Will Green MBAs save the planet?

By CSRwire Contributing Writer Elaine Cohen

As more and more business schools offer Green MBAs and more and more students sign up, the real question is whether this is enough to make business sustainable?

We've all been there. Fresh out of university, starry-eyed, idealistic and eager to make our unique impact in our chosen company, only to realize, after a few short years, that, by and large, the system changes us rather than empowering us to change it. No matter how strong our resolve, no matter how compelling our passion for change, once we have learned the ropes, the ropes eventually serve only to constrain us. So why should we believe that Green MBAs will make a difference? The very nomenclature "Green MBA" smacks of public relations and MBA-wash, as though it is the color, not the quality, of the MBA program that confers preferential status aligned with the popular buzz of the times. The chances that Green MBAs will save the planet may be as likely as an automatic reversal of global warming in time for Christmas. Instead of Green MBA grads becoming our saviors, perhaps they will be just another group of victims of a subtly Friedmanite culture.

The number of business schools offering Green MBAs today is on the rise, and rapidly. Beyond Grey Pinstripes, managed by Aspen Institute's Business and Society Program, probably the most authoritative of assessments of Green (and Sustainable) MBA options around today, screens all business schools offering greenish content in their MBA programs. In 2009, 149 business schools or universities from 24 countries participated in the Beyond Grey Pinstripes research and results show that the percentage of schools requiring students to take a course dedicated to business and society issues has doubled in the past 10 years. Business schools are growing a body of green-minded leaders who have the knowledge to make our world a better place through the way they act in organizations.

See more at: http://www.csrwire.com/csrlive/commentary_detail/2647-Will-Green-MBAs-save-the-planet