Lessons In Sustainable Business

As public awareness increases about global climate change and the importance of energy conservation, large corporations, as well as local mom and pop enterprises, are striving to conduct business in a way that is planet friendly and wins over consumers.

An MBA program to do just that was launched at New College of California in Santa Rosa in 2000 and then earlier this year shifted its entire program to Dominican University in San Rafael.

Graduates of the Green MBA have started a Web site development company for green businesses, oversee production of olive oil soap and manage a firm selling green office supplies.

One grad, a former Agilent engineer, is consulting with local agricultural firms such as Clover Stornetta dairy and Petaluma Poultry Processors about how to reduce water consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and energy usage.

Program Director John Stayton said the two-year Green MBA program, with its degree in sustainable enterprise, is attempting to keep pace with demand by increasing the number of student slots, even as competition for admissions is getting tougher.

There are currently 80 students in the program, which started at New College as a master's degree in environmental entrepreneurship.

"We're at the leading edge and want to stay that way," said Stayton, who owns a large fruit orchard near Windsor.

Stayton, 48, who moved to Sonoma County in 1991, has done high-tech industrial marketing in Silicon Valley and from his home in Sebastopol.

He had a personal interest in how to live more sustainably and was learning about alternative fuel vehicles, alternative building and solar energy.

"I reached a personal crisis and had to align my work with my values," Stayton said.

Some Dominican classes resemble traditional graduate business schools with topics such as finance, marketing and economics, while many emphasize sustainability principles as well as hands-on, experiential learning.

Among the classes are Critical Thinking for Leadership in Business Redesign, Social Impacts of Enterprises, Ecological Economics and EcoCommerce Models. Each class is limited to 20 students.

The Presidio School of Management in San Francisco and the Bainbridge Graduate Institute in Washington offer similar MBA programs, and traditional business schools are beginning to incorporate classes that teach business, sustainability and environmental concepts. Stanford University offers an interdisciplinary master's degree in resources and environment for those enrolled in its business, medical or law schools.

Stayton said New College was an ideal place to incubate the program, but the staff believed Dominican would be "the best fit for the long-term future to give a platform for reaching out to businesses."

According to Stayton, grads typically aim to become an entrepreneur or find work as an "intrapreneur," which he described as working inside an existing company to introduce sustainability initiatives or start independent consulting.

The Green MBA student body is diverse with pupils ranging in age from 22 to 65 years old. Some are starting careers and others are making radical shifts in what they do. Dominican allows students to take classes on a part-time or full-time basis.

"We attract people who understand unless humanity changes the course we're headed toward, there will be social and environmental crisis," he said. "We get people who want their careers to be part of the solution."