders, and media personnel. The meetings complemented the work we were doing with our client companies as they worked to respond to the public policy push for green innovations.

GW has a significant network of more than 800 alumni in Korea. Several of these alumni stepped forward to act as our gracious and extremely generous hosts. The success of these individuals and their insights into the Korean business culture served as both inspiration and education when they hosted a 20-course traditional Korean meal, a night reminiscent of D.C. power dining at a Western-style steak house, and topped it off with VIP entrance and table service at one of Seoul's hottest nightclubs. This friendliness will not soon be forgotten, and my classmates and I look forward to continuing to build on the relationships and networks we developed on our trip.

This trip demonstrated the value of an MBA, as I was able to apply the skills I have acquired over the past year. I have become a better communicator and team player, and I'm better versed in the multiple functional areas of business that are required to become a leader in management and a fine strategist to others. The trip exemplified the Seoul—err, soul—of business school, which I would characterize as the combined application of existing knowledge while simultaneously obtaining experience in new subject matters.

Personally, I am broadening my knowledge of the energy industry as I prepare to become a champion for demonstrating the financial value that can be derived when businesses embrace environmental sustainability. Going to Seoul was the perfect capstone to an incredible first year of business school. After our two distinguished guests departed following our presentation, I can look back now with confidence that we provided them with several viable strategies and ideas that I hope will help them grow as much as we have during this incredible experience.

Jeremy Dommu Global MBA, 2011

*This is taken from his Businessweek Blog

"My Business School Agenda" by Jeremy Dommu

Module Two is microeconomics, human resources, marketing, and more statistics. There are also accounting courses in both these modules, but as a CPA, I automatically placed out of these courses, and decided against adding new electives so I can better concentrate on career and extracurricular activities. Each professor has free rein to teach classes any way he or she chooses. This results in a pleasant mixture of lecture-based, case-based, and team-based classes.

CLUBS

Clubs are by far my favorite aspect of the MBA program. The opportunity over the next two years to take advantage of student clubs, case competitions, academic and professional conferences, and to truly focus on the areas of business that excite me is a luxury I will not squander. In fact, I believe the learning opportunities that exist outside an academic classroom are more beneficial to me than developing the core finance, marketing, statistics, operations, and leadership skills I will obtain inside the classroom. So you will find me at the annual Net Impact conference and case competition, working on projects that have everything to do with my career goals but nothing to do with my class requirements, and anywhere in D.C. the carbon community is gathering.

COMMUNITY

Let me say this: I could not have asked to be surrounded by a better network. My classmates could not do more to ensure the success of each other in every class. Despite the challenge we are up against in an economy where internships are scare, there is zero competition for jobs. Our alumni network, though small, truly goes all out to help us. This is evident by the alumni career adviser I have been paired with as part of our mentorship program. We aren't yet a top-25 program, but everybody, from the current students to professors and from alumni to our administration, is truly united to help us get there. For me, this cohesiveness is more valuable than the cutthroat competition that might exist at other graduate programs.

TIME MANAGEMENT

I thought the biggest adjustment going from being a professional to a student was once again getting used to having to do work outside the office. I used to value being able to leave my work at the office each night and not have to worry about it until I returned in the morning. I knew, as a student, I would always be on the clock and I would never have time to relax. But, quite frankly, I have absolutely no problem with the time commitment of business school. In fact, I love taking advantage of every opportunity that is available to me. The struggle is finding enough time to do everything I want to do and prioritizing responsibilities. Never before had I used a planner. Now I have a Google (GOOG) calendar and Google task list that has me booked solid for two months out. Measuring both the importance and urgency of tasks is critical to ensure I'm spending my time in the right places.

ADMISSIONS

Here are a few tips I have about the MBA admissions process. But keep in mind these tips probably go against everything a prospective MBA student is being told or is thinking. The more and more you get sucked into the admissions process and the more you overthink and try to strategize the process, the less and less success you are going to have.

You are doing much more harm than good if you start thinking about what the admissions office wants to hear, rather than truthfully explain your goals and rationale for getting an MBA. Throwing away money on expensive admission consultants who have zero idea of who you are is a gigantic waste. Spending thousands on GMAT tutoring is crazy. I bought a few books, dedicated myself to studying, took the GMAT once, and was happy with my score.

The one thing that was incredibly helpful for me was having two close friends who were going through the MBA application process at the same time as me. One is now a first-year student at Duke and the other is in Georgetown's part-time program. It was extremely valuable to have friends to be a sounding board, help study for the GMAT, and read and comment on each other's essays. But even if you don't have friends going through the process with you, seek out the help of the people who know you well. But save your money for tuition or the opportunities you will have as a student. Or spend your money on campus visits so you can truly identify which school is the right fit for you.

Finally, if a school doesn't accept you because your career goals don't align with its strategy, or you don't fit into its culture, then that probably isn't the right place for you anyway. I realize it's difficult to do this. It was difficult for me. By nature, an MBA student is competitive and a measure of success is getting into the highest-ranked program that you can. It was extremely hard for me to turn down admissions offers at some top-ranked business schools. But ultimately I'm at GW because my career goals align perfectly with GW's focus on developing globally minded and ethical business leaders who want to create sustainable solutions to pressing world issues. And to date I couldn't be happier with my decision.


Jeremy Dommu, Global MBA 2011
*This is taken from Jeremy Dommu's blog on BusinessWeek