Metropolitan College professor Robert MacArthur teaches marketing, but sustainability remains his passion.
“We just simply can’t continue on our present path of increasing the carbon that’s being spewed into the atmosphere,” he said. “[At 87,] I’m old enough not to have to read an awful lot of literature about the impact of global warming. I’ve seen it, I’ve lived it.”
As a way to combat carbon emissions and encourage sustainable practices, MacArthur has created GreenCampusPoints, a consumer incentive program that removes carbon on the atmosphere.
“Frequent flyer miles is something most people know because it’s an extraordinarily successful consumer loyalty plan,” MacArthur said. “We operate on the same basis, but our difference is that instead of putting a pound of carbon into the atmosphere for every mile that you fly, we’re removing a pound of [carbon] for every dollar you spend.”
GreenCampusPoints is one of 125 finalists in the MassChallenge, a competition that awards grant funds to burgeoning start-up companies. MacArthur has been competing against 1,237 other companies since March, but has been working with the concept since 2006.
“It’s been something that’s been developing at BU for a while, but the concept of a need to engage consumers in the effort to reduce global warming was mine,” he said.
GreenCampusPoints was created by MacArthur and has been under development with the help of MET professors Vijay Kanabar, Barry Unger, Virginia Greiman and School of Management professor Peter Russo.
They have also collaborated with AdLab and the Boston University Energy Club.
The MassChallenge whittled down competitors in two rounds of judging where potential businesses gave short presentations to a panel of three to five judges. Then the top 125 start-ups enter the accelerator stage in which teams are given mentors with whom they work to define and achieve individual goals.
MacArthur said that while there are many technological movements toward environmental change, real environmental impact will not be achieved without a change in consumer culture.
“The best way to change culture is through some sort of consumer incentive,” he said. “[GreenCampusPoints has] an incentive to do good because you are actually earning by that, and you’re earning two ways — monetarily and through the psychic reward of doing something good for the environment.”
Last spring MacArthur and his team pilot-tested the point system at BU, partnering with local stores such as Starbucks, CVS, Radio Shack, Angora Café, Cornwall’s Pub and Scoozi.
“BU is ‘a home for me,’” MacArthur said. “I’ve been there for a number of years at MET, and so it’s natural for me to work in that environment to get this thing launched.”
GreenCampusPoints aims to expand through the college network of Boston. Affiliates are reaching out to vendors and networking with schools such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Tufts University, Northeastern University and Babson College.
MacArthur said GreenCampusPoints will have very little contact with the vendors they collaborate with, and they are not designing new marketing strategies for these companies.
“We’re just going to augment their sales by posting their offers on our website free of charge,” he said. “Our mission is going to be to drive traffic to that website by focusing on academia use and ecommerce initiatives. We’re not going to put feet on the street — we’re going to do this electronically through ecommerce.”
While the company is for profit, MacArthur said it is an effective way to incite change in carbon emissions.
“This is a common problem,” he said. “We all need to breath easier, and this is what we’re hoping to do with our mission.”
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