Season 2 Episode 42
Building a Resilient Future Through Sustainable Growth
Dr. Kealy Carter is the Marketing Department Chair, a Clinical Associate Professor, and Director of the Sustainable Growth Center at the Darla Moore School of Business. She holds a bachelor’s degree in International Studies from American University in Washington, D.C., and an International Master of Business Administration from the University of South Carolina. Her research and teaching interests focus on sustainability and marketing strategy.
The Center for Sustainable Growth promotes economically sound, socially and environmentally responsible business through global perspectives, innovation, and collaboration. Its goals are to prepare future business leaders to operate sustainable enterprises and to serve as a hub for thought leadership that helps organizations create value through sustainability.
Some topics include:
Learn more about the Center for Sustainable Growth, here.
Learn more about the Darla Moore School, here.
Photo Courtesy: Darla Moore School of Business
Kasie Whitener (00:03):
Good morning point listeners. It is nine o'clock and that means it's time for Moore Impact. My name is Kasie Whitener and I'm your host. And with me today, Dr. Kealy Carter, who is a professor in our marketing department, but also the director of the Center for Sustainability at the University of South Carolina is Darla Moore School of Business. Y'all know that Moore Impact is about the impact that our practitioners, researchers, scholars, students, alumni, all of us working over at the Moore School are having on South Carolina, our state, our city, our nation, the world really. And so what I like to do is bring those folks off of Greene Street and over here into the studio on Millwood Avenue. And I brought Kealy here this week because it's Thanksgiving week. So you're not teaching on Tuesday this week, where all semester long you were able to dodge me 'cause you were teaching on Tuesdays at 9:00 AM. But welcome into the studio. Kealy Carter, glad to have you here.
Kealy Carter (00:51):
Thanks Kasie. Yeah, it's a pleasure to be here. And um, like you said, my schedule has conflicted with your show, uh, throughout the semester.
Kasie Whitener (00:59):
Which is a nice way to put it would be like, I'm now that person that when people see me in the halls, they like turn the other way 'cause they know I'm gonna ask them to come on more impact. And they're like, no
Kealy Carter (01:09):
It's not exactly that. But I did manage to set the same schedule up for next, uh, semester as well.
Kasie Whitener (01:14):
So you're missing Tuesdays again next. I gotcha. I gotcha. It's fine. I will catch you on the spring break then. Um, alright. So glad to have you here. Tell us a little bit about your journey, how you ended up at the Moore School so that we can kind of put in context. How long have you been there, what have you been teaching, things like that.
Kealy Carter (01:27):
Yeah, great. I've been on the faculty of the Moore School, um, going on 12 years now. Um, but I'm happy to say that I'm a proud alumna of the Moore School. I first came, um, in 2005 and did the international MBA program. That's what brought me to South Carolina to start with.
Kasie Whitener (01:48):
From where?
Kealy Carter (01:48):
I was living in Orlando, Florida, working for a, a power company at the time. And so, you know, I've been there about six years and was looking to, um, kind of make, make that next move career wise and said what better place to do it than University of South Carolina and an international MBA.
Kasie Whitener (02:05):
Sure. Sure.
Kealy Carter (02:06):
That's what first attracted me here. And, um, it loved my time here. Uh, loved the, uh, my classmates, which, uh, I'm still friends with many of 'em today. And then that international experience, I spent like seven months in Germany.
Kealy Carter (02:23):
Nice.
Kealy Carter (02:23):
Actually working for the company that I had, uh, worked for.
Kasie Whitener (02:27):
The pallet company.
Kealy Carter (02:27):
The pallet company. Yeah. So I went, went to Germany as part of my internship and then ended up working with them, which was a cool experience.
Kasie Whitener (02:34):
That's awesome. Yeah.
Kealy Carter (02:35):
And so then I left there and, uh, worked at FedEx as a marketing product manager for their domestic express freight services. So just instead of moving pallets around, I was moving stuff around on pallets,
Kasie Whitener (02:50):
Did you get to do anything with a Denny Hamlin, uh, number 11 car in NASCAR while you were working for FedEx?
Kealy Carter (02:56):
I think we had a, you know, a volunteer day and I got a picture or something, uh.
Kasie Whitener (03:00):
He's my driver, so I just had to ask
Kealy Carter (03:03):
Well, you know, the sports marketing at at FedEx is huge and, uh, with the, um, golf and, and everything like that. And they have their, uh, golf tournament there basically on the FedEx headquartered campus.
Kasie Whitener (03:16):
Right.
Kealy Carter (03:16):
Um, every year we got to go out and, and volunteer and, and do all kinds of cool stuff around that.
Kasie Whitener (03:23):
I love it. I love FedEx calling it volunteer work.
Kealy Carter (03:28):
Yeah.
Kasie Whitener (03:28):
And all of our employees are here to support our marketing efforts and not getting paid
Kealy Carter (03:34):
Well, you could choose if you wanted to do it.
Kasie Whitener (03:36):
Yes, of course. Of course.
Kealy Carter (03:36):
Of course. I'm a huge sports fan, so that was a big draw for me.
Kasie Whitener (03:40):
Yeah, I bet, I bet. When you've got a company that's engaged in that way, like it gives you so many opportunities, so that's awesome.
Kealy Carter (03:45):
Absolutely.
