Green Business Programs Gain Traction

A more idealistic new generation is intent on using business to build a sustainable future, and undergraduate business school programs are showing them the way

By Francesca Di Meglio

Sustainability and green initiatives are riding a wave of popularity in society, among businesses, in graduate business schools, and increasingly at undergraduate business programs, where bright-eyed future business leaders are being asked to save the world.

These initiatives to teach green issues at undergraduate business programs speak to a larger shift in philosophy at business schools, where a more idealistic new generation is transforming what, how, even where, professors teach. At many programs, the focus is not on assigning blame for the world's problems, but finding and exploiting the opportunities they create. Gone are the B-school silos; in their place are new pedagogical models from team-teaching courses to an interdisciplinary approach to curriculum. Classes these days may take place in buildings designed with the environment in mind—or on international waters. In short, undergraduate business programs have seen the future, and it's green.

At its core, the green revolution at undergraduate business programs is about finding solutions to overpopulation, natural resource depletion, climate change, pollution, and other problems that continue to plague the world. Experts say solving the world's problems is no longer the work of the government alone but also requires businesses—and individuals—to do their part. That means educators, especially those at business schools, will have to produce graduates who understand these problems and can do something about them.

Not a Gloom-and-Doom Gpproach

With the economy in free fall, and many traditional business employers such as financial services firms cutting back on job offers, many students are turning to sustainability as an alternative career path. It's one that aligns neatly with their desire to do good. Mark White, associate professor of commerce at the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce, believes today's undergraduates are cognizant of the benefits they've enjoyed and want to give back to society. "Undergrads today are more idealistic now than in recent decades," says White. "I'd like them to care about the future of human society on Earth."

The approach that's gaining favor in undergraduate business programs today involves focusing on the opportunities created by the world's problems—from alternative energies to lifting the world's poor out of poverty. "It's not a gloom-and-doom approach," says Marlene Barken, associate professor of legal studies at the Ithaca School of Business. "It's about where opportunities are."

But to teach sustainability to an eagerly optimistic generation without turning people into jaded skeptics requires a light touch, Instead of pointing fingers and singling out wrongdoers, professors at Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business often turn to case studies involving companies such as Stonybrook Farms, which has had success in addressing some sustainabililty issues, says Jessica McManus Warnell, who teaches courses in ethics and social responsibility at Mendoza. "Everything we're talking about is the next iteration of what it means to be an ethical and successful company," says Warnell.

At Ithaca, sustainability has become part of the school's fabric, incorporated into the very founding principles of the school, including its mission statement.Even the physical structure that houses the business school is green. The Dorothy D. and Roy H. Park Center for Business & Sustainable Enterprise—a new building with platinum LEED certification, the highest level granted by the U.S. Green Building Council—is part of a green building boom on college campuses.