Q Collection Junior - The Business of Green

The Business of Green

Jesse Johnson, 36, graduated from Princeton in 1993 and worked in finance in Hong Kong. He said that he loved the intensity of finance and the intellectual caliber of his co-workers, but missed "the things that motivated me in college - the environment, the outdoors." He returned to Yale and graduated in 2002 with joint master's degrees in environmental management and business. When he finished, he and a friend started a furniture business, Q Collection, in Manhattan. "It took a while to get it up and running," Mr. Johnson said of the company, which is not yet profitable. "It's home furnishings, furniture, textiles, baby furniture. But we add a whole new layer. We are thinking about sustainability."