Kasie Whitener (03:46):
That's awesome. Alright, so you're working for FedEx and then what happens? Yeah,
Kealy Carter (03:49):
I worked there a couple years and then, uh, decide, you know, sort of had a, um, I would call it a midlife crisis, but it wasn't, quit my job, sold all my stuff and, uh, spent a year traveling through Asia. Uh, and while I was doing that, I decided I wanted to, um, get my PhD. So I applied to PhD programs and came back and, uh, joined the Moore School again and the marketing department and, um, was, you know, took four and a half years to, to finish my PhD and then ended up in a unique scenario where I was able to stay on because we were launching, um, the Center for Marketing Solutions. At that point in time and doing a lot of work with corporate partners. Uh, and so that was always appealing to me to do applied research and, uh, we were able to bring that into the classroom with experiential learning projects and a sort of combining my passions, uh, all in one place and a place that I love.
Kasie Whitener (04:49):
So do you find, uh, 'cause we talked a little bit, we, you know, off and on in the Moore Impact show we've talked about our researchers. So last week we had Joey Von Nessen on who researches his thing. Right. And then, uh, there's others who are in the classroom like I am that really being in the classroom, working hands on with students is their thing. And then there's others for whom there's like a great little hybrid back and forth, like my colleague Jeffrey Gray, who likes the research piece, but also really likes to be in the classroom and, and all that. Where do you find yourself on the spectrum? Are you like mostly on the research side or mostly on the classroom side?
Kealy Carter (05:19):
I'm in the middle.
Kasie Whitener (05:20):
Right in the middle.
Kealy Carter (05:20):
Yeah. I mean, I, so, you know, I, I started out mostly teaching in our MBA program, uh, and I, I love teaching that student population and I was doing, uh, some research as well. Um, and then over the last probably five years, I've, you know, experienced some change in the mix of teaching and research, uh, because we've been focused on starting the Center for Sustainable Growth and, uh, building relationships across campus and, and with our, uh, um, business partners and, and that kind of thing. So, um, I'm sort of in this three bucket space, uh, now, well, actually probably four where I'm teaching. I'm also the department chair for marketing, so I have administrative duties. I'm director for the center, so we're trying to develop that and get that going. Um, and then I, I've much neglected my research.
Kasie Whitener (06:17):
When you think about that research, and I know because it's not really gonna be the focus of the conversation, I wanna talk a lot about the center and I wanna talk about some of these experiential learning projects that you guys have in the marketing department, some of the classes that you guys are working on. Um, but talk about the research just for a minute. What's your interest like when you think about the research questions that really drive you to like, man, I really wanna learn more about that. I wanna build something out on that.
Kealy Carter (06:38):
Yeah. Again, I'm really interested in things that are gonna have, um, some sort of material impact or, uh, you know, would, would inform business decision making. And at the time that I started work on my PhD, uh, there was a lot of, uh, growth in products with positive environmental or social attributes and so kind of sustainability related attributes.
Kasie Whitener (07:05):
Right.
Kealy Carter (07:06):
And I was looking at the research and I was like, everybody's just saying like, this is sustainable or this is not. And then drawing all these conclusions about how you might, uh, frame messaging or encourage people to buy more or change their behavior.
Kasie Whitener (07:20):
Right.
Kealy Carter (07:21):
Kinds of things. And I was like, in reality, if you look at the shelf, that's not what's happening. I mean, you've got some things that have, you know, maybe a positive environmental impact, um, others that are like stacking environmental and social attributes and all kinds of different combinations. So it was like really this scale of, I'll just call it green, you know, from light green to dark green.
Kasie Whitener (07:45):
Right.
Kealy Carter (07:45):
And it's like these, all these things can't be treated equally.
Kasie Whitener (07:48):
Right.
Kealy Carter (07:48):
And so that started me down a path of like, you know, how do people actually perceive product sustainability? And does that impact their willingness to pay or their likelihood to purchase those products? And then what are the things that firms can do to encourage more sustainable consumption? Uh, and so that, that's really where my, my interest lies and, and, uh, extended, uh, in various directions from that.
Kasie Whitener (08:16):
I think it's interesting to think about things like paper straws, right? And then like whether or not we have products being forced upon us, uh, by the provider of those pro products, right? Like in the, uh, restaurants and things like that, and how people react to either positively or negatively to those products. And maybe it's their reacting to how they were introduced, but we can talk more about that on the other side. Kasie Whitener here with more impact. Dr. Kealy Carter is in the chair today. We're gonna go to break in on the other side, Moore Impact.
Kasie Whitener (08:48):
Welcome back to Moore Impact, Kasie Whitener here with Dr. Kealy Carter, who is the director of the Center for Sustainable Growth at the Darla Moore School of Business. And as we were talking before we went to break, we were kind of mentioning your areas of interest on the research side. And we're not gonna, uh, dive too deep into that. But over, like, during the commercial, I was asking you about this kind of spectrum of the definition of sustainability. So when people think of sustainability, is it about environmental impact? Is it about having recycled products made from recycled material? Is it about processes or systems, or what does that sustainability spectrum of definitions really look like? And then I kinda wanna tee that up to frame our conversation around the center and what the center's goals are. So tell us from your perspective, what does sustainability really mean? How can we come up with a usable, uh, definition for that word?
