Complementing sustainability programming within Chatham University’s School of Sustainability and the Environment, the business and entrepreneurship department now offers a new sustainable business track in the Master of Business Administration.

Specialized course work will include Business and Sustainability, Sustainability Assessment and Reporting, and Sustainable Supply Chain Management. Students also have the opportunity to gain international field experience and work directly with sustainable business consultants. The program is now accepting applications for the spring and fall 2013 semesters.

“Becoming sustainable is an increasingly important aspect of doing business in the United States and around the world,” says Bruce Rosenthal, director of Chatham’s business programs. “Clients, shareholders, suppliers, and governments are increasingly demanding that companies become accountable for theirimpacts on socio-ecological systems, such as air, water, waste, community health, and employee welfare. The Chatham MBA in Sustainable Business provides students with the skills and knowledge to become essential members of the corporate strategy teams which address these all important issues.”

Coinciding with the new MBA sustainability track is the arrival of Chatham’s first cohort to its new Master of Sustainability program within the School of Sustainability and the Environment. Applying a problem-based learning approach, students study in cohorts across a variety of disciplines and explore material through case studies, required internships and group projects, hands-on problem solving, and systems-thinking strategies.

Sustainability principles are growing in importance from local to global scale and across social, political and economic sectors. Individuals and organizations increasingly seek the knowledge and practical skills necessary to understand and manage complex sustainability challenges.

Through the Master of Sustainability program, Chatham educates leaders who can identify and solve these challenges. Through the program, students will develop an academically sound, yet professionally oriented understanding of how to simultaneously improve economic, social, and environmental well-being.

Members of the inaugural class have the unusual opportunity to help design Chatham’s Eden Hall Campus, which will eventually house the school. After taking courses in the foundations of sustainability, each student will then complete a summer internship and develop expertise in a focus area of interest.

With both on-campus and online programs, graduate and undergraduate students will be equipped to solve complex, real-world sustainability and environmental challenges through immersion in a range of topics, including food studies, agriculture and land use, energy and water management, green development, social and economic issues, and the business of sustainability.

“Chatham’s School of Sustainability and the Environment provides a teaching atmosphere of a liberal arts college, but approaches problem-solving and challenges in the same fashion as research universities,” says Michael Finewood, Ph.D., assistant professor of sustainability. “In this sense, it is the best of both worlds for professors and students.”

For more information about the Master of Sustainability or the Sustainable Business MBA track, contact Ashlee Bartko by sending email to: abartko@chatham.edu.

10/1/2012