Green business impact

Updated on: Saturday, December 10, 2011

The worlds challenges are also business challenges.

Not only do environmental, economic and social issues impact the ability of a business to operate now and in the future, but they also impact their employees, the communities in which they operate, their customers, the sources of their materials.

For this reason, managers and employees at all levels and in all types of organisations are placing greater emphasis on sustainability. Although many start because of a desire to make a positive impact on the world, they are finding that the results can be significant in terms of real business benefits, such as reduced costs and liabilities, greater service quality, higher customer satisfaction and improved corporate image.

Not only are businesses becoming interested in these issues, the next generations of MBA applicants are increasingly looking for MBA programmes that provide teaching and exposure to sustainability issues. They are not just looking at how to use business to make a more sustainable world, but equally how sustainability can be used to make business strong.

Integrating Sustainability

MBA programmes internationally are responding to this demand from both the business sector and students, and are starting to take these issues seriously. To date, over 280 universities from around the world have joined the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (UNPRME), all committed to integrating sustainability in a systematic way within their academic institutions. The UNPRME is part of the UN Global Compact which has over 5,000 business members in 130 countries.

Business schools are integrating sustainability into the curriculum in a wide range of different ways. Business schools such as Queens Business School in Canada do this through a range of electives on different topics relating to sustainability as well as a certificate course on corporate social responsibility. Several universities are increasingly exploring how to integrate these lessons directly into the core curriculum.

In addition to integrating sustainability into the curriculum, the majority of MBA programmes now have some sort of student club which focuses on a sustainability topic, anything from social entrepreneurship, finance, community engagement or responsible business. Melbourne Business School in Australia and Harvard Business School in the US are just two examples of campuses with Net Impact clubs, an international network of students interested in business and sustainability issues which has over 240 graduate chapters in over 147 cities. Other student clubs that are active internationally in this area include AIESEC which has 1,700 universities across more than 107 countries, and Oikos which has chapters across Europe not to mention all the clubs on campus specialising on everything from social entrepreneurship to responsible investment and eco-technology.

Campus Greening

The involvement of business schools isnt just through course work and students clubs however. The entire university is getting on board, and practising what they teach. Universidad de Santiago de Chile and the University of Gothenburg in Sweden are two universities which have submitted sustainability reports to the Global Reporting Initiative, a widely accepted international standard in sustainability reporting for companies, showing the range of activities they are taking part on campus in this area.

Campus Greening initiatives have also become commonplace in many MBA programmes, as have career fairs and conferences focused on this topic.

Business schools are increasingly pairing with industry in innovative ways in this area as well. Patagonia, a leading sustainability clothing manufacture and Pepperdine University in the US have paired up to create the Global Business Intensive Course Environmental Entrepreneurship Development. This course, which is done in Patagonia, is a mixture of course-work and lectures on sustainable business practice and can lead directly to profitability and success while also giving students the opportunity to work on a project.

Whether students choose a programme specifically focused on sustainability or not, future MBA students and graduates will inevitably be exposed to these issues both in their MBA and postgraduation programmes.

(The writer is Author of The Sustainable MBA: The Managers Guide to Green Business and alumnus of London Business School)

Times of India

Green business impact

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