Kealy Carter (09:34):
Yeah, great question. I think a, everybody has a different definition of what it is. And, uh, the way we've been talking about it and framing it is sort of multidimensional having, you know, sort of environmental aspects, social aspects, and certainly economic. And the three of those are really, um, work together and you can't address one without addressing the other. And so I think a lot of people, like you said, might think of recycling. Well, that's just one,
Kasie Whitener (10:04):
Environmental aspect.
Kealy Carter (10:06):
One thing that you could do.
Kasie Whitener (10:07):
Right.
Kealy Carter (10:07):
to try to reduce the environmental impact of packaging and, and things like that. Um, but when you look at the bigger picture, I mean, companies have been doing this stuff for, um, decades, uh, and, you know, the, the use of the term sustainable has you know, skyrocketed. If you, you can actually, I think track those, uh, those metrics and see.
Kasie Whitener (10:30):
From like how often it appears on earnings calls and things like that.
Kealy Carter (10:33):
Yeah. And, and it's, you know, now it's, it's, uh, started to, um, ebb again and, and things like that. Um, so, you know, the, the words that people are using change and the frequency with which they're using 'em changes, but at the, the core of it, um, you know, business recognizes that they need to be doing a lot of these things for financial reasons. Um, you know, there's opportunities to develop, uh, new products, um, you know, that, that maybe have more positive environmental or social attributes because there's consumer demand.
Kasie Whitener (11:08):
Sure.
Kealy Carter (11:08):
For those. And so there's a lot of acquisition activity around, um, uh, you know, uh, sustainable brands that have gained some level of market acceptance. In fact, uh, growth in the consumer package, good space, uh, really exist in this, these types of products.
Kasie Whitener (11:26):
Right.
Kealy Carter (11:26):
Where otherwise growth is, is relatively flat.
Kasie Whitener (11:30):
So when we think about that, I wanna unpackage just a little bit on the, um, when you say consumer demand for these kinds of products, is this, was this an intentional market development strategy where people started to educate, you know, hey, and I'm, I'm thinking like, way back to like when I first became aware of Earth Day in the 1980s, right? Where like people started to say like, Hey, we really need to do something about, uh, packaging. We really need to do something about, about the amount of stuff that's going into the landfill. Like, is there this concentrated sort of product develop or market development strategy where we need to teach people why this matters and then grow that consumer desire, consumer awareness? Because it seems like our younger consumers are much more interested in this. Like my, our Gen Zers are all about, like, if they can make that choice, they're gonna pick the environmentally friendly one every day. But if you go a little bit higher up and it's, you know, all the way up to our, our older population, maybe they're not necessarily choosing that particular product for that particular reason. Do you feel like this was a strategy over time that we started to develop that consumer desire, or,
Kealy Carter (12:31):
I mean, I think there are, there are a number of factors that that led to, um, that demand. Um, when you look at it, you know, there were a number of, uh, things that happened in the eighties, uh, and, and even before that sort of brought people's attention to like, okay, we're actually, you know, uh, polluting our water.
Kasie Whitener (12:54):
Well, you remember like the styrofoam carriers for the, uh, for the Big Mac, right. That like, eventually became cardboard carriers for the Big Mac, right?
Kealy Carter (13:00):
Yeah. I was thinking of like, you know, Exxon Valdez spill and.
Kasie Whitener (13:03):
Oh, right. Much bigger.
Kealy Carter (13:04):
Yeah.
Kasie Whitener (13:04):
Yeah, I gotcha. Global disaster. Yes.
Kealy Carter (13:06):
Global disasters. And people are looking at it and saying, oh, well that's not good. I don't like the little ducks covered in oil. And.
Kasie Whitener (13:12):
Right, right.
Kealy Carter (13:12):
You some things like that. And, um, and, and then you saw sort of international mobilization around some of the environmental, um, challenges that we're facing and, and, and still face. Uh, and everybody wants like clean air, clean water, and, and you think about all the things you love about South Carolina and, and you want that green space and.
Kasie Whitener (13:34):
Right.
Kealy Carter (13:34):
And you wanna be able to go to the beach and enjoy and hunt and fish and, and all that. And so, um, I think, you know, companies built on some of that momentum. Yes, they've invested significant marketing dollars in developing products and educating people on it. And part of the reason that they, they've done that is because they do, uh, have a positive financial, uh, return or see that over the long term, whether that's access to, um, you know, continued access to raw materials. Uh, maybe they're worried about some short supply that they, uh, would change the actual composition of the product. Um, maybe they're, uh, trying to hedge against, uh, regulation like extend to produce or responsibility laws and, and things that.
Kasie Whitener (14:23):
Right.
Kealy Carter (14:23):
Hold the manufacturer accountable for, um, that product even after a consumer has used it.
Kasie Whitener (14:31):
Can we think of some examples of those? Are those things like batteries and, um, you know, electronic devices, computers and stuff like that from a disposal perspective? Like we as consumers are given advice, you know, given directives on how to dispose of these kinds of things. But is it that sort of, are there particular product categories that those manufacturers are being held accountable for?
Kealy Carter (14:51):
I mean, we've had these for decades, right? Right. Like, uh, think about, um, sort of white goods where you pay a fee up front for, um, the disposal after the fact and, and that
Kasie Whitener (15:01):
Oil changes and that sort of thing.
