Giving Away the Green for Environmental MBAs

The Sustainable MBA Fund, a nonprofit organization, is offering financial assistance to students pursuing an MBA degree in the area of sustainable development. According to its website, the fund is "designed to benefit individual students who are positioned to have a considerable positive impact on the further integration of socially responsible business practices," particularly in dealing with people and the environment. Students can receive up to $100,000 in aid, depending on need and the actual availability of funding.

Demand is widely expected to skyrocket across many different fields for professionals who are trained in environmentally-friendly and sustainable subject areas. Earlier this month, the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and School of Arts and Sciences launched a new program to enable participants to earn a dual master of business administration/master of environmental studies degree in three years or less. This course of study will groom environmental-issues students for global leadership roles in environmental management, finance and other business specialties.

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education recently noted that there are now 13 MBA programs in the United States on sustainable enterprise, with another 16 universities in the U.S. and Canada with programs that feature environmentally and socially responsible business methods.

But, is everybody going green? Here's a video that shows just how important expressions of "green" are to the Average Joe. "Does Green?", developed from initial fieldwork done by Georgetown MBAs who are taking a consumer behavior class of Gary Bamossy, professor of marketing at the McDonough School of Business, reveals a bit of a gap between green attitudes and behaviors among consumers today.