By Cathy Carlyle

It was fitting that Earth Day fell at about the same in April as the second annual Nestlé Canada awards banquet held to honour two York University students. Cynthia Page and Michael Emsley captured the $1,500 first prize in a national case study competition that challenged students to find a balance between profitability and environmental sensitivity.

Second place went to another York team, shining the spotlight again on the Schulich School of Business. The contest was hosted by the Erivan K. Haub Program in Business and Environment, under the aegis of the Schulich school.

Page and Emsley, like the other 22 groups competing, were given a scant 36 hours to examine Mountain Equipment Co-op, a leading Canadian retail co-operative, concentrating on the company's environmental practices and attitudes. They were asked to come up with submissions on how the company should proceed.

"The relationship between business and the environment can no longer be ignored," said Page. "Companies which are environmentally pro-active tend to be more creative, and will be more successful in the future."

Competition was fierce, and an initial screening panel was formed to select the top 10 responses. "The selection process was difficult due to the high number of submissions," said Nancy Sutherland, Associate Director of the Schulich School of Business. "Every team, whether they made it to the top or not, should be congratulated for their efforts...and commended for taking on this challenge."

Nestlé Canada also sponsors two awards specifically for York University, one for an individual and the other for a group project. Winner of this year's $750 award for the top student in the introductory Business and Environment course was Cynthia Page.

The group award was divided between two teams this year, who had to share the $1,500 prize. The first team comprised of Zivah Stocker (MES student), and Eric Dargent and Cynthia Page (MBA students) chose to study the Delta-Chelsea Hotel as their project. The other team of Amy Harvey, Yoji Nishizutsumi and Kali Ziba-Tanguay (all MES students) examined Foodpath, a non-profit organization.

On behalf of the Schulich School of Business, Dean Horváth accepted an award matching the one given to winners of the York group project. "This competition demonstrates the growing importance of promoting environmentally sustainable business practices across Canada. The Erivan K. Haub Program...in partnership with Nestlé Canada is at the forefront of this effort," he said.

Deputy Minister of Environment Canada Leonard Good, who delivered the keynote address at the banquet, urged Canadians to bridge the gap between community environmental needs, such as adequate green space and clean air; and globalization issues, including ozone layer depletion and climate change.