Ideal Bite

East Coast has Green MBA programs, too! Green Mountain College in Vermont (www.greenmtn.edu) instituted an MBA in Sustainable Management in 2006, and the inaugural cohort is flying along. We have classmates and professors from all over the country and from professions as various as banking, law, environmental science, IT, and marketing. It is an exciting time to be a green business major, and I think soon all MBA will require sustainability. I have worked in environmental remediation for almost 15 years, and I look forward to using my skills to help prevent the messes I have been cleaning up all this time!

Antioch University New England also recently started a green MBA program - drawing on its existing grad programs in environmental science & organizational management. The first cohort kicks off this summer! http://www.antiochne.edu/

I got my MBA from George Washington University too and it was an awesome experience! I highly recommend the program!

Green MBAs also are in the Midwest - when you take the distance learning route. I am a member of the Green Mountain College MBA cohort. The college is in Vermont, I am in Wisconsin. www.greenmountaincollege.edu You truly can live anywhere and be a part of the sustainable business movement!

There are also a group of amazing programs that offer a joint MS in environmental science and MBA in 3 years. The best is through the University of Michigan, it's called the Erb Institute. http://www.erb.umich.edu/ Michigan's business school was ranked #1 last year and it's environmental school is one of the best. Also Yale and Duke have great joint MBA/MS programs.

It's great to know that there are so many budding and established programs with this emphasis! Also, check out Pratt Institute's Design Management Masters Program. There is a pretty big emphasis on the triple bottom line in this MBA-style degree for designers. If you look around you, you realize everything has been "designed"... your desk, your clothing, this website, your office building, your business card... The DM program helps the designer realize his or her important role in creating sustainable products, communication materials, and architecture, as decision-makers of which processes to use, which people to involve, what materials to use, etc. These strategic decisions can have very positive or very negative affects on our earth and the people living in it. It's a great program that has relevance in any type of business or organization, as every business creates something, whether it’s a service or a product. Some interesting research is coming from the capstone projects as well... many have presented at key international conferences on topics of sustainability in business. http://www.pratt.edu/design_management

I'm working on starting a "green building" dept within my company (currently we do NYC building code consulting) which I'm totally psyched about. I have a decent amount of information in my head already but don't really know much about starting a business within a business. I do have good work experience too, but not in this field and alternating with my 'I can do absolutely anything' attitude there's my 'um, how exactly do I make this actually happen?' fear. I don't think I need the green MBA, or really any MBA but maybe I do after all. Any thoughts or suggestions??? I may decide to become a LEED accredited professional (LEED is the nat'l standard for green bldg) but that won't help me start/run my division. I never ever would have thought I'd so much as consider any kind of business major, so it would certainly be pretty funny telling people that's what I'm doing....

The New College MBA will be starting up San Francisco this fall, linking our business education for a just, sacred, and sustainable world. This will have a greater emphasis on cooperative business and social enterprise management, and international trade along with expanded partnerships with the civic leaders who are greening the Bay Area's regional economy. newcollege.edu.

Rebecca, Bainbridge Graduate Institue (www.bgiedu.org) has a certificate program in entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship (starting a business within a business). It's a one year program on Bainbridge Island in Washington State. The format is mainly distance learning with monthly onsite intensives. From what I understand, Green Mountain College worked with BGI to build their curriculum so they might offer something similar in VT which is closer commute from NYC. Search online for "intrapreneurship" - you might find the info you need without having to commit to a program.

Rebecca- I just finished my BS degrees in Parks and Recreation Management/Commercial Recreation/Land Use Planning at Northern Arizona University. I am aiming for the Presidio School of Management in GGNRA/SF CA. I want to connect with a strong business community. Presidio School is smack dab in the mix. I own a small real estate development firm in Flagstaff AZ, which I plan to grow into a larger company- www.densityinvestments.com One aspect of ‘green biz’ that I want to emphasize in my studies and my company, is aesthetic design. Well designed/beautiful products and services are just as important as being able to crunch the numbers. For people interested in both the FIN/BIZ and design aspect of emerging green business, the Harvard School of Design + Biz has some great choices as well. Check it out- http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/ Best of luck. I hope to meet some of you all out in the field! Wyatt