Canadian business schools like York’s Schulich are teaching that there’s plenty of green in going green

Toronto Star: Lisa Wright

A group of MBA students sits in a cramped U of T classroom on a Tuesday night listening very closely to a lecture being given by a banker in a dark suit.

It’s not out of the ordinary for RBC Financial Group’s Sandra Odendahl to talk to business students. What seems odd, though, are the topics on tap: The carbon economy; environmental due diligence; energy efficiency; and greenhouse gas emissions.

“I know, you’re thinking: `Well what does a bank have to do with the environment’?” she tells them.

“I mean, I look out my window on King St. and I can’t see a tree, but we are mindful of biodiversity protection because we use stuff and produce stuff,” notes Odendahl, RBC’s director of corporate environmental affairs.

“I just see climate change everywhere, all the time.”

Whether it’s the Al Gore effect or just the new reality, the school of thought on Canadian business campuses these days is that there’s potentially a lot of green in being green. Call it economics meets the environment if you will, and with corporate Canada jumping on board, academia is along for the ride.

As a result, business schools across the country are falling all over themselves to appeal to prospective students by making their curriculum a shade greener. And they’re churning out graduates who are happily making businesses and their bottom lines that same hue.

“Being a greenie used to be a sub-culture, like the hippies in the ‘60s. Now it’s seen in business as part of the new economy,” explains Schulich School of Business MBA student Ian Howard.

To continue reading this article, click here.