University of New Mexico - Robert O. Anderson Graduate School of Management

Courses in Sustainability

Yes

Sustainability course is

Optional

Description

At the University of New Mexico?s Robert O. Anderson School of Management, social responsibility, including environmental responsibility and ethics, are a centerpiece of our educational and research endeavors. We are committed to encouraging excellence in ethical and responsible management in every aspect of our programs. Three of the program?s core courses include material and topics related to sustainability issues. In “Business and Society (508)? , students discuss the relationship between business and society including sustainability-related topics such as stakeholder engagement, corporate responsibility, and environmental management. In ?Technology Commercialization and the Global Environment? (511), students learn about global sustainability in one of the seven covered modules. The School?s required capstone course, The Strategic Management Process (598), includes a module focusing on environmental analysis. To understand the macro environment in which organizations operate, the class examines Political/legal, economic, sociocultural, and technological factors. Throughout the course, Corporate Social Responsibility is one of the trends that are explicitly discussed. “Environmental Sustainability and Business (653) will be taught every other year by a tenure-track faculty member. This course focuses on the “intensive study of environmental responsibilities and effective strategies for environmental protection by corporations and other organizations. Topics range from current challenges to address environmental issues to innovative works of advanced thinkers about the natural environment.” Topics such as sustainable and/or renewable energy trends, sustainable economic growth, environmental perspectives, and ecotourism/sustainable strategies are modules covered in elective courses in the international management concentration. Since Spring 2013, the School has offered special topics course, “Green Economy”, that covers the following topics: a. Business and Sustainability – Triple Bottom Line b. Leading Corporate Sustainability Issues c. Workplace Implications d. Climate Change e. Building an Inclusive Green Economy f. Ethics, Governance, and Sustainability g. Trade and Sustainable Development h. Green Cities i. Green Procurement Policies j. Eco-Innovation k. Nanotechnology and the Green Economy l. Water, Energy, and the Green Economy m. New Mexico’s Green Economy Students in this course complete a group project to assess the “green status” of a New Mexico company and propose green strategies to upgrade its sustainability status. Since Fall 2014, the School has periodically offers a special topics course, “Global Relations”, that includes four modules related to sustainability issues. They are: a. Creative economy and the loss of ancestral traditions (cultural sustainability). b. Water scarcity/degradation and natural resource agendas at the global level. c. Energy crises and the discourse on energy needs worldwide. d. Pollution/extreme weather and the resiliency of communities, including organizational agendas to support resiliency. These and other sustainability-related elective courses are available for students in all concentrations. Through independent studies courses, guided by faculty, students have the opportunity to work on projects related to sustainability issues. Current projects being sponsored by Anderson’s IBSG (International Business Students Global) chapter include the following: a. The World Folk Art Movement -- this is a 3 phase project to bring a version of the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market (the world's largest folk art market) to the Olympic games. We are beginning this project with a series of interviews that expose Olympic athletes to the stories of master artisans worldwide, including video responses that put in conversation the excellence of folk art with the excellence of athletics. The sustainability of ancestral traditions is the core mission of this project. b. Outside the Margins -- an art-based book to raise awareness of displacement in the world. This is a project that was inspired by Felipe's own book The Orange Economy and our recent work on arts education for refugee children. The book, Outside the Margins, is gaining great momentum. The sustainability of social systems for displaced communities (or those affected/resulting from displacement) are part of the core mission of this project. c. UNM/IBSG/De Beers Group: a conversation -- This project is newly developed and involves an annual critique of De Beers Group's report to society. Our student group, in coordination with faculty and other NM community stakeholders will convene and discuss feedback that will be presented to De Beers' Director of Social Performance in a written report each year. Sustainability issues will be a core element of our feedback. d. The UNESCO Acequia project -- this project, in coordination with experts within NM and the NM Acequia association is dedicated to building an application for the traditional water systems of the Southwestern United States (and the land-based culture that represents and governs these systems) to eventually get an UNESCO World Heritage Area Designation. e. The Ivan Karp Emerging Economies Program (IKEEP) -- Part of this program sends at least 2 students each year to a developing economy in coordination with two international programs The Social Entrepreneurs corps (www.socialentrepreneurscorps.com) and Emzingo (www.emzingo.com) . Most of these projects are geared towards sustainability ventures, including the production of clean water systems, solar energy usage, and recyclability initiatives in relation to structural poverty issues. This year we will be sending students to Peru and Ecuador for two major summer projects.

Research Opportunities in Sustainability

Yes

Description

Interested students have the opportunity to participate in sustainability research with faculty, many of whom are teaching the courses described in the previous section. Two projects included mentoring by a faculty member for graduate students who were interested in doing sustainability-related research. One student was interested in investigating the feasibility of developing a textile recycling plant in New Mexico. Her idea was to create a business that would simultaneously have positive environmental socio-economic impacts in this region. Another MBA student participated in two sustainability-related projects with a faculty member. In the first one, a paper on teaching sustainability and business & society courses using a threshold concept approach was published in the Journal of Management Education. In the second project, the student wrote a paper for her independent studies arguing that, because sustainability is a threshold concept, organizational learning of sustainability should take a threshold concept approach.

School's environmental commitment 1:

1) The school continues to actively participate in the campus-wide Sustainability Policy which was approved in June 2008. This policy established ?sustainability? as a core campus value. Staff evaluations include an assessment of how effectively each staff member participates in and support this campus value. Efforts to implement the University's approved 2015 Strategic Plan are ongoing; the School's Associate Dean participated in the development of the Plan and continues to engage in supporting these initiatives.

School's environmental commitment 2:

2) The special projects students work on through IBSG which have been described in the previous section creates a connection between the academic community and individuals, businesses, and government entities both locally and internationally. These projects provide significant value and benefit to the recipients and support the education of involved students to think and act sustainably; they learn foundational principles that enable them to act as good social and environmental stewards in their careers and personal lives.