Embedding Sustainability Across Sectors in the Southeast
Bill is a career tech CEO with several exits, including a billion-dollar IPO. He is now a partner at Tech Square Ventures and Engage. At TSV, he leads the firm's enterprise accelerator and corporate innovation platform, Engage.
Bill is passionate about climate tech and clean energy, giving a TED talk on startups disrupting the industry. This grew into a podcast and later a book called Freeing Energy.
Michael Oxman
Managing Director, Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business, Georgia Tech
Michael Oxman
Managing Director, Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business, Georgia Tech
Michael Oxman serves as Professor and Managing Director of the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business. He teaches business sustainability and oversees industry outreach, partnerships and educational initiatives. He is also part of Drawdown Georgia, a partnership of 60+ companies focused on Goergia's transition to net zero emissions.
Previously, Michael held leadership roles in CSR strategy, including Director of Energy and Extractive Advisory Services at BSR and Partner at Acorn International.
As manager of sustainability for North America, my role is to build a network of owners, specifiers, and partners in pursuit of what Ray Anderson called a "bigger, better profit." Together with those people, I see my job as responding directly to his challenge for us all to think differently about business.
In this critical decade for economic transformation in response to a changing climate, we need everyone on board with Climate Take Back, the business plan to reverse global warming.
The Southeast is becoming a focal point in the national climate conversation and this session highlighted how visionaries, businesses, educators and nonprofits are transforming sustainability from aspiration to strategy. Through the legacy of Ray C. Anderson and the work of Interface, Georgia Tech and regional organizations, panelists including Bill Nussey, Michael Oxman and Joey Shea showcased practical pathways for driving environmental impact without sidelining profitability. Their discussions underscored that purpose-driven action, when embedded into institutions and economies, is not just possible—it’s essential.
Reimagining Business Models for Regeneration
One panelist recounted Interface’s journey as a radical shift in how businesses can define success. What began as a response to a client’s simple question—“What’s your company doing for the environment?”—catalyzed the founder’s deep reflection and eventual commitment to sustainability. Inspired by The Ecology of Commerce, the founder reframed Interface’s purpose from profit maximization to environmental responsibility.
Rather than relying on carbon offsets, Interface began to overhaul its entire operation—rethinking materials, supply chains and production with a goal of being carbon negative by 2040.
This transformation, the panelist noted, wasn’t top-down alone—it became a cultural cornerstone. Sustainability became central to hiring, operations and brand strategy. Employees didn’t need to share identical personal values, but they had to connect with the broader mission. Business, as framed by the founder, was about more than shareholder value—it had to justify its existence through positive impact. Another panelist emphasized that this model proves embedding purpose is not a trade-off; it’s a long-term advantage.
Bridging Purpose and Practice in Education
One speaker described how a sustainable business center at a major university is helping translate sustainability into business education and leadership. The center develops interdisciplinary curricula, builds corporate partnerships and sponsors initiatives like the Carbon Reduction Challenge. These programs provide students with real-world tools—carbon accounting, sustainability reporting and systems modeling—to bridge classroom theory with practical action.
The speaker emphasized that the next generation of business leaders must be equipped not only with technical fluency but also the conviction to integrate sustainability into any role or sector. The challenge is not to create “green jobs,” but to green all jobs. Through simulations and fieldwork, students shift their focus from short-term extraction to long-term stewardship, learning to “light up their corner” no matter their position.
Scaling Resilience from Local Roots
While corporate and academic leaders tackled systems change, regional nonprofits and academic institutes are working at ground level to sustain growth and climate resilience in the Southeast. One nonprofit leader described efforts in South Carolina to align private-sector growth with environmental sustainability. With the state’s rapid development, the organization launched a roadmap based on seven accelerators—from circular economy to workforce development—and rolled out tools like a statewide sustainability scorecard.
Their approach is distinctly pragmatic. Wins included securing private conservation funding for barrier island protection and polling conservative voters to build bipartisan support for resilience investments. Through initiatives like cross-sector roundtables and site visits, they translate abstract sustainability goals into tangible local outcomes that resonate with business and civic stakeholders alike.
Complementing these efforts, a speaker from a liberal arts college shared how their institute integrates community-driven research into academic settings. By applying models like planetary boundaries and the doughnut economy, they help communities plan for divergent futures—one shaped by status quo growth and another by climate-aware planning. Projects include mapping heat vulnerability, aiding coastal resilience and offering technical support to under-resourced municipalities. Their approach prioritizes institutionalizing resilience and creating pipelines for applied knowledge to scale from neighborhoods to regions.
From Vulnerability to Regional Leadership
The session closed with a broader call to action: the Southeast is one of the most climate-vulnerable regions in the U.S., facing challenges from rising heat to agricultural risk. Yet many states still lack comprehensive climate adaptation plans. One speaker highlighted findings from the National Climate Assessment, urging the region to turn its risks into leadership. Through initiatives that connect academia, nonprofits and local governments, a new wave of regional coordination is emerging.
Programs focused on decarbonizing campuses, training student leaders and embedding sustainability into community planning are laying the groundwork for a more unified approach. A proposed academic institute aims to serve as a regional hub, integrating sustainability, equity and resilience. The message was clear: this is a pivotal moment, and sectors must connect across boundaries to scale what works.
By weaving legacy with innovation, and purpose with strategy, the Southeast is poised not just to adapt—but to lead.
No Comments