The typical MBA student takes a class trip to a foreign country to observe the business climate, meet with business leaders and lend their business expertise to a project. Removing barbed wire fences and clearing invasive brush typically isn’t on the agenda, that is unless you’re a student traveling to Chile this December with Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management’s Environmental Entrepreneurship Development course.
The course, now in its second year, sends 20 MBA students to a remote area in Chile – the 450,000-acre future Patagonia National Park — to learn first-hand about sustainable and environmentally responsible business practices. The class was developed by Tetsuya O’Hara, an adjunct professor at the school and director of advanced research and development at clothing company Patagonia, along with former Patagonia CEO Michael Crooke, now a Pepperdine professor. O’Hara first came up with the idea for the class after going with a group of Patagonia employees a few years ago to volunteer in the area.
He thought that MBA students studying for the school’s Socially, Environmentally, and Ethically Responsible Business Practice certificate, would benefit from seeing first-hand a land conservation project in action; students in the certificate program are required to attend the course. “When you go to the great outdoors and see the actual issues facing the environment firsthand, you can approach things differently,” said O’Hara.
Read the full article: MBAs Get Hands-On Lesson in Sustainability