Save our Planet: the Rise of Environmental Sustainability and the Impact on Business School Courses

Over the last few years many business schools around the world have responded to the increasing interest in climate change and the expressed need to conserve the resources of the planet. These institutions are offering short certificate courses for executives, electives on Master’s courses, and entire focused MBAs, MAs and MSc programmes – all with the theme of sustainability. A brief study based on internet research on business schools with courses on sustainability produced a huge body of material – and this was only looking at sources in English. Each program considers the subject in a quite different way, suggesting the continuing controversy over the subject and the conflicting areas of priority within the field – for senior leaders and/or for middle managers; for public and/or private sector businesses; as part of strategy and/or operations; as an element or subset of CSR, or as a standalone area of study; as a fundamental way of working or a nice-to-have. Some academic institutions have gone much further than just offering sustainability as an academic discipline to students – they walk the talk and roll out initiatives created by their own staff members for the benefit of their own institutions.