5 under 35 36

They say it’s all about who you know, and many of the sustainable MBA graduates we featured in 2007 [see “Five under 35,” September 2007] say it even louder after one year of business ownership.

A 2007 graduate of Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI), Eric Magnuson co-founded Seattle-based Web Collective Inc., a worker cooperative that provides Web-based services such as Web site and Intranet development and distance learning solutions for sustainable businesses and nonprofits.

Magnuson says the company, which is approaching its one-year anniversary, is looking for ways to diversify its offerings, especially for sustainable startups.“I am targeting the BGI community, along with Presidio students,” he says, referring to the Presidio School of Management in San Francisco. “They are creating really interesting solutions with Web components and we want to be the Web developer for them.” Web Collective is also working through the process of adding an eighth member to further spread the work load.

While Web Collective serves emerging sustainable businesses, Covive, a consulting firm founded by 2007 Presidio graduate Chad Upham, is targeting Fortune 500 companies. Upham and a team of consultants, many of whom are also Presidio grads, are working with companies that want to undergo their first corporate social responsibility (CSR) report, but don’t know where to begin.

“There is a lot of risk involved in making statements about sustainability programs,” Upham says. “The challenge is, how do they do that incrementally in a way that does not over-promise or in a way that gets them nailed for greenwashing?”

He notes that the Presidio community has been instrumental in helping him get the word out about his company. “The Presidio network is very strong.” Upham says. “We have the common interest of accelerating the implementation of sustainability in business.”

This article appeared as a sidebar to "Do green MBAs get green jobs?" SI, April 2008.