Redefining Sustainable Business in 2025

IN THE EPISODE

In this special live episode recorded at Bard College's Brooklyn campus, host Renay Loper sits down with Reagan Richmond, a 2017 Bard MBA graduate who consults Fortune 500 companies on climate strategy, and Eban Goodstein, who leads Bard's Graduate Programs in Sustainability. They explore how to navigate sustainable business in an increasingly polarized political landscape, discussing Reagan's diagnostic framework for companies facing pushback and the evolution of sustainability leadership from pioneering figureheads to thousands of practitioners worldwide. Key insights include using resilience as a unifying narrative, integrating climate and nature risk assessment, and the growing influence of the Global South in driving environmental progress.

This episode captures the energy of Bard's new 'Inside Sustainability Live' series, where real-world practitioners and academics come together to build community and share strategies for advancing sustainability work in challenging times.

Bard’s Graduate Programs in Sustainability cultivate leaders who break through existing systems, innovating solutions to critical social, environmental and economic challenges. 2023 marked the 20th anniversary of the first graduating class from M.S. in Environmental Policy degree at Bard CEP and the 10th graduating class from the Bard MBA in Sustainability program. The 2024 graduating MS EP, MS CSP, MEd and MBA classes brought the Bard GPS alumni community to over 500!

MEET THE SPEAKERS

Reagan Richmond: 
Reagan is a seasoned social impact and sustainability practitioner with more than 15 years of diverse sustainability experience, including working in climate policy, clean energy, electric utilities, state and local government. As a Senior Manager at EY, her areas of focus include sustainable innovation, ESG regulated reporting, nature strategy, materiality, program implementation and change management. Reagan also served as an Adjunct Instructor of Management and Entrepreneurship at Hofstra University’s Zarb School of Business. 

Reagan’s experience spans many sectors and topics including; natural capital valuation for JetBlue, sustainable supply chain strategy for fashion leaders, strategic partnership development at the Connecticut Green Bank, and community solar deployment for affordable housing. Her commitment to innovation for sustainability has been recognized by the Environmental Defense Fund, EPA Green Power Partnership, and Center for Resource Solutions.
She holds an M.B.A. in Sustainability from Bard College and a B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of Tennessee.

Eban Goodstein:
Goodstein is Director of the Graduate Programs in Sustainability at Bard. In recent years, Goodstein has coordinated a series of worldwide educational initiatives on climate change involving over 2500 colleges, universities, high schools and community organizations. He is the author of a college textbook, Economics and the Environment, (John Wiley and Sons) now in its ninth edition; Fighting for Love in the Century of Extinction: How Passion and Politics Can Stop Global Warming (University Press of New England); and The Trade-off Myth: Fact and Fiction about Jobs and the Environment. (Island Press). Articles by Goodstein have appeared in The Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Land Economics, Ecological Economics, and Environmental Management, among other outlets. His research has been featured in The New York Times, Scientific American, Time, Chemical and Engineering News, The Economist, USA Today, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. He serves on the editorial board of Sustainability: The Journal of Record, and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Follett Corporation.

Renay Loper:
Renay is a Clinical Faculty in Organizational Leadership for the Bard MBA in Sustainability, where she focuses on justice-centered transformation in the workplace. Previously, she was the Vice President of Program Innovation at PYXERA Global where she served on the Executive Leadership Team, led five country offices, drove the development of new business and programs, co-led the organization's work on inclusive circular cities, and advised corporate clients on their social impact strategies. Renay also led the organization’s ARC (Antiracist Collective) initiatives, which included internal and external efforts toward dismantling unjust systems. To this end, Renay created Rhetoric to Action, a series of conversations to bridge sectors toward collective action around social and racial justice.

Prior to PYXERA Global, Renay led the grassroots exchange and education grant portfolio at the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership, and has served in a variety of leadership roles in higher education, nonprofit, and business prior to that. Renay is an avid speaker and facilitator, has authored and edited numerous publications, including a resource journal, Student Affairs Professionals Cultivating Campus Climates Inclusive of International Students (Jossey Bass). Renay serves on the board of directors of nonprofits including Community Change, Harpswell Foundation, and Girl Rising.