How B-Schools Are Meeting Tech Demand

How B-Schools Are Teaching Sustainability

A number of b-schools are starting to rethink their curricula to integrate education around sustainability.

Nick Leiber, an editor at Bloomberg Businessweek, recently examined how b-schools are teaching MBAs about sustainability.

A SHIFT IN TEACHING

Traditionally, MBAs are taught to maximize shareholder value above all else. In more recent times, we’ve seen that narrative shift.

More than 90% of CEOs today say that sustainability is fundamental for success. At b-schools, the narrative is similar. 88% of b-school students believe environmental and social issues are business priorities.

HOW B-SCHOOLS ARE CHANGING THE CONVERSATION

At Bard College, the MBA in Sustainability focuses on creating business leaders who are committed to social or environmental missions.

At MIT’s Sloan School of Management, students can complete a sustainability certificate.

At other schools, such as Duke Fuqua, Michigan Ross, and the Yale School of Management, students can complete a dual-degree program that teaches sustainability.

Yet, b-schools are slightly integrating sustainability into their curricula, experts say there’s still a long way to go.

Nancy Landrum, a business management professor at Loyola University Chicago’s Quinlan School of Business, tells Bloomberg Businessweek that the courses often taught in b-schools aren’t enough to prepare students for issues like the climate crisis.

“Academia is lagging behind in educating future business leaders,” she tells Bloomberg Businessweek.

Stu Hart, the co-founder of the Sustainable Innovation MBA at the University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business, says that there’s a difference between offering a few sustainability electives and actually integrating sustainability principles across the whole curriculum.

According to Hart, it seems b-schools still have a core ideology of profit maximization.

“The problem is, you can always take the saddle off the horse, and it’s the same old horse,” he tells Bloomberg Businessweek.

Sources: Bloomberg Businessweek, SSIR, SSIR