Lessons From a Decade of Teaching Sustainability at B-School.
By Tensie Whelan
Ten years ago, I joined NYU Stern to set up the Center for Sustainable Business, which aims to help current and future business leaders embed sustainability into corporate strategy to drive better financial and societal performance. In that decade, over 300 students have graduated with our specialization in Sustainable Business and more than 1,500 students have taken our hallmark Sustainability for Competitive Advantage course. We’ve published more than 30 in-depth reports on the business case for sustainability and engaged with dozens of leading companies on monetizing their sustainability strategies.
And, like with many jobs, my teaching role has been a joy and a travail. The joy comes from helping students find a path to a business career tackling the environmental and social challenges that will plague their generation, as well as meeting alumni who have sustainability careers and come back to Stern to mentor and support students.
The travail? Stern students who don’t take sustainability courses (the majority) because of the persistent perception that it‘s “soft.” The misconception remains that it’s not core to business or to their careers. That mentality needs to change and it will require all of us — teachers, hiring managers and business leaders — to shift the narrative.
Read the full Trellis article.
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Tensie Whelan is a Clinical Professor of Business and Society and Director of the Center for Sustainable Business.