Business Education Goes Green

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Managing the bottom line increasingly means meeting the demand for environmentally and socially beneficial business practices. Tomorrow’s leaders face the constant challenge of creating a balancing between business objectives with environmental and social goals. Save the world and make money while you’re at it.

Business schools are stepping up to the challenge with new curriculum on everything from self-regulation to sustainable distribution methods. While some companies must maneuver regulations to reduce environmental impact, others can use concern over the environment as an opportunity to increase revenues and/or cut costs.

It’s Not All Environmental
In the past, non-profit organizations and governments addressed unmet human needs. However, business is increasingly called upon to cooperate in finding more effective, efficient, and sustainable solutions. These changing roles are redefining business education.

Even financial markets are changing as interest in social investing grows. Concerns over globalization and climate change are challenging ideas that social and environmental concerns are always subordinate to financial goals.

Why Go Green?
New research indicates that a visible commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is rewarded in the marketplace. Embracing a CSR strategy means companies integrate positive social and environmental change into their core business objective and use corporate core competencies to create and add value.

Students and professionals require courses that approach environmental objectives effectively, but also in a practical way. Business education now teaches students to use progressive environmental policies for competitive advantage, innovate products and processes, maintain relationships with environmental advocacy groups, and choose the best way to manage the supply chain for sustainability.

Industries like wood products, electronics, garments, shoes, coffee, food, chemicals, and oil and undergoing massive change. Students must learn emerging issues management strategies like corporate voluntary self-regulation, self-imposed codes of conduct, participation in certification and labeling, fair trade programs, and transparent reporting.

Stanford Ranked #1
Stanford’s Graduate School of Business promotes green curriculum through its Center for Social Innovation (CSI). The CSI offers social innovation courses and experiential learning opportunities for Stanford MBA students and executive education to professionals in business, non-profit, and government.

They also produce a series of free podcasts, Social Innovation Conversations. The upcoming conference, Socially and Environmentally Responsible Supply Chains, explores how innovations in supply chain practices can improve business models and address social problems.

Stanford is ranked #1 on the Aspen Institute’s Beyond Grey Pinstripes Report on business schools that are incorporating the topics of social and environmental stewardship into the curriculum. Ross, Schulich, Hass, and Mendoza round out the top five. The Aspen Institute, which ranks schools based on survey information, also provides syllabi from all its participating schools to give educators everywhere a glimpse of what’s being taught at other schools.

Harvard: Good and Green
Harvard Business School tackles green issues through the Social Enterprise Initiative, which has led to the creation of more than 400 cases written by their faculty. One such case, Marketing the $100 PC, examines the business model of the One Laptop Per Child foundation.

When asked about the future of social entrepreneurship, Assistant Professor Jane Wei-Skillern stated,

“More and more students in the United States and other countries are seeking to earn their MBAs with an eye toward building careers in this field. Even students who plan to go into the business sector upon graduation are increasingly aware that they will be engaged as leaders in the social sector at some point in their lives, whether as executives, board members, or philanthropists.”

Green curriculum is here to stay. As their popularity and demand grows, they are trickling down to the undergraduate level. Many schools are now requiring some type of environmental or social responsibility survey class for bachelor’s degrees in business administration.