KINGSTON, R.I. – July 29, 2025 – The University of Rhode Island continues to leave an indelible mark on its students—an influence that extends well beyond the Kingston Campus to prominent businesses such as Providence Mutual Fire Insurance Company.

For Providence Mutual, that impact will be lasting, thanks to the work done by the URI Consulting Club, which brings together students with a career interest in consulting. The club was created to help students gain insight into what management consulting looks like as a career choice as well as some of the unique aspects of the consulting industry.

“The Consulting Club aims to give URI students the opportunity to engage in real-life projects, by incorporating the structured thinking that is the hallmark of management consulting,” said Dave Kale, assistant professor of accounting in URI’s College of Business, who also serves as the club’s mentor. 

Kale has prior experience working as a management consultant and hopes to share that learning with students through such projects.

The collaboration with Providence Mutual was a result of a connection made by Mary Parlange, wife of URI President Marc Parlange, through the Parlanges’ sustainability supper series. Providence Mutual’s chief executive officer, Michele Streton, was an attendee and mentioned the company was going in front of a rating agency and part of the review included sustainability. She reached out to Mary Parlange after the dinner and expressed her interest in engaging some students to help with the company’s sustainability goals.

“We are ever so grateful to have such amazing leaders who continuously strive for excellence and outreach at URI,” said Kale. 

The project with Providence Mutual, which was launched in fall 2024 and concluded in last March, was undertaken by graduate students Danielle Lyons, Daniel Nygren, and Seth Pilotte. The project had two deliverables: to estimate Providence Mutual’s carbon emissions for 2019 and 2023 and recommend strategic initiatives to help Providence Mutual mitigate its environmental impact.

“The work on the project started with the students trying to understand what the emissions scopes meant, and how they related to Providence Mutual’s operations,” said Kale. “Having understood the definition and the context, we started out by mapping the company and the potential areas to limit scope one and scope two emissions.”

The project team worked tirelessly over the course of the project and made their final presentation to the executive leadership at Providence Mutual –Streton and chief financial officer Ty Cottam – on March 14. The team presented how Providence Mutual’s emissions had changed between 2019 and 2023 and clearly laid out the key reasons for that change. 

“A lot of work went into that final presentation which included greenhouse gas research and economic analyses that could help guide business decisions,” said Pilotte. “With continued guidance from Professor Kale, our team was able to formulate all the data into a comprehensive guide of actionable solutions that PM could use to reduce their CO2 emissions.”

The team also presented several ways Providence Mutual could limit their carbon footprint, along with clear analyses why some common approaches to carbon reduction may not work for Providence Mutual. For instance, while the students recommended switching the company’s fleet of vehicles to electric ones, they also noted that installing solar panels may be impractical for Providence Mutual.

“That recommendation was a viable one from the emissions perspective. When it’s time to change their fleet of cars, maybe they can go electric,” said Kale.

Providence Mutual’s leadership was impressed with the depth and the quality of the work done by the project team and incorporated the project findings into a meeting with their ratings agency in New York. The project team was subsequently invited to deliver a concise presentation to Providence Mutual’s board of directors the following month, highlighting the club’s impact as well as leadership’s appreciation.

“This project gave us the opportunity to show one of Rhode Island’s major companies what we can do. Projects like these also provide those students who might be interested in choosing consulting as a career exposure to the industry,” said Kale.

“I’m employed at URI as a construction project manager, so this project dovetailed nicely with my facilities operation’s duties and the University’s ongoing decarbonization efforts,” said Pilotte.