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Sustainable Business & Innovation

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The Sustainable Business and Innovation specialization aims to equip students with an understanding of key sustainability challenges and opportunities for business today as well as current and emerging business practice. Leading companies and NGOs are blending social, environmental and more traditional economic perspectives to create innovative conceptual frameworks and strategies. This specialization will provide students with the knowledge and skills to achieve help their organizations use sustainability to drive competitive advantage, innovation, and value for society.

Through enrollment in the Sustainable Business and Innovation Specialization, students will:

  • Experience a 360 degree education both inside and outside of the classroom through engaging teachings and mentorship from professors with highly developed thought leadership and practical experience; guest talks by experts from the field; meaningful discussions, debates, and collaborations with classmates; experiential learning opportunities in the form of hands-on projects, case studies, and consulting relationships with external organizations
  • Position themselves at the forefront of thought leadership on the future of business, developing fluency on current and future trends and concepts involving new economic models for capitalism, the effects of globalization on communities and markets, social entrepreneurship, aligning impact with financial performance, monetizing sustainability initiatives, corporate strategy and innovation, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing, cross-sector partnerships, and impact measurement
  • Develop a mindset for proactive citizenship and leadership through experiential learning with external organizations, collaborative learning through group work, and practicing changemaker skills such as systems thinking, stakeholder mapping and management, and inclusive decision making
  • Increase professional competitiveness and employability by understanding the challenges to society and business today paired with the corresponding opportunities for competitive advantage, and how to pursue those opportunities by effectively embedding sustainability throughout business models from supply chain management to brand marketing
  • Develop critical foundational expertise in today’s most pressing global environmental, social, and economic issues related to topics such as climate change, energy, food production and access, inequality, human rights, public health, education, and more.