Fertile Ground in Executive Education

That's why, he maintains, that if anyone in a company should be thinking about environmental issues, "it's the CFO." Adds Brownlee, "There are enormous financial implications," such as cost reduction and competition. And at a time when finance executives are breaking free of their bean-counter image, the professor believes that sustainable business is an area in which they "can use finance as a tool to add value."

Perhaps — but most finance executives seem to be using this tool elsewhere. "We haven't had any requests for programs on the environment specifically," says John Gallagher, the managing director of Duke Corporate Education, a provider of custom executive education and a wholly owned subsidiary of Duke University. "It's covered under leadership or general management capabilities." In fact, all the administrators we interviewed say that for their custom programs, environmental issues are subordinated within company requests for instruction on management and leadership, and that no one has requested a program on environmentally sustainable business.

Interestingly, many more schools are notable for their efforts at the MBA level to incorporate environmental issues into their programs, according to a report by the Aspen Institute and the World Resources Institute. "Beyond Grey Pinstripes 2003: Preparing MBAs for Social and Environmental Stewardship" lists all the schools cited in this article among the top 100 worldwide in their emphasis on the environment. Tuck (Dartmouth), Harvard, and Darden (Virginia) were noted as having "significant activity," according to the website; Stanford was one of six schools "on the cutting edge of incorporating social and environmental stewardship into their MBA programs."

Why is there so much attention given to the environment within MBA programs and so little within executive education? It's difficult to pin down a reason for the disparity. Clark Callahan at Tuck "would put the question back to [executives]. I'd ask our clients why green issues don't make the priority list." He adds that he'd be interested in "putting together an executive education program in sustainable business."

Cornell University may be going that one better. The school is developing a $5 million Center for Global Sustainable Enterprise, funded by the late Sam Johnson (as in S.C. Johnson & Co., and as in Cornell's Johnson School of Business). Tom Hambury, the associate dean of Johnson's executive-education division, is aiming for an executive MBA curriculum that will include "sustainable business in every course we teach."

Sounds like a growth opportunity.

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