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 2023 semester. 

 

BSPA-GB.2305: Sustainability for Competitive Advantage
Professor Rifkin | R 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM | Online
Professor Taylor | TR 9:00 AM -10:20 AM | In-Person
This course is designed to assist students in developing the knowledge, skills, and perspective they need to understand and address environmental and social challenges in business, so that as leaders they reduce risk, create competitive advantage, and develop innovative services, products, and processes, all while building value for society and protecting the planet.

 

NEW! BSPA-GB.2309: Global Supply Chain Decarbonization
Professor Jacoby | M 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM | In-Person
After generations of global trade growth, an increasing awareness of climate change and other environmental externalities has triggered a global movement toward decarbonization, and in many cases, localization or re-shoring of supply chains. Operations and supply management professionals that continue to operate supply chains based on burning fossil fuels do so at the risk of sanctions from governments, investors and employees. However, lowering the carbon profile of global supply chains will be a massive undertaking. This class presents a sequence of two dozen techniques for decarbonizing supply chains, including management decision-making and optimization tools that reconcile carbon objectives with cost, service level, and other conventional supply chain management objectives. Real life case studies allow students to implement each of the techniques in the context of a real-life situation and study the opportunities and challenges of decarbonizing global supply chains

 

BSPA-GB.3110: Work, Wisdom, and Happiness
Professor Haidt | T 9:00 AM - 11:50 AM or 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM | In-PersonFor 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.

 

DBIN-GB.3110: Doing Business in Costa Rica: Sustainable Business in Latin America
Professor TBA | Travel January 7-12, 2024 | In-Person
This course aims to give students a focused experience on sustainable business in Latin America. Through a series of lectures with INCAE faculty and speakers, and visits to relevant destinations, students will become familiar with the role of socially, culturally, environmentally, and economically sustainable business practices within Latin American emerging markets.

 

DBIN-GB.3318: Doing Business in South Africa (Cape Town)
Professor TBA | Travel January 7-19, 2024 | In-Person 
This program, Doing business in South Africa, is shaped by the intersection of inequality and opportunity. Measured in terms of household income, South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world, resulting in high levels of unemployment and underemployment, lack of equitable access to health, housing, education and other core services and severely restricted markets for consumer products and services. But at the same time, South Africa provides significant opportunities; high levels of creativity and energy, a young population and access to the wider markets of sub-Saharan Africa. 

 

FINC-GB.2347: Climate Finance: An Economic and Financial Approach to Climate Change
Professor Stroebel | R 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.

 

FINC-GB.6075: Managing Climate, Cyber, Geopolitical, and Financial Risk
Professor Berner | MW 9:30 AM - 10:45 AM | In-Person
Businesses and governments now face a growing and immediate array of nonfinancial risks, including climate-related, cyber and operational, and geopolitical risks. Precisely because these critical risks are hard to measure and analyze, firms are putting new resources – people and money– to work to anticipate, manage and mitigate them. To address cybersecurity risks, for example, JP Morgan alone has 3000 employees and spends $600 million annually. Firms are only starting to grapple with existential climate-related risks. And startups are mushrooming to provide assessments to businesses.

 

MKTG-GB.2323: Marketing and Sustainability
Professor Serdari | MW 3:00 PM - 4:20 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. 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.

 

MGMT-GB.2100: Inclusive Leadership 
Professor TBA | M 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM | Online
Professor TBA | MW 1:30 PM - 2:50 PM | In-Person
This course will provide students with the skills and strategies to leverage their talents, including female talent, and in so doing to become more inclusive – and better - leaders. It will also identify new approaches that can bolster inclusive leadership. Women and men who take this course will be able to utilize the skills and knowledge taught when making their own career decisions, as well as when managing, being managed by, or collaborating with others of diverse backgrounds. The course will draw on the latest research on these issues relevant case studies and the personal experiences of men and women who have reached the top.

 

BSPA-GB.2306: Social Entrepreneurship in Sustainable Food Business
Professor Taparia | R 9:00 AM -10:40 AM | In-Person
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.

 

BSPA-GB.2308: Driving Market Solutions for Clean Energy
Professor Gowrishankar | W 6:00 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.3305: Global Markets, Human Rights, & the Press
Professor Posner | MW 9:00 AM - 10:20 AM or R 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM | In-Person
This course will explore some of the choices global businesses face in addressing human rights challenges in their core business operations. The course will include a series of case studies from different industries where accelerating globalization and advancing technology have made these challenges more acute in recent years. The course will focus on the evolving public face of these issues driven in part by rapid developments in the global media and advances in information technology.  .