GREEN MBA
GIFFORD PINCHOT
ELIZABETH PINCHOT
Pictured: Graduation ceremony at Bainbridge Graduate Institute. |
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In the 20 years that Gifford and Elizabeth (Libba) Pinchot spent as consultants for Fortune 100 businesses, they found that many executives trained in business schools held beliefs counterproductive to a healthy environment and a just society. They realized that if business leaders were ignoring their broader responsibility to society and the environment, something about the business school system had to change.
"The only solution was to reinvent the MBA," Libba says. "First by doing it and then by helping other schools."
On 9/11/2001, Libba was in Ecuador when she heard the devastating reports of the terrorist attacks back home. Overcome by the news, she decided she should pursue her dream of a business school focused on sustainability. On that same day, Gifford was in Connecticut facilitating an investment discussion, along with many SVN members. After hearing news of the traumatic attacks, the group took the next four days to flesh out Gifford and Libba’s idea for a sustainable business school.
In 2002, Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI) opened, offering the first MBA program in the U.S. that focuses on leading socially and environmentally
"SVN inspired us to believe in the possibility of a socially responsible business school, and instilled the network model that makes BGI’s work high-impact."
ELIZABETH (LIBBA) PINCHOT |
responsible businesses. Unlike other schools that offer concentrations in sustainability, BGI incorporates social and environmental responsibility into every class, including finance, marketing and organizational systems.
As Libba explains, "BGI is an incubator for business education so other schools can teach these principles. Many faculty from other institutions immerse themselves in our monthly residential program and many schools are asking BGI for help in designing sustainable MBA programs."
BGI's network model for social responsibility and sustainability education is inspired by the practices of SVN. "Without SVN there would be no BGI," says Libba. "SVN inspired us to believe in the possibility of a socially responsible business school, and instilled the network model that makes BGI’s work high-impact."
In August 2003, the Presidio School of Management in San Francisco began offering an MBA in Sustainable Management. The Presidio MBA provides students the opportunity to work with a variety of companies and organizations solving real-time challenges while they're learning how to think like sustainable managers. Presidio Provost Ron Nahser says, "Through our project-oriented curriculum, the Presidio MBA program prepares professionals to lead organizations—private, public or nonprofit—in ways that are more socially and environmentally responsible as well as financially successful."
Idea 6: TREAD LIGHTLY →
