Business for a Better World Center News

Faculty and students at George Mason University are conducting impactful environmental research with the help of the Business for a Better World Center's Honey Bee Initiative.

Faculty, staff, and students from three units across Mason have worked together to create a new VR experience so elementary students can take a “field trip” to the Mason apiary and learn from an expert beekeeper.

George Mason University’s Business for a Better World Center (B4BW) recently convened an in-person Stakeholder Roundtable on the subject of Corporate Governance. The half-day event took place at Point of View International Retreat & Research Center at Mason Neck in Lorton, VA on October 21.

“Not everybody has the luxury or the ability to take school groups to see the hives and to learn about them,” says Business for a Better World co-director Lisa Gring-Pemble. This was the driving force behind the Hive Alive project, which uses virtual reality to teach local students about bees in an immersive manner.

In her quest to gain a better understanding of people, the mechanisms of the world around her, and advances in science and technology, Prachi Vakharia has taken on many roles simultaneously. Presently, she is a transportation and innovation specialist at Amazon, associate partner at European boutique investment bank ImprovedCF, and co-founder of Womanium. She does all this while also serving on several advisory boards, including as chairperson of the Business for a Better World Center (B4BW) Advisory Board at George Mason University’s School of Business. 

An article in the Fairfax County Times explains the Honey Bee Initiative’s Hive Alive project.

For some, working on their taxes can be an anxiety-riddled experience, but for Anne Magro, co-executive director of the Business for a Better World Center (B4BW) and associate professor of accounting, tax is where she thrives. She’s so exceptional, in fact, that Anne was honored as the top tax educator in the nation, receiving the prestigious Ray M. Sommerfeld Outstanding Tax Educator Award from the American Taxation Association (ATA) at the organization’s mid-year meeting earlier this year.

Rashed Hasan, executive-in-residence at George Mason University’s Business for a Better World Center (B4BW), is working to make transparent metrics and benchmarks that accurately represent stakeholder value a reality. Alongside a group of researchers and business advisors, he’s developing the Stakeholder Value Index (SVI), which he hopes will be a reliable framework for measuring business impact across the five stakeholders mentioned in the BRT Statement, as well as two additional stakeholders: the company itself and the planet.

The Impact Fellows Program, which is run through the School of Business’s Business for a Better World Center, focuses on helping students learn about how to help businesses achieve sustainable goals,

Impact Fellows, a flagship B4BW initiative is focused on this central mission. The students selected participate in collaborative cohorts, partake in experiential learning, and receive mentorship and networking opportunities—all with the goal of helping them become problem solvers, addressing the key issues facing our planet. Ji Eun Kim, who was recently hired as the student communications assistant for Mason’s Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE), is one such Impact Fellow.