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Following a couple of posts on sustainability, it’s interesting to find at least one dedicated MBA in the topic, at Presidio School of Management [who also offer shorter executive classes]. I don’t have any information on its quality, so would be interested to hear feedback on this or any other such program.
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I am a graduate of Presidio School of Management and am a TA for the Economics, Capital Markets and Law class. I would be happy to address any questions you have about the program.
thanks Steven – good to hear from you. Perhaps a short summary here of your experience would be helpful to others if you have a few minutes.
I recently completed the Executive Certificate Program at the Presidio School of Management on Sustainability Management. I did get to meet a few of the students from the MBA program and was pleased to hear that in some sustainable entrepreneur ‘student projects’ competitions, students from the MBA program were besting their peers from big institutions like Stanford as I recall. And many of the graduates appear to have found positions in major companies such as Wal-Mart Stores.
The program that I was in did cover a broad range of topics. It included lectures from well-know names in the sustainability field such as Hunter Lovins (Natural Capitalism Solutions), Bonnie Nixon (HP), Bob Willard author of “The Business Case for Sustainability”, Gil Friend (Natural Logic), Marsha Willard (CEO of AXIS Performance Advisors and Executive Director of the International Society of Sustainability Professionals). Diana Wright (Sustainability Institute and editor of “Thinking in Systems” by the late Donella H Meadows), and Jay Ogilvy (one of the founders of Global Business Network and now Dean of the Presidio School of Management).
The program focuses on how sustainability can be achieved at a profit rather than just an expense to be able to point to soft metrics often found when adopting social responsibility initiatives to improve a company’s social image. In the process the Executive Program covers all of the hard challenges of clean energy, clean water, climate policy initiatives, sustainable agriculture, sustainable cities, and the economic analysis tools used by experienced sustainability professionals to prove your ‘sustainable’ business case to often skeptical executives.
Like many educational and practical application programs, inspirational instructors help but the reality is that you also get out of these programs what you put into them. As they say you (the instructors / lecturers) can lead a horse (hopeful and skeptical students) to water (the current best practices and understandings) but the horse has to decide when and what to drink.
I would say that the Presidio MBA Program as informed by my experience in the Executive Program will expose the students to what they need to know to become a credible voice and leader on sustainability best practices in any company. And they will become a part of a growing network of graduate leaders in the field that are helping companies adapt to the sustainability challenges of the 21st Century.
See http://www.presidiomba.org/mba_overview/ for more information.
