Michigan Business School Recognized As Global Leader for Environmental and Social Impact Management

The Business School is one of the top six international business schools for excellence in preparing MBAs to manage the complex social and environmental challenges of the global marketplace, according to the report Beyond Grey Pinstripes 2003: Preparing MBAs for Social and Environmental Stewardship.

"Cutting-edge programs like these are producing leaders who can change tomorrow's business landscape," said Jonathan Lash, president of World Resources Institute (WRI), an environmental think tank. WRI and Aspen Institute's Business and Society Program, which helps business executives integrate financial success and social and environmental progress, released the report in October. Michigan, with its emphasis on preparing business leaders to manage in the global marketplace by focusing on the relationship of financial, social and environmental factors, has consistently earned high marks in Beyond Grey Pinstripes' prestigious rankings.

The Business School was cited for:

• Internships in large corporations, government agencies and nonprofit organizations that focus on environmental and social responsibility
• Events such as conferences addressing Corporate Governance and Sustainable Peace and Mobility in a Sustainable World: A Complex Systems Approach
• Elective courses such as Strategies for Environmental Management, Systems Thinking for Sustainable Development and Enterprise, and Human Rights and Business

In all, the Michigan Business School offers more than a dozen electives that address environmental/sustainable business topics, as well as the Corporate and Environmental Management Program, a joint degree program with the School of Natural Resources and Environment. Beyond Grey Pinstripes Faculty Pioneer Awards were presented to Business School faculty members Thomas N. Gladwin and Timothy L. Fort. Gladwin, the Max McGraw Professor of Sustainable Enterprise and professor of corporate strategy and international business, received the Lifetime Achievement Award for challenging convention and showing "how patterns of human behavior, including globalization, can degrade the integrity and resilience of natural systems."

Fort, associate professor of business ethics and William Davidson Institute co-director for the Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility area, received the Academic Leadership Award in recognition of his "significant impact on the field of business ethics through his award-winning research, teaching and commitment to curriculum development," including his popular elective course Business Ethics, Science and Technology. For more about the awards program, see www.beyondgreypinstripes.org.

For more information, contact: Bernie DeGroat
Phone: (734) 936-1015 or 647-1847
Email: bernied@umich.edu

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