As sustainability continues to be a buzzword in the business community, the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration is taking notice.
Though sustainable business practices have been prevalent for as long as business has, the public’s recent interest in the environment has given the sustainability movement steam to move forward. Several professors in the business school are incorporating this interest into their curriculum.
Matt Holt, C&BA economics professor, teaches a course titled the Economics of the Environment and Natural Resources and discusses with his students what sustainability means from an economic standpoint.
“As long as we are confined to planet Earth and we have a finite amount of raw material, the question is then what do we do as resources get more difficult to access,” Holt said. “We have to look at what alternatives are available and what we might be able to use and reuse.”
Helenka Nolan, C&BA lecturer and director of a new study abroad program in Costa Rica focused on sustainability through clean energy, said that when large corporations start putting a focus on sustainability, other companies have no choice but to follow suit.
“When Wal-Mart started putting sustainability as a major issue, a lot of people started taking notice because they had to,” Nolan said. “If you want to supply to Wal-Mart, and they want you to do X, Y and Z, you do it.”
Jim Cashman, C&BA professor, agreed that sustainability becoming more mainstream helped the movement develop.
“We moved from a notion of thinking as sustainability as something for radical tree huggers to thinking of it as a business case,” Cashman said. “It took that change of names. The ‘green movement’ made business guys reluctant.”
Cashman also said emphasis on sustainability is likely to stick around in the business world.
“It is going to be a business issue,” Cashman said. “By that I mean it is going to be a part of day-to-day functioning, not a tacked on social responsibility thing.”
Holt said the business school understands the importance of the movement toward sustainability.
“We are seeing the business school itself saying, ‘We think this is going to continue to be an important part of our course curriculum,’” Holt said. “It is something students should learn and we should put resources in.”
Cashman agreed that students should learn about sustainability because it differentiates them from other job applicants.
“A few years ago, I had a student offered a job on the spot because the recruiter was interested in the sustainability project she had been involved in,” Cashman said.
Cashman, Holt and Nolan agreed that the University is paying attention to the issue of sustainability. The University, which received a D on its college sustainability report card in 2007, is now ranked with a B+.
“We’re on it,” Nolan said. “The campus as a whole is more aware of the issue, and actions have been taken to improve campus.”
Cashman urges students to question the sustainability practices around them.
“Just because the University is doing it one way doesn’t mean it is the best way,” Cashman said. “The best way to learn is to get involved.”