Kealy Carter (15:02):
And, uh, tires and, and, you know you are starting to see some of this stuff. Um, so it really ranges the gamut. Increasingly packaging is, um, being, coming under these, uh, uh, these EPR uh, laws where manufacturers, uh, then have to, uh, report into, um, a responsible producer kind of organization. And all this is at the state level, uh, where it's happening.
Kasie Whitener (15:29):
Right.
Kealy Carter (15:29):
So it's this real patchwork of this state has it, that one doesn't, this state has it for this product category that one doesn't.
Kasie Whitener (15:37):
Right. So do you manufacture it there? Do you do you allow distributors to ship it there? Like, do you determine which states you're gonna sell your product in and which states you're not gonna sell your product in based on those kinds of, an EPR would be environmental protection regulations?
Kealy Carter (15:50):
Extended producer responsibility.
Kasie Whitener (15:52):
Oh, I got that completely wrong.
Kealy Carter (15:54):
Yeah. So, so meaning like, you know, Hey, I'm gonna sell this package of, of crackers.
Kasie Whitener (15:59):
Right.
Kealy Carter (15:59):
And if I wanna sell it in, you know, California, um, now I have to report the composition of the packaging, um, the, the weight, uh, that I'm, um, selling in the state and, and all of that. And the idea is you, you then pay a fee on it. Um, and it, it, it moves some of the burden from like the municipal governments, uh, to the manufacturers, uh, for the end of life of that packaging.
Kasie Whitener (16:28):
As opposed to just letting the cellophane fill up the, the landfill.
Kealy Carter (16:32):
Or as opposed to, um, you know, the, the cities and, and not having to collect the recycling bin and, and then, uh, bear the entire burden for that recycling process.
Kasie Whitener (16:42):
Gotcha.
Kealy Carter (16:43):
For that, or, or, you know, pay the landfill fees and those kinds of things.
Kealy Carter (16:47):
So you said there were social implications, product implications, and what was the third category?
Kealy Carter (16:51):
Economic
Kasie Whitener (16:52):
Economic implications.
Kealy Carter (16:53):
Yeah.
Kasie Whitener (16:53):
But companies have been working on this for a long time in response maybe to some of the regulatory requirements, but also just having a vision of, Hey, moving forward in order to stay competitive, to stay in our marketplace, we're going to need to be, uh, up to, up to speed with this stuff.
Kealy Carter (17:07):
Yeah. Some of them are certainly leveraging as a point of competitive advantage, and they're trying to say, you know, how can we show that our products are different? Um, they see new market opportunities, uh, maybe you'd be able to target different customer bases, um, you know, that they hadn't previously considered. So there's a lot of innovation on the product side. And the other thing, like you mentioned, is sort of forecasting where regulation is gonna go and, and, uh, being able to, uh, be ahead of that. Um, the other thing is, is just risk management. Uh, and, and understanding, uh, vulnerability to, um, natural disasters, uh, to, you know, things like energy outages and, and other business risks.
Kasie Whitener (17:54):
Supply chain disruptions.
Kealy Carter (17:55):
Supply chain disruptions.
Kasie Whitener (17:56):
And we saw that certainly through COVID. So Yeah, I could see that.
Kealy Carter (17:59):
Yeah, absolutely. Uh, and so, you know, then you, you have all kinds of other types of risk, like even like transitional risk as we're thinking about electrification and, and that like, you know, do you, do you move, uh, are you a first mover or do you wait and do you have the, the, uh, staff that can work on this, uh, type of materials and, and, you know, those kinds of things. So, um, so there's certainly a risk management piece, but there's a huge just cost reduction effort. And a lot of times that's where companies start, you know, where they say, um, can we, uh, reduce the amount of energy we use, reduce the amount of water we use, um, do things more efficiently. And really sustainability is efficiency, right? And risk management, and, you know, kind of at the core. And then there's this innovation technology component.
Kasie Whitener (18:48):
Sure.
Kealy Carter (18:48):
Um, and that's, this all plays together, uh, where it's like, okay, if I can have the opportunity to increase my revenue, reduce my costs, uh, by, you know, using the resources I do, um, better or more effectively, um, and then I can also reduce my risk. Well, you know, revenue minus cost equals, uh, profit.
Kasie Whitener (19:09):
Right.
Kealy Carter (19:09):
And then if you reduce your risk, and we're talking about, you know, investors, they want as as little risk as possible. So now we're forecasting long-term profitability, and that translates into stock prices and things
Kasie Whitener (19:22):
So when we think about this, the definition of sustainability there, is there a, you have these three categories, the social, the, um, the economic, and the product itself, right? And then the question is, uh, how, where, I don't know it, do businesses create a sustainability plan? Are they creating this massive sort of strategic plan to address sustainability? Or is it about incorporating sustainable practices in every aspect of the operation of the business?
Kealy Carter (19:53):
That's a great question. It's actually one of the projects I have my students work on in our core course. 'cause I'm like, look, if you go and you read, uh, the, the front page of their website or whatever, every business looks like they're saving the planet.
Kasie Whitener (20:06):
Right.
