WOW LEADER

Sue Patrolia

Interview by Stephanie Lowder

When I started in the summer of 07, this was the only school on the East coast that offered a Green MBA degree. 

A lot of people thought I was crazy, the company I work for thought I was pretty much crazy when I started working on this degree. To take it on in addition to my work, my family, still having one daughter still at home, all that.

I'll graduate May 3, and I'll turn 50 on May 18.

The environmental part, that's what got me going. The organizational part I first just breezed right over, but as I learn more I'm surprised to find that the organizational part is of so much interest to me.

This field of study is based on a 3-point bottom line philosophy, a balanced 3-legged stool of the financial bottom-line, the environmental, and the connection to people in the community in which we work. One cannot succeed if it is not supported by the other two. Businesses that do not get people to buy in, to change, who do not support their community environment - those business do not do as well financially.

I keep 3 suitcases packed - one for school, one for work, one for speaking engagements. I go up to school in New Hampshire every third week, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It's ok as long as I don't get confused and find myself wearing my school clothes to Showtime.

I'm a little anxious about what I'm going to do after I graduate. But anxiety and opportunity go hand in hand. I'm really interested in finding a way to help small businesses, because they get help from no one, and they are the organizations that take change into our communities.

Big opportunities are available in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and Environmental Sustainability in businesses - providing as they can stay in business until then.

I'm product manager at Regal Fabrics, Middleton, Mass. I work four days a week, I'm a 3/4 person. When I first started this MBA, they didn't really understand my interest, but now they're behind it 100%. We've started in the company with a few people recycling paper, then ink jet cartridges. Now I'm really heartened that the company has agreed to be the guinea pig for my practicum project - I'll conduct an energy audit, a supply chain audit, all that. Then Regal will take the action they can.

The untimely death of my sister in law awakened me to my desire to do something about the environment. She was killed on a family vacation climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. There was a rockslide, and the guides mentioned how strange it was that there was no ice along the path, just loose rock, because there was not enough snow that year. Mary was killed on Jan 3rd. That was it. I decided I had to find a way to do something. One day my niece called and said "Auntie Sue, why don't you get your green MBA?" I was at the grocery store at the time. I left my cart, went home, googled "green MBA" and 6 months later, I was at Antioch.

SWIFT was founded to explore ways to recycle discarded fabric samples. This year we diverted 10 tons of fabric from landfills and delivered it to Quilts For Kids. You know 90% of fabric samples made get thrown out - that's a lot of waste for even one manufacturer, but as an aggregate it's an enormous waste of resources, including shipping. I'm trying to work a deal with Fed Ex and UPS to give a discount on shipping fabrics back to the mills.

I have no anxiety or fears about calling people up, asking for what's needed, getting groups together. I'm a very social person. And I'm pretty confident in my ability to vision, to see the future, to communicate it.

One thing upholstery manufacturers can do:  when you choose fabrics to sample, don't just pick a lot of samples to be nice to the rep. Pick only the ones you really want.

I told my daughter, that's what I want for Christmas. We were eating in the school cafeteria, and we took our mess up to the conveyor belt and set it down watched as it was all just going away. I told her, that's what I want. I want the conveyor belt and the drop-down curtain that hides everything, and I want it all just to go away. But there is no magic going-away place. All waste goes somewhere. It may go away from one place, but it goes to another place.

I don't see how our country can move forward without organizational sustainability in our business model. Consequences of the extreme greed, organizational failures, consumers becoming much more aware - these will push us all to taking care of the 3-point bottom line.

Volunteers get overwhelmed. They think they can do everything, then they get to that shut down point. I am a volunteer, and I get to that shut down point. Sleep is the first thing that goes, then you loose your ability to think clearly. So you have to be a grownup about it. You have to take personal responsibility to maintain a healthy and whole and energized self. I've learned to limit what I will do. But then you run the risk of being this person who just throws ideas out and doesn't help others to do the work. That's no help at all.

One of our biggest problems is focus. There's so much to be done, how to choose? I think you have to go where your passion lies. Does it lay with saving a piece of land, a body of water?  Does it it lay with farming, or organizational structure? Everything is a system, it's all connected. If you focus on one thing, it ends up making a difference in the big system.  

I struggle every day.

There should be a Chamber of Environmental Groups, some scaling of organization. The problem is how to get people with slightly different goals to let go of their own bone and look to the future and the common goal. There's a lot to be done, we have to get our act together. There's a lot of energy in young people, so we need to get the structure in place and let them go at it. Then we can sit back and rest and enjoy our martinis.

In my fridge right now:  six blocks of organic cheese that I pickup at school every time I go up. And not much else.

I am completely alone in my hotel room at school. I secretly love that time. Same hotel every time. I get up at 5 or 5:30 in the morning and have that little space to myself, time to think.

In high school, I worked. My sophomore year I started at a clothing and shoe boutique. I also played the cello, I sang in the choir. Before I started working I played a lot of sports, but then I started working. I'm a let's get moving, lets get working, lets make some money kind of girl.

I just realized that Christmas is a week away, and I'm the one who organizes and makes things happen for my family. But one thing I know for sure is that Christmas will come. No matter what is going on with your life or with the economy. Christmas will come. And when it does, I will be so thankful that I am with my family, and we are all still together.

Sue Patrolia is product manager for Regal Fabrics, founder of the Sample Waste Initiative for Furniture & Textiles, and candidate for an MBA in Environmental & Organizational Sustainability at Antioch University.