Overview
Companies that see sustainability as a strategic imperative and opportunity will thrive in coming decades. To lead in your organization and make sustainability not a question of corporate responsibility but one of corporate success, you need to combine in-depth understanding of markets and organizations with a grasp of major trends and a facility with frameworks for driving transformative innovation.
Professor Bradford S. Gentry on Sustainability
Sustainability Courses
Non-Market Strategy • Introduction to Corporate Responsibility • Oil and Gas • Introduction to Corporate Responsibility • Wine and Agriculture • Metrics, Tools, and Indicators in Corporate Responsibility • Natural Capital: Managing Sustainable Operations • Sustainability Marketing • Financing Green Technology • Managing Social Enterprises • Global Social Entrepreneurship • Corporate Environmental Management • Energy Economics • Energy Systems Analysis • Green Markets
Joint Degree Program
MBA/MEM or MF
Yale University created the first joint management-environment degree in 1982, recognizing the importance of integrating the two disciplines. The joint-degree program is intended to prepare business leaders and environmental managers with the tools to address the complex relationship between markets and the environment. The joint-degree program offers an MBA in combination with either a master of environmental management (MEM) or a master of forestry (MF).
Yale MBA for Executives: Sustainability
The Yale EMBA program features the same powerful combination of integrated curriculum, leadership development, raw cases, team projects, and deep expertise in global business as the full-time MBA program. Additionally, it draws on expertise from across Yale and beyond to provide students with the opportunity to deepen their knowledge in one of three focus areas: asset management, healthcare, or sustainability.
“For half a century we have dealt with traditional sustainability issues—resource availability, energy, climate change—by thinking about what you cannot do. There has been a transformation to thinking about what you can create, invent, and innovate by aligning sustainability issues with economic drivers and market forces.”
—Paul Anastas, Director of Sustainability & Teresa and H. John Heinz III Professor in the Practice of Chemistry for the Environment at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
Learn more about Yale EMBA: Sustainability
Clubs & Conferences
Yale SOM Student Clubs
The Energy Club aims to keep students up to date on trends, policy, and regulation changes, and other major issues relevant to the energy industry. The club brings in speakers to share their expertise in regular “Energy 101” lectures and also offers networking opportunities.
The Responsible Investing Group provides students with the information and skills they need to carve a space in the emerging sustainability and responsible investing career sectors. The club also hosts the Low-Carbon Case Competition and the Responsible Investing Conference.
Yale SOM Conferences and Events
The Responsible Investing Conference, a student-run conference led by the Responsible Investing Group, convenes scholars and industry experts at Yale SOM to discuss how capital can drive social innovation and change.
The Low-Carbon Case Competition, part of the Responsible Investing Conference, challenges teams of students from top U.S. business schools to consider ways to address climate change while meeting investors’ expectations.
Student Profile Lisa Veliz ’17
I needed a business school that would help me pivot into a new career. I have always been very passionate about environmental justice, and I’m particularly interested in working in corporate sustainability and in the energy sector. It’s one of the emerging issues that we’re going to be facing—providing enough energy for the ten billion people who are expected to walk this earth very shortly.
Lisa Veliz ’17
Internship: Pacific Gas & Electric
Student Profile: Gabriel Pinto ’17
Over the summer, I interned at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. I worked in the energy division, which gave me a great overview of the challenges facing countries in Latin America. Having worked in the Brazilian Electricity Commission, I was able to bring governmental insights to the team, and the core courses at Yale SOM prepared me to discuss the competitive landscape between utilities and solar developers.
Gabriel Pinto ’17
Summer Internship: The World Bank and Off Grid Electric
Sustainability Resources Across Yale
Yale Center for Business and the Environment • Yale Center for Environment Law & Policy • Center for Green Chemistry & Green Engineering at Yale • Yale Sustainable Food Program • Center for Industrial Ecology at Yale FES • Hixon Center for Ecology at Yale FES • Urban Resources Initiative at Yale FES • The Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry at Yale FES • Tropical Resources Institute at Yale FES • Environmental Leadership & Training Initiative • The Forest Dialogue • The School Forests • Yale Project on Climate Change and Communication • Governance, Environment, and Markets Initiative at Yale University
Aaron Smith â16
Yale Center for Business and the Environment
The Yale Center for Business and the Environment convenes diverse resources and skill sets from the Yale School of Management and the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. The center provides a platform for generating, incubating, and launching innovative action at the intersection of business and the environment. Its work is necessarily global, spanning five continents and the gamut of business sectors, from increasing supply chain sustainability to greening the financial sector.
Yale Environmental Sustainability Summit
Featured Event
How will our planet provide food, energy, and water for a growing population and as our climate changes? Can we develop more sustainable systems for producing and distributing food; drive towards lower carbon and GHG intensity in our economies; and effectively manage our increasingly scarce fresh water supplies and fragile ecosystems? How can efficiency and innovation help reduce our impact—while increasing our well-being? Can we scale up promising technologies and conservation practices to unlock unprecedented business and environmental opportunities? The Yale Environmental Sustainability Summit (YESS) engaged university alumni, faculty, staff and students—as well as outside experts, practitioners, and scholars—to tackle these topics in the first annual conference of its kind at Yale.
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Yale Insights: Sustainability
Yale Insights: Sustainability
Can a Positive Impact be Profitable?
Indra Nooyi ’80
A decade ago, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi ’80 introduced Performance with Purpose, which incorporated health and sustainability goals into the company’s long-term strategy. Nooyi talked to Yale Insights about the results of the initiative, and how society’s view of the role of sustainability has evolved in the last 10 years.
Can We Create Affordable Housing in the World’s Fastest-Growing Cities?
Ira Peppercorn ’85
Creating affordable housing in the world’s fastest-growing cities requires accurate data and an incremental approach.
Can Improving Farming Productivity Save the Rainforest?
Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak
Research by Mushfiq Mobarak suggests that improved crop productivity through electrification pushes Brazilian farmers away from land-intensive cattle grazing.
Is Climate Change Too Big for Business?
Frances G. Beinecke
Investors are starting to see opportunities in efforts to combat climate change, but markets may not provide the incentives for the needed transformation of the economy. Frances Beinecke, the former president of the National Resources Defense Council, argues that while every sector will be involved in curbing carbon emissions, public policy must set the right framework.
Can We Change the Climate Conversation?
Bradford S. Gentry
Yale’s Bradford Gentry on the state of the climate change talks and what a recent Global Network survey of MBA students tells us about the change in the discourse.