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Dr. Steven Cohen, Columbia University - Sustainability and Business Education

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-967201.mp3

Albany, NY – In today's Academic Minute, Dr. Steven Cohen of Columbia University's Earth Institute explores the necessity of incorporating an environmental sustainability component into all business and public-policy degrees.

Steven Cohen is executive director of The Earth Institute, Columbia University, and director of the master's program in Environmental Science and Policy at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. Dr. Cohen has served as a policy analyst for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and continues to serve as a consultant to the EPA.

About Dr. Cohen

Dr. Steven Cohen - Sustainability and Business Education

It is time to start teaching students at business and public-policy schools to deal with resource use and environmental impacts. Most of these schools focus on economics, finance, and management but they ignore science, engineering and architecture. While environmental scientists understand the need to study public policy, many management and policy educators continue to ignore their students' need for greater scientific literacy. Environmental sustainability is critical in today's world, and it is critical for future leaders.

One only needs to think about the challenges facing BP last summer in the Gulf of Mexico to acknowledge that sustainability is central to business management. And in the larger picture, government and business leaders will have to develop energy sources that look beyond fossil fuels; otherwise, we just can't compete.

I really can't see how anyone can claim to be well trained in management if they don't understand basic science, and the physical limits of our world. We teach our public leaders to understand political trade-offs and to analyze stakeholders; we teach our business leaders about financial and organizational constraints and capacities. How can we avoid looking at resource use, waste management and ecosystems?

We are in fact starting to see such subjects combined in new courses that cover not just basic organizational management, but innovation, sustainable energy and sustainable cities. Arizona State University. The Bren School of Management at UC Santa Barbara, MIT and Columbia are all pioneering new sustainability courses.

These issues are no longer a side issues, but factors that influence an organization's ability to survive and thrive. These are core issues. My mantra this entire year has been that before long, all competent management will be sustainability management, and all competent managers must be sustainability managers.

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