STANFORD, CA- July 5, 2007 "“ The Stanford Graduate School of Business has developed a new executive education program called Business Strategies for Environmental Sustainability to be offered in Fall 2007. The multidisciplinary approach will train future leaders to think and act rationally about the ways human activity impacts the environment. The course will cover how business leaders can move beyond merely complying with regulations and view environmental awareness as a basic requirement for management, just as they now view finance, accounting, or marketing.

The one-week course will be offered September 16-22. The program, to be held at the Stanford Sierra Conference Center in South Lake Tahoe, CA, aims to provide a detailed multidisciplinary look at today’s environmental issues for business executives, public officials and leaders of non-profit and advocacy organizations.

Participants will explore different frameworks for companies and organizations to strike a balance between business and environmental objectives. The seminar will probe the ways that companies can gain a competitive advantage through progressive environmental policies and practices, including product and process innovation and sustainable supply chain management.

"The idea is to think about environmental solutions as a source of new markets so political leadership can set the right context for such activities," said William Barnett, faculty director of the program, and the School's Thomas M. Siebel Professor of Business Leadership, Strategy, and Organization said at a briefing attended by more than 100 people in April. "This is about creating systems that guide human activity in the direction of more sustainable solutions."

The program will take a close look at the best practices across industries in the field of environmentally-sustainable business and leadership skills that will enable participants to become change agents. For example, in one session, called "Green versus Greenwashing: Environmental Strategies of Businesses," participants will look at ways to come up with environmental objectives that are both pragmatic and authentic.

Another session will examine ways to run an environmentally-friendly supply chain, and another will probe the effectiveness of boycotts and high-profile activism. Barnett said environmental advocacy groups must constantly wrestle with the question: When should a business be considered an adversary and when should it be treated as an ally?

Other Stanford Business School faculty taking part in the seminar are Hau L. Lee, the Thoma Professor of Operations, Information, and Technology and director of the Stanford Global Supply Chain Management Forum; Erica L. Plambeck, associate professor of operations, information, and technology; Kenneth Shotts, associate professor of political economy; and Jesper Sorensen, associate professor of organizational behavior.

For enrollment information, contact Suzanne Sakraida at (650) 723-7552, Toll-Free Phone: (866) 542-2205 (U.S. and Canada only), or sakraida_suzanne@gsb.stanford.edu

For more details, visit: www.gsb.stanford.edu/exed/bses

Stanford Graduate School of Business

Stanford Graduate School of Business

The Stanford Graduate School of Business creates ideas that deepen and advance our understanding of management and with those ideas develops innovative, principled, and insightful leaders who change the world.

The School created the Center for Social Innovation to strengthens the capacity of social innovators. The Center works at the intersection of the business, nonprofit and government sectors to drive social change. The Center offers social innovation courses and experiential learning opportunities for Stanford MBA students through the Public Management Program, delivers executive education programs, publishes the quarterly award winning Stanford Social Innovation Review, produces the weekly Social Innovation Conversations podcast, and offers a myriad of conferences and workshops on social innovