CSB Blog
Fall 2026 MBA Courses in Sustainable Business
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At a time of indisputable societal and environmental change, Stern MBA students specializing in Sustainable Business and Innovation will examine the unique role of the private sector and gain a broad understanding of how embedding sustainability into core business strategy benefits financial performance and management practices. To learn more about the Specialization and its course requirements, click here.
To assist MBA students as they design their schedules, CSB has assembled the following list of Sustainable Business and Innovation courses offered in the upcoming Fall 2026 semester.
BSPA-GB.2305: Sustainability for Competitive Advantage
Professor Taylor | TR 3:00 PM - 4:20 PM | In-Person
Professor Taylor | W 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM | In-Person
In this course, students will develop an effective leadership perspective through pursuit of the following learning objectives: 1) to become familiar with the key environmental and social issues affecting business today, 2) to understand the evolution of corporate response - from compliance to engagement to innovation, 3) to begin to develop some of the skills required for leading in this new social and political environment (e.g. multi-stakeholder management), 4) to explore the efficiencies and innovations being developed by corporate leaders in pursuit of sustainability, 5) to explore innovations in finance (true cost accounting, net positive value, social impact bonds), and 6) to become familiar with the latest consumer insight research on sustainability. In short, this course is multi-disciplinary, and seeks to integrate across the functions of the firm to arrive at an effective firm-wide leadership sensibility.
BSPA-GB.2306: Social Entrepreneurship in Sustainable Food Business
Professor Taparia | R 9:00 AM - 11:50 AM | In-Person
Today, a poor diet is the leading cause of mortality in the U.S. The food industry is now the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. The food and agricultural sector is the largest employer on the planet. The food system is broken, and its cracks became more visible than ever during the pandemic of 2020, with produce rotting on farms and livestock being put to death prematurely, while millions go hungry. Food is vital to our survival and happiness, but has also become the cause of vast negative externalities with disastrous outcomes. This course is designed to put the idea of teaching social entrepreneurship to its ultimate test, with a focus on identifying and solving problems in the food industry through the vehicle of entrepreneurship. The objective of this course is to incubate a food venture that has the potential to be a viable business and positively impact public health and/or environmental outcomes. Once the semester begins, "start-up" teams of four to five students each will be formed. Teams will be tasked with identifying problems in the food sector they wish to solve, generating ideas and prototypes, and building business models using a variety of frameworks and tools including Human Centered Design and the Business Model Canvas. Teams will have the liberty to study the food industry in very broad terms, and may have solutions across a variety of verticals such as technology, farming, manufacturing, distribution, and more. Teams will also be encouraged to evaluate problems from multiple lenses, including nutrition, climate change, animal welfare, and inequality.
BSPA-GB 2308 Driving Market Solutions for Clean Energy
Professors Gowrishankar & Berlin | M 7.00 PM - 9.00 PM | Online
This course is designed to provide students with a rich understanding of the economy-wide energy transitions that are needed in the United States to help curb climate change, with an emphasis on how the private sector can drive such changes. As relevant background, the course will cover energy-related macroeconomic concepts and trends, and provide environmental and international context. It will draw on the instructor’s diverse experiences, readings and other media, classroom discussions, case studies, visiting speakers, and group projects, to explore and debate how such ambitious but necessary transformations may be brought about.
BSPA-GB.3110 Work, Wisdom, and Happiness
Professor Haidt | T 9.00 AM - 11.50 PM | In-Person (1st Fall Session)
Professor Haidt | 6.00 PM - 9.00 PM | In-Person (2nd Fall Session)
For centuries, work was regarded as nothing but toil, a requirement for earning one's daily bread. But in recent decades, expectations about work have been transformed as has its very nature. While it still provides one's daily bread, it is also regarded as a major opportunity for people to find purpose, meaning, and happiness in their lives. In this course, students study the latest research on what makes people happy at work, on how happiness at work improves the quality of work, on how people and organizations develop wisdom, and on what makes a career not just successful but meaningful. We will also discuss some of the impediments both individual and organizational to doing meaningful and satisfying work. Students will develop their own visions of their ideal career, and of the ideal company they'd like to lead or work for.
BSPA-GB 3305 Global Markets, Human Rights, and the Press
Professor Posner | MW 9.00 AM - 10.20 PM | In-Person
This course will explore some of the choices global businesses face when trying to incorporate human rights values into their core business decisions and operations and the risks they take when they fail to take these issues into account. We will be especially focused on the challenges raised by accelerating globalization and advances in information technology in recent years, and will rely on a series of case studies to illustrate and analyze business decisions made in this context. Many of the issues we will examine have become more prominent in public discourse since the coronavirus.
FINC-GB.2347 Climate Finance: Climate Risks and Opportunities for Leaders in Business and Society
Professor Stroebel | T 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM | In-Person
Climate change presents one of the central challenges of our generation, with a wide range of possible effects on financial markets and the broader economy. This class: (i) Thinks about the effect of climate change on the overall economy; (ii) Studies the risks and opportunities that climate change holds for firms and financial institutions (distinguishing between a variety of types of risk, including transition risk and regulatory risk); (iii) Discusses how financial markets can help transfer and hedge climate risk; (iv) Explores the economic and financial foundations of potential climate regulation; (v) Analyzes how climate risk interacts with other risks, such as the risk of future pandemics.
MKTG-GB.2323 Marketing and Sustainability
Professor Kronthal-Sacco | M 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM | In-Person
This course aims to provide a broad range of tools and frameworks for understanding how businesses can interact with issues related to sustainability, taking a marketing perspective. In particular, we examine how traditional marketing strategies can be incorporated into and/or modified in domains in which sustainability is critical. By necessity, it is essential to not only account for the role of firms and customers, but of government, non-profit organizations, employees, and other stakeholders. This course will draw upon cases, guest speakers, academic and industry research, and recent articles and events. In addition, we will have two "live cases" presented by industry representatives. The final course deliverable will be a marketing plan focused on a firm strategy that can increase the sustainability of the firm's actions while also creating stakeholder value.