Program
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Program Foundations
Do you feel lost in a sea of ordinary MBA options?
Are you looking for more than a simple career change or salary boost?
Our MBA Sustainability degree attracts hybrid talent—early and mid-career professionals who want to become agents of change.
A decade ago, corporations and sustainability advocates focused almost solely on a single dimension of the triple bottom line: the environment.
Today, those leading the sustainability charge have set aim on a new goal: integrated sustainable development.
Integrated sustainable development considers simultaneously business best-practices for managing financial, human and natural resources.
Integrated sustainable development challenges all parties to find better solutions and ways of measuring progress.
SOCIAL:
Reconciling community well-being and the bottom line
The "social dimension" of sustainability remains a subjective and hard to quantify concept. The MBA Sustainability program examines how corporations might apply tools and guidelines to comparably report on their social impact. We investigate key performance indicators such as:
- employee health and safety, labor policies and practices, worker safety/training
- diversity and corresponding employment/education/training opportunities
- knowledge management and innovation potential
- customer acceptance, societal product benefit and social dialogue.
ECONOMIC:
Planning and investment for more sustainable growth
Measuring the full economic dimension of sustainability poses many challenges. The MBA Sustainability program looks beyond merely adding or subtracting the cost/benefit of social and environmental activities to next step evolutions:
- financial and strategic implications of sustainable development
- tools for evaluating environmental, social, and economic aspects of performance
- comparisons of short vs. long-term growth.
ENVIRONMENTAL:
Applying design and technology to change paradigms
Early measures of sustainability centered on a company's ecological footprint (energy consumption, recycling, waste retrieval, etc.). The MBA Sustainability program raises the environmental stakes to include:
- information and control systems for environmental performance
- improved life cycle assessments
- cradle-to-cradle design paradigms.
ETHICAL:
Bedrock grounding for transformational leaders
Fall-out from Enron and other corporate scandals has been widespread and lasting. The MBA Sustainability program addresses ethical decision making from multiple angles, seeking not just greater theoretical or historical knowledge, but practical application in student coursework, presentation and live corporate projects. Topics include:
- business case for ethical corporate behavior
- financial, legal and business risks
- ethical dimensions of sustainable practices
- public affairs and corporate governance
- shareholder activism and socially responsible investing.
Global 100
The annual list of Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World, launched in 2005, is unveiled each year at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The Global 100 is a partnership project between Corporate Knights Inc. and Innovest Strategic Value Advisors Inc.
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Highlighted Faculty
Nagaraj "Naga" Sivasubramaniam, Ph.D.
Systems Thinking
Nagaraj "Naga" Sivasubramaniam teaches and conducts research on leadership and strategic management, and the organizational impacts of individual and team leadership, advanced information technologies and innovations.
PROGRAM NEWS
PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS
- Ready to Make a Difference?
- Join a select group of MBA graduates ready to lead a sustainable future.
Accepting applications for Fall 2012.
Learn more about applying
or contact us. - Global Study Trips
- Spring 2012 – Germany & Belgium
Summer 2012 – Brazil or Scandinavia & Iceland
Learn more about our international experiences »
Blog Updates
Updates from Zach in Brazil
May 16, 2012 - Greetings from the Amazon Jungle. We are currently staying in an eco-park outside Manaus, Brazil enjoying the sights and sounds of the jungle. Before discussing the Amazon, I’d like to catch you up on some of our educational experiences. On Wednesday, we had the opportunity to tour the factory and offices of Natura, one of [...]
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Sustainable Stockholm
May 16, 2012 - Yesterday our class spent another day with our Stockholm host, Shawn Westcott. Shawn took us to tour more of the city’s landscape and sustainable aspects. We began at Central Station which we had been using the past few days to get around the city. What our cohort didn’t know was that the energy of the [...]
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