{"id":46079,"date":"2016-10-30T07:39:16","date_gmt":"2016-10-30T11:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetsave.com\/?p=46079"},"modified":"2016-10-30T07:39:16","modified_gmt":"2016-10-30T11:39:16","slug":"thinking-green-mba-heres-need-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/articles\/thinking-green-mba-heres-need-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking About a Green MBA? Here’s What You Need to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree confers a high degree of intellectual capacity, specific knowledge, and practical skills to colleagues, employers, and financial institutions. How is a green MBA different than a traditional MBA?\u00a0<\/span>The sustainability-centric MBA, often called a “green MBA,” focuses heavily on teaching environmentally and socially responsible green business practices. Studies within a green MBA allow students to concentrate not only on traditional courses such as accounting and finance but also to learn how to use their business acumen to bring about meaningful environmental and social change.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"green<\/p>\n

Sustainability was once frequently\u00a0defined as processes that allow biological systems to endure and remain diverse and productive. Today\u2019s<\/span> 21st-century definition of sustainability<\/span><\/a><\/span> goes far beyond that original narrow explanation and now refers to the need to develop the models necessary for both the human race and planet Earth to survive.<\/span><\/p>\n

Economic growth and energy expansion have produced environmental degradation. This presents a challenge to today\u2019s students who want to examine ways in which we can slow or prevent pollution, conserve natural resources, and protect remaining environments, all within a thriving market-based economy.<\/span><\/p>\n

What Factors Make a Student Turn to a Green MBA?<\/span><\/h3>\n

The <\/span>surge in student interest in green MBAs<\/span><\/a><\/span> emerges from many, often\u00a0interrelated factors. Sometimes it\u2019s as simple as looking ahead to a position in management opportunities in the growing clean energy sector. Others see a reduction in the traditional world of banking. Some students have grown disillusioned with a conventional profit-first M.B.A. path. Primarily, however, the increasing popularity of a green MBA springs from an innate desire to contribute to a sustainable society founded on equal access to health care, nutrition, clean water, shelter, education, energy, economic opportunities, and employment. <\/span><\/p>\n

Granted, this is an ideal society in which humans live in harmony with their natural environment. They conserve resources for their own generation and for those who will come afterward. But for that ideal future to have any chance, it will take a generation of visionaries. Students who seek out green MBAs recognize that each citizen of the world should have the opportunity to enjoy a high quality of life in which social justice for all prevails and the environment is nurtured.<\/span><\/p>\n

And business education programs are listening. Companies are ready for comprehensive change.<\/p>\n

With this backdrop of a common shifting focus toward sustainability, businesses are facing many challenges. They must reroute what has been the norm of improving oneself toward entirely new long-term practices that respect the environment and assure the health and well-being of employees and the future generations. Meanwhile, these same businesses are also expected to improve profitability, fund innovation, and increase market share for current stakeholders.<\/span><\/p>\n

How a Green MBA Emphasizes the Triple Bottom Line<\/span><\/h3>\n

A green MBA is a specific, high level study of how <\/span>environmental and social sustainability can be achieved at a profit. Within this dilemma are three specific focus areas, often termed the \u201c<\/span>Triple Bottom Line<\/span><\/a><\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n