Green MBAs Hope to Improve the Triple Bottom Line
One of the hottest trends in higher education is getting a green MBA -- a graduate business degree focused on the triple bottom line of saving the planet, making money, and helping people.
The latest to join that trend is Marshall Goldsmith School of Management in San Diego.
The school, housed at Alliant International University, is launching a green MBA program and has begun recruiting students for its first cohort. This is the second green MBA program affiliated with Alliant, which has campuses throughout California and Mexico City.
Alliant’s subsidiary, the Presidio School of Management in San Francisco, has offered a MBA program in sustainable management since 2003. That program now serves about 200 students.
The Marshall Goldsmith School is aiming to start with a cohort of 15 to 30 students in San Diego and build up from there. The program will begin whenever enough students have enrolled.
Alliant’s timing appears to be impeccable for a couple reasons. First, when the economy is down, business school enrollment tends to swing up. Second, President Barack Obama has promised huge investments in renewable technologies as part of his economic stimulus package. Third, his message to build a green economy and change the world has resonated broadly, particularly with young people.
“The green clean tech industry is going to be the biggest industry potentially in the history of business,” said Paul Hannam, who helped establish Alliant’s program and is leading a marketing campaign for it.
“Green jobs are going to be one of the few bright lights in the next year or two,” he added.
Alliant expects to draw students from not just the San Diego area, but from nearby states to attend the program.
“From our experience, we will be able to recruit from quite a distance. We’ve had interest from as far away as Phoenix and Las Vegas,” Jim Goodrich, founding dean of the Marshall Goldsmith School, said.
If the San Diego program goes well, “we might offer it in Mexico City,” he added.
Several universities in the region -- UC San Diego, San Diego State, and University of San Diego -- offer well-established graduate business programs, but none markets theirs as a green MBA. They all address environmental sustainability and social responsibility in their curricula, some more than others.
The University of San Diego has arguably garnered the most attention for its focus on the triple bottom line.
USD’s MBA program ranked 36th among the top 100 programs worldwide for integrating social responsibility and environmental stewardship into coursework and research, according to the 2007-2008 Beyond Grey Pinstripes survey. Stanford University ranked No. 1.
Students who sign up for Alliant’s program will attend classes at its Scripps Ranch campus off Pomerado Road. They will also take courses online.
The program, designed with working professionals in mind, will be heavy on practice and hands-on learning and light on theory and research. Students will receive career coaching and will get an opportunity to interview with Bright Green Talent, a recruitment firm founded by Hannam.
Industry professionals will be brought in to provide lectures and give talks. Among the lecturers will be Hannam, who is also chairman and co-owner of Greenest Host, a company that offers solar-powered web hosting services.
Before moving from England to the United States a few years ago, he was an associate fellow at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute.