Going green while making green; Hult International Business School publishes Greenovate!

(Boston—April 28, 2010) Imagine a neighborhood where smart, solar-powered garbage cans signal trash collectors only when they are full and ready to be emptied, thus reducing fuel costs. Or a mass transit system where buses run on recycled cooking oil, making them cheaper to operate with reduced emissions. Or a program to create homes for the poor by converting and upgrading discarded shipping containers.

In Greenovate!, the inaugural publication released by the Hult International Business School and the Center for Innovation, Excellence, and Growth (IXL), these environmentally-aware scenarios are a reality. Fifty companies that have successfully “gone green” while also turning a profit are carefully examined, their goals and barriers clearly laid out so that readers can easily understand how a ”greenovation” is conceived and executed. The book covers a wide range of industries and products, from all-natural cosmetics, to energy sources derived from cow manure, to intelligent street lighting.

“Running a successful business and maintaining a social conscience are no longer mutually exclusive,” said Dr. Hitendra Patel, a Hult professor of innovation and one of the book’s authors. “With Greenovate!, we show that the confluence of good business sense with environmentally-friendly strategies can result in an even stronger product or service.”

Patel, along with co-authors Ronald Jonash and Tyler McNally, will attend a reception commemorating the book launch on Wednesday, April 28, from 6 to 8 pm at the Hult International Business School. They will discuss the results of their writing and research and will offer insights on how companies can go green.

Research compiled for a unique hands-on MBA consulting course by the Hult graduating class of 2009 was also incorporated into the book. The Action Learning Plan, a joint venture between Hult and IXL, gave students the opportunity to advise C-level executives of major companies on identifying and capitalizing on areas of growth within their organizations. Greenovate! is the first publication in the Beyond Eureka! series of studies by the IXL Center on the topic of developing consistent and dependable processes of innovation and economic sectors.