J840 Communicating Social and Environmental Initiatives

My name is Michelle Chisholm and I am in my second semester of the KU MBA program. I was very excited to learn that this class counts as one of my electives as I’m interested in learning more about Marketing Communications and it’s a nice break from Accounting. I graduated from the University of Illinois in 2003 with a double major in Psychology and French.  I currently work at Sprint in the Corporate Social Responsibility department. My title is Community Relations Specialist and I work mostly with our sponsorship of non-profit events here in Kansas City. I am relatively new to blogging, but I just posted my first few blogs on Sprint Space, the company’s new internal blogging tool. A co-worker helped me add a YouTube video and I was proud as punch! Needless to say, I still have a lot to learn, but I am definitely interested in becoming more comfortable in the world of social media.

When it comes to being green, I’d like to think that I am environmentally friendly, but after reading the first few chapters of the book, I realize I have a lot of work to do. I lived in France my junior year in college and was impressed by all the ways the Europeans are ahead of us when it comes to recycling and just simply using less. I strive to make simple changes in my lifestyle to be more eco-friendly, but often find myself succumbing to the convenience of American throw away consumerism. Sprint is doing it’s best to “go green” and it has been interesting to see the response of the employees as they removed Styrofoam cups  from break rooms and launched phone recycling programs. We are just now beginning to publicly promote our green efforts to our customers, so I hope to be able to immediately apply the concepts I learn in this class to my everyday job.

I look forward to meeting everyone this weekend and am interested to see what we all can learn from each other.

I am a blog virgin, but I love to write, so this could be fun.  My name is Matthew Charles Johnson.  No matter how you slice it, my name is unoriginal, but my parents always told me my name shouldn’t define me and it’s up to me to define my personality.  I guess in many ways this was the first time I was introduced to the idea of branding, and for that I am forever grateful.

I have been with my wife, Brooke, for 8 years, married for four.  We just had a daughter in January, Ellery, and she is the most beautiful and important thing in my life.  All of the days leading up to her birth pale in comparison to having her here now, and I wonder what we waited for. 

I love to travel and have been fortunate enough to visit every time zone in the country, as well as visit Mexico, London, Scotland and France.  I have a passion for food, which is obvious now that I am unable to burn calories just by sitting in a chair like I did in my twenties.  While I used to be athletic, I enjoy watching sports more now than actually getting out and playing them, although I enjoy a good game of hoops whenever I get the chance.

I graduated from KU in 2000 with a B.A. in Communications Studies.  I’ve had a number of jobs since, all of which have been marketing-related including newspaper/online advertising sales, field marketing for an insurance company and retail marketing communications for some rather large companies.  I absolutely love what I do, but want to move up the proverbial ladder.  I contemplated getting my MBA, but when I visited Edwards Campus for an informational session, I was introduced to the Marketing Communications program and fell in love with the curriculum and vision. 

Communicating Green Initiatives will be my sixth class in the program, so I’m officially almost halfway through.  I actually work on in-store point of purchase materials, so needless to say, we print (and waste) a lot of paper.  I’ve been exposed to a few green initiatives where I work, and we currently have, or are working on attaining, some certifications such as LEEDS, but I still don’t know half of what I probably should.  This class interests me from a lot of perspectives.  How can we be more environmentally efficient in our operations?  How does corporate social responsibility strategically fit into a company’s overall marketing strategy?  What does it really mean to consumers when a company says it’s “green?”  What is the most effective way to communicate green initiatives?  What resources are available to a company that wants to implement green initiatives?  And so on.

I look forward to meeting everyone in the class, and if I already have, I look forward to seeing you and learning even more together.