Kealy Carter (20:06):
When we know that's not true. Right? So what are those differences? And you have some who are, you know, um, touting their changing the light bulbs to LEDs, and, and that's their kind of, their big deal. And, and, you know, they're, they're really tax
Kasie Whitener (20:21):
To reduce their energy consumption,
Kealy Carter (20:22):
To reduce their energy consumption. So, you know, it really ranges the gamut from people who haven't even started anything, um, in, in these efforts to others who are saying, yeah, there's some low hanging fruit that'll, um, help me reduce my cost, and, um, doesn't look as risky as some of the other types of investments. Uh, but those, you know, those are really tactical and everybody's doing those so they're not a source of competitive advantage or, or differentiation. Um, and then you do have some companies who are really saying like, how do, how do we leverage this as a market driver? Um, and then it becomes a lot more strategic, uh, and becomes part of their, you know, C-suite planning process.
Kasie Whitener (21:07):
Right.
Kealy Carter (21:08):
Uh, and it is more just part of their business planning.
Kasie Whitener (21:12):
And really their culture, I would assume too.
Kealy Carter (21:13):
Exactly.
Kasie Whitener (21:14):
All right. On the other side, we're going to unpack what the Center for Sustainable Growth is doing and how they're reaching into the community and giving students the experience of this full spectrum of sustainability.
Kasie Whitener (21:30):
Welcome back to Moore Impact, Kasie Whitener and Kealy Carter here talking about the Center for Sustainable Growth. And at first we were defining this spectrum of the word sustainability and how it is part of corporate culture. We're seeing maybe even a spectrum there of companies that are fully all in embracing this idea that it makes economic sense, it makes social sense, it improves their product and the quality of their product. So in all three of these categories, they find that this is the right moves, these are the right choices for them to make. And maybe that creates part of their corporate culture. And then the other side, sort of the dragging through, you know, kicking and screaming. 'cause regulations are in place and they have to change their business model, um, maybe are, are sort of reluctant late adopters, but for the most part, what you guys are seeing is companies are being very proactive in this space and trying to create a sustain, you know, a focus on sustainability from the top down.
Kealy Carter (22:22):
Yeah. I'd say, you know, certainly for the large, uh, multinationals, um, you know, there, you know, same way we talked about, uh, with some of these regulations within the us, you know, being kind of governed state by state, you have the same thing when you're operating across countries where, uh, you know, you're looking at the, the total global landscape of the markets you're playing in and saying, okay, well what are those, um, you know, what are those customers want in those areas? And, and you're, um, looking to, um, meet the, the highest standards of those it, so.
Kasie Whitener (23:00):
Right.
Kealy Carter (23:00):
You can't, you can't say, oh, yeah, Kasie wants this, uh, I'll sell this to her, and then Kealy wants something different, right. I'll sell a, you know, a different process to her. So, but they're, they're seeing returns in their processes in that, and they're also seeing it as a way to, um, build some, um, resilience in their business, uh, and, and looking forward not just, uh, for the next quarter or the next year, but they're really planning for the next 20, 30 years.
Kasie Whitener (23:29):
The Center for Sustainable Growth. So, relatively new. You all have been up for two years now. This is your second year, is that right?
Kealy Carter (23:36):
This is, yeah. We're sort of in, still in a, a pre, pre pre-launch phase, but yeah, we're, uh, we're starting to get some momentum. It's, it's great. And, and, uh, working with, um, starting to work with business more actively. Um, and the, you know, really what we're trying to do is sort of say, look, we wanna help, um, business on these issues by connecting them with people doing, uh, research in the university. So to help, um, kind of inform future decision making that might be relevant. Uh, and then also to, to help connect our students, uh, with that experience as well, to make sure that, uh, they're, they're entering the workforce with the skillset that they're gonna need, uh, for their careers. So, um, we started out with, I think I, I visited you at some point, uh, in the past, and I don't think we'd done anything yet, uh, say last fall, we had about 30 companies come together with, uh, faculty from across the university, not just in the Moore School, and said, Hey, what, what do you wanna work with us on related to sustainability? And we covered a window full of sticky notes, and it was literally, you know,
Kasie Whitener (24:50):
RIght.
Kealy Carter (24:50):
And, um, Adam Steinbeck, he's a associate professor in, uh, management department. He's the, um, the associate director for the center. He and I sat down and said, all right, well, like, what do we do with this?
Kasie Whitener (25:02):
Right.
Kealy Carter (25:02):
Um, and we basically looked at all of the areas the companies were interested in and said, what do we have expertise in the Moore School? Where do we have expertise at the university level? You know, whether it's the Molinaroli College of Engineering and Computing. I mean, uh, we have huge amount of energy expertise there From battery, battery storage, uh, nuclear hydrogen grid.
Kasie Whitener (25:30):
Right.
Kealy Carter (25:31):
Um, you know, and then if we look at the, um, McCausland College of Arts and Science, they have the, uh, school of Earth Ocean environment. Um, they do a lot of cool stuff around water and, uh, you know, um, carbon capture and all kinds of.
Kasie Whitener (25:48):
Right.
Kealy Carter (25:49):
Uh, stuff that, you know, honestly, like, I don't understand
Kasie Whitener (25:55):
It's the science piece, right?
Kealy Carter (25:57):
It's the science piece.
Kasie Whitener (25:58):
Yeah. Like, Hey, we've got some science people, we'll be glad to bring the science people over here and try to translate what they're doing into some business functionality as well. Yeah.
Kealy Carter (26:06):
And that's exactly it. And we saw this space for us to be able to say, look, we can sit down with the people who know the science, and we understand sort of what the business is asking for. And, you know, we can more or less translate between the two and sort of be the air traffic controller between business and.
Kasie Whitener (26:25):
Sure.
Kealy Carter (26:25):
And sort of the resources we have at both the more school and the university more broadly. And so we, we said, okay, well, we're gonna prioritize sort of four areas to get started, um, because we have expertise within the university because companies care and because their priorities for the state. Uh, and so, you know, the, those areas, uh, were were sort of risk management and reporting. I mean, we see a huge focus on, um, uh, resilience and, and planning for natural disasters.
Kasie Whitener (26:58):
Sure.
Kealy Carter (26:58):
And, and the like, um, and there are increasing reporting requirements like for companies coming outta Europe and, um, you know, various other places. And so that was one area. And then another area was this idea of like closed loop systems or circularity where we're able to say, okay, well, how can we think about models differently? So, uh, when people buy a product, it's not just, I buy it, I use it, it goes to the landfill. How can we start to have conversations around like, okay, what are the challenges with recycling? How do we move past recycling to think about new business models. Um, you know, maybe where product ownership doesn't change or we completely, um, design products differently so they're more modular, interchangeable, you know?
Kasie Whitener (27:49):
Right.
Kealy Carter (27:49):
Those kinds of conversations, um, where we're keeping, uh, materials and, and products in use longer. I mean, that, that has, uh, you know, not only environmental benefits, but it has financial benefits when you think about being able to use a material, um, and sell it in multiple products.
Kasie Whitener (28:07):
Right.
Kealy Carter (28:08):
Uh, then, then that has a, um, positive financial impact. And so, so that was the second one. Uh, the third one is energy and energy policy. I mean, we're standing sort of at the precipice of, um, you know, something, uh, really big. And, and, and there's an opportunity for South Carolina to be a big player, uh, in what's happening in the energy space right now. And, uh, we wanna, uh, be able to kind of, uh, help those conversations and, and understand what the challenges are, uh, and, and communicate that back, uh, to both, uh, business as well as policy makers. And then the other, the, the fourth area that we, um, are looking to kind of kick off is around water. And like you thinking about water quality and quantity issues, and, uh, what are the big challenges and, and what science do we have going on that can help address some of these, uh, um, uh, opportunities and, and so on.
Kasie Whitener (29:06):
It's interesting, the, um, the, the energy piece, we did the gridlock event, uh, about a month ago over at the Boyd Innovation Center, where we were talking about the full spectrum of this is the energy, uh, supply chain, right? From the generation of en uh, of energy through the transmission of energy storage, of energy usage of energy distribution and usage and things like that. And we were trying to help our students sort of see what entrepreneurial opportunities are there throughout that full supply chain of energy. And for many of 'em, like it was the first time they had thought about, you know, I, you know, I plugged my laptop into the wall and it charges, I don't know why or how, I don't know why my battery keeps longer than other people's batteries. Like, they just not really any kind of concept of what all the science is behind that, or like, even where did the energy come from and how did it get to the wall? You know what I mean?
Kealy Carter (30:59):
Yeah, you're absolutely right. I mean, we could just focus in on energy and honestly then, um, all of the others, uh, sort of, uh, you know, there's certainly water implications with energy. There's certainly reporting and risk management. Um, and you know, uh, you, you mentioned, um, uh, solar and, and that, I mean, uh, we have hydro, um, biomass and, and other, uh, sources of energy generation in the state, but nuclear is, is huge and, and
Kasie Whitener (31:28):
Coming back online. Yeah.
Kealy Carter (31:29):
Yeah. And with the Brookfield announcement and, and Santee Cooper with the, you know, bringing VC summer back online or those conversations. So, um, you know, for business, and this is critical, we are facing a supply demand gap. And, you know, just like you mentioned, when we go to the wall and flip the switch, we expect the power to come on.
Kasie Whitener (31:52):
Right.
Kealy Carter (31:52):
Uh, anytime of day, every day of the week, business needs that to happen. If we look at the composition of our state and the advanced manufacturing and the robotics and all of this, I mean, they, they, they're large energy users, um, and they need that consistency, uh, in, in order to reduce their business risk. And so what we've seen is, you know, population growth in the state, um, a significant increase in energy demand that we're forecasting, uh, we're taking, uh, coal, um, fired plants offline. And, um, you know, the VC summer project didn't, you know, did not come to fruition when we thought it would. Right. So we've gotta be making investments, uh, to help fill that supply demand gap, uh, that that's forecasted.
Kasie Whitener (32:44):
So, and we're seeing that, I mean, in that call, I mentioned, I was on yesterday, they were talking about the Department of Energy pushing things forward and having, you know, five years ago, maybe not really knowing what's the process for how we're going to handle this or that, or this or that. But now having a very firm, okay, this is the process. This is how it's gonna happen. These are the bids that we're opening up. This is the, these are the grants or the, you know, the federal funding that's available. And then being really specific about here's where we're gonna be making these investments. Just from that federal level, the Department of Energy was sort of a renewed, uh, fervor on approaching just a full gamut of energy possibilities. Um, it's not sort of the limited, you know, uh, and I, I don't wanna like say green, but I mean, it's not just the wind and solar piece like we've seen in the past. It's this, like, whatever's available, we've gotta we've gotta search through it and figure it out.
Kealy Carter (33:36):
Absolutely.
Kasie Whitener (33:37):
All right. On the other side, we're gonna finish up our conversation about classroom experiences and how this connects to our students and what they're learning. We'll be right back.
Kasie Whitener (33:57):
Welcome back to Moore Impact. We've got one segment to go. I've been talking with Kealy Carter about the Center for Sustainable Growth and the idea that companies are moving in this space in an intentional and strategic way, recognizing that, that the sustainable choices they're making, whether it's packaging for their products, whether it's marketing to their customers, and teaching their customers about the environmental impact of their products, or whether it is the economics of purchasing one thing or another. Uh, all these choices that companies are making are intentional in their strategic. And so the Center for Sustainable Growth, researching and connecting companies at internally at the university with research in a bunch of different sciencey areas,
Kealy Carter (35:13):
Yeah. So we have, um, an, an undergraduate sustainability and business concentration that any business school major. So if I'm a marketing major, I can add on this 12 credit hour, um, concentration that gives me exposure, understands sort of key terminologies, big concepts, uh, and I can even take electives within, uh, the specific areas that I'm interested in. And this is
Kasie Whitener (35:41):
Like real estate, risk management.
Kealy Carter (35:44):
Yeah, Uh, so, uh, Greg Niehaus, uh, he actually had a climate finance course, um, that, that was taught for the first time, either this semester or last semester. So, you know, starting to expose, uh, students to those issues within their discipline of their finance major.
Kasie Whitener (36:02):
Sure.
Kealy Carter (36:02):
Um, uh, Joe Johnson, he has a, a sustainability reporting class. It's an accounting class, uh, that'll is gonna be offered for the first time in the spring.
Kasie Whitener (36:12):
Right. But that would talk about things like compliance and, uh, how do you recognize the financial returns on these different investments that companies are making? Yes.
Kealy Carter (36:23):
And yeah, compliance with reporting standards. Um, how do you assess some of these things? Um, what do you need to disclose? How do you disclose it?
Kasie Whitener (36:33):
Right.
Kealy Carter (36:33):
Uh, starting to get into to some of the more technical pieces and, and maybe you choose to, to disclose some information and not other, and, and how you position that.
Kasie Whitener (36:42):
Right.
Kealy Carter (36:42):
So, um, yeah. So, so that's been in effect about three years now. And at any point in time, we have between 60 and 70 students at the Moore School who have declared that, uh, they intend to pursue that concentration. And so it's primarily your juniors or seniors where they're getting to like, okay, like, can I add this in.
Kasie Whitener (37:02):
Right.
Kealy Carter (37:03):
With my major and that? Um, and so, so they're getting, uh, some deeper, uh, work in these spaces. Uh, and, and really what we want 'em to understand is why do businesses choose to make some of these investments? Uh, and what are the trade-offs? And, and how do you evaluate those trade-offs? Um, do you need to be thinking about new metrics that would help you understand, uh, success in light of some of the challenges that are being faced? And how do you, um, make and plan for a resilient, prosperous future?
Kasie Whitener (37:46):
Sure. Uh, and I think about, so the students that I had in my, um, management 4 73, which is developing and launching new ventures, we worked with the gridlock event all around the gridlock event. We ended up working with seven different companies that are in that space, specifically the ones that are building and installing solar panels, the ones that are, excuse me, building and, um, designing solar and, um, um, solutions. Right. Um, we worked with Sustain SC and how they're out there trying to educate and, and help people understand the importance of this kind of space or the rec, or to at least recognize, Hey, this is a direction that we're moving in and this is how your company can get on board. So it was, uh, an interesting chance for them even, uh, they worked with Finicon who does large battery arrays, large energy storage projects. Um, and then of course, you know, having an understanding fully of like, here's the grid and here's maybe all the opportunities for, um, entrepreneurial folks that were like, Hey, I wanna build a business. Where is there opportunity? Well, there's just a ton of opportunity in this space of energy resilience and in this, you know, grid modernization and all these places where we see we have a huge gap, as you mentioned before, a supply and demand gap that's really inching closer just day by day.
Kealy Carter (39:03):
Yeah. Um, in, in fact, we're kind of piloting a, a business of energy class, uh, with our MBA students, uh, in the spring. So trying to help bring some of this to life and, and make sure people have a better understanding of what happens, uh, behind the light switch and how, how that impacts, uh, decision making and, and, uh, planning for a business.
Kasie Whitener (39:28):
Sure. Uh, there's a lot of, um, on the risk side, right, there's a lot of that conversation in terms of like, if, if the power doesn't go on, right, if our grid is not reliable, if the companies can't get what they need in South Carolina, they're not gonna stay. And so from a, uh, from a state perspective and the way that we consider the, what's the, the position of the university to help educate our students, but then also what's the, you know, staffing these companies with people who know what's going on, and then also to make sure that they're, you know, doing what's best they can as citizens and as, you know, members of their South Carolina, you know, residents in South Carolina to get it. Um, as far as these policy decisions that are being made and investments that are being made over the long term, this is, you know, from an economics perspective, it's best for the comp, for the, uh, for the state.
Kealy Carter (40:16):
Yeah. I mean, uh, you know, the, the states continues to grow. Um, we are experiencing population growth. Uh, we have companies that, that fortunately wanna come here and, and that, um, but even aside from new companies coming in, I mean, we have a considerable, um, kind of manufacturing base and all kinds of associated industries here. And they need to continue to have access to sort of always on, um, low or no carbon, uh, power sources.
Kasie Whitener (40:47):
Sure.
Kealy Carter (40:48):
Uh, many of 'em have made, uh, commitments, um, to reduce their, their, uh, carbon footprint. Um, and some of those are, are pretty aggressive, even with kind of time matched carbon offsets, meaning that the, um, the energy that they use would be matched with generation of no carbon energy within the same hour.
Kasie Whitener (41:16):
Wow.
Kealy Carter (41:16):
In the same location, like same state.
Kasie Whitener (41:19):
Right.
Kealy Carter (41:19):
Or same area. Um, and so if a company like that wants to be here, we have to have options, uh, available for them. And, and, you know, with the Energy Security Act, uh, we saw a, a number of, uh, uh, moves in that direction, uh, with opening up the opportunity to bring VC summer back online, um, some opportunities for natural gas and, and solar and, and other, um, things that sort of utility scale.
Kasie Whitener (41:49):
There's a, a lot, a lot of opportunity in this space, as I said, and our students through projects and classes, through work with the Center for Sustainable Growth, uh, through the, the awareness maybe that we all have internally of like, Hey, this is a big deal and this may be the next place that our students are gonna find themselves operating. I feel like we're all kind of teeing up projects and putting them in front of some of the folks. So I know you said you talked to Beth Renninger before about some of those student projects that were out there this last semester. Our gridlock projects were, were, I, I felt like our students learned at least probably more than they wanted to know about, uh, the transition, the energy transition that's sort of global and, and, and we're all sort of being swept up by, but what were some of the things that your students worked on? The marketing side?
Kealy Carter (42:35):
Yeah. I'll just mention one more on the sustainability. It was a really cool, um, and for our MBA class, uh, this fall, um, we had an executive from, um, um, manufacturer here in South Carolina join us for a half of our classes and like bring, like, this is what my team is working on.
Kasie Whitener (42:52):
Right.
Kealy Carter (42:53):
Right now.
Kasie Whitener (42:53):
That's awesome.
Kealy Carter (42:54):
Um, these scenarios and walk through 'em. So, I mean, you know, sort of this unparalleled experience. You, you know, you, you can't get
Kasie Whitener (43:01):
Boy that access. That's incredible too. Yeah. And the students love that. They like the real life stuff. Like the theoretical is great, and they'll understand it and they'll read the book and whatever, but we're like, if you can put them in the room with that executive or with those teams, like my students all do their onsite visits with their clients. They're like, oh, we got to take a tour, and we saw how people are doing this and that. Like, they really love that in like, fully immersed experience.
Kealy Carter (43:24):
Yeah. I mean, you know, they, they, I think they liked her better than they liked me. So. Which I'm fine with, so.
Kasie Whitener (43:29):
Well, they're MBAs, you know, whatcha gonna do.
Kealy Carter (43:30):
That's right. But yeah, you mentioned, um, in the marketing department, we have a center for sales and marketing leadership, and Beth Renninger is the executive director. And so she works with some of our corporate partners to try to organize projects that go in, um, to classes where they make sense. So these are mostly our, uh, upper level, uh, sales and marketing classes. And we're trying to give students that experience where they look less like a, uh, you know, just a fresh graduate and more something like, we're trying to call like a, a degree plus three.
Kasie Whitener (44:03):
Right.
Kealy Carter (44:03):
Like, you know, they come out and they look like they have three years of experience.
Kasie Whitener (44:07):
Becauseof the projects they worked on.
Kealy Carter (44:08):
Because of the projects they worked on.
Kasie Whitener (44:10):
Sure, sure.
Kealy Carter (44:10):
So, you know, a couple examples. I mean, uh, our students and our consultative selling class worked with SE Quantum.
Kasie Whitener (44:16):
Nice.
Kealy Carter (44:17):
Um, and, um, you know Joe Queenan, and, and those, um, they, they said, okay, well, um, here build us basically a prospect book. So what does that ideal customer prospect look like? How would you target them? Um, who are the people in the companies? And they used AI to help them research the companies, the individuals, and then really build a pitch of like, you know, why are we coming to you? Why are we coming to you now?
Kasie Whitener (44:42):
Right.
Kealy Carter (44:42):
And what are we bringing to you?
Kasie Whitener (44:44):
Sure.
Kealy Carter (44:44):
So then they'll present that to the executives.
Kasie Whitener (44:45):
That's cool.
Kealy Carter (44:46):
So that's a, you know, an actual exercise that they would be doing in a, in a business development type.
Kasie Whitener (44:51):
Yeah, had they been in that, in that role?
Kealy Carter (44:52):
Yeah. And I mean, we have, uh, a, you know, we're working in one class with our sales strategy class with the City of Columbia and Ryan Coleman on, you know, how to attract, uh, business to Columbia, either to relocate or expand their operations here. Um, and then they'll, they'll look at that and make a final pitch.
Kasie Whitener (45:13):
That's awesome. Such great work. Thank you so much. Kealy Carter from the Center for Sustainable Growth. Glad to have you here. This has been Moore Impact. When you learn more, you know more, when you know more, you do more. Thanks for listening.