As corporate leadership has moved beyond single-bottom line management — at least in its thinking — how has graduate business education evolved? Or put differently, how should we be training managers to help run for profit or non-profit purpose-driven firms?  In response to rising student demand and employer interest, many business schools have added a course or two in sustainability strategy or Corporate Social Responsibility. Some now offer three or four-course sustainability concentrations; others provide joint degree options with schools of the environment; still others have moved to include at least one social or environmental case in all courses across the curriculum. Finally, a small group of graduate business schools — including the MBA in Sustainability program at Bard College — have fully integrated sustainability into a core curriculum. Sustainability in Bard’s program is “baked in” rather than “bolted on.”

What skills and competencies are required to manage in this new environment, where the focus is on an integrated bottom line?  For the last five years, Bard MBA faculty have been working on this question. This webinar will discuss the construction of the Bard MBA in Sustainability’s curriculum and then present The Bard MBA Toolkit, a set of concepts that students are expected to master during their course of study. The Bard MBA curriculum is benchmarked against criteria suggested by the International Society for Sustainability Professionals, on the one hand, and the Harvard Business Publishing series of core business curricular topics, on the other. The Bard curriculum is a work in progress, and the intent is to promote discussion and debate about the direction of graduate business education when firms are managed for social and environmental mission.