2008 Woodie Awards
Green Valley Network offers environmental opportunities for students
Larry Burge
Issue date: 8/27/08 Section: News
Students at the UA might want to take note of a campus coalition that could lead to the U.S. being less dependent on foreign oil. It also could lead some students to a career opportunity in a new economic technology field.
With a direct connection through the Walton College of Business, UA green-minded business and industry leaders, in alliance with Fayetteville's Green Valley Network, said they have in their hands one of the world's most unique business clusters.
"The Applied Sustainability Center provides the educational division of Green Valley," said professor Jon Johnson, the Walton College executive director. "Our data research cluster presents input to the network."
Four main divisions make up the network's business cluster - education, research, business assistance and the city's resources. These link with Web-based research centers at the university, as well as privately held Fayetteville firms.
Johnson explained how sustainable problems funnel to him from the network's business community as well as through other Green Valley partners. ASC instructors present these live problems to student teams as actual corporate sustainability issues. If the students or faculty discover possible solutions, they pass them back along the network to the business community.
"The Green Valley Network is a Web portal for interaction among businesses and the public at large," said Phil Stafford, president of UA's Technology Development Foundation. "It's a way for companies that are in need of technology to find an outlet for their products. We now have a mechanism for the exchange of ideas, a tool of communication, where anyone, regardless of where they are on the globe, can become a member of this network."
Stafford described the Park's technology exchange center as a place where entrepreneurs of clean technology can post their ideas online. He also talked about UA students who work for companies with offices and labs at ATCP who have obtained jobs post graduation with those companies.
With a direct connection through the Walton College of Business, UA green-minded business and industry leaders, in alliance with Fayetteville's Green Valley Network, said they have in their hands one of the world's most unique business clusters.
"The Applied Sustainability Center provides the educational division of Green Valley," said professor Jon Johnson, the Walton College executive director. "Our data research cluster presents input to the network."
Four main divisions make up the network's business cluster - education, research, business assistance and the city's resources. These link with Web-based research centers at the university, as well as privately held Fayetteville firms.
Johnson explained how sustainable problems funnel to him from the network's business community as well as through other Green Valley partners. ASC instructors present these live problems to student teams as actual corporate sustainability issues. If the students or faculty discover possible solutions, they pass them back along the network to the business community.
"The Green Valley Network is a Web portal for interaction among businesses and the public at large," said Phil Stafford, president of UA's Technology Development Foundation. "It's a way for companies that are in need of technology to find an outlet for their products. We now have a mechanism for the exchange of ideas, a tool of communication, where anyone, regardless of where they are on the globe, can become a member of this network."
Stafford described the Park's technology exchange center as a place where entrepreneurs of clean technology can post their ideas online. He also talked about UA students who work for companies with offices and labs at ATCP who have obtained jobs post graduation with those companies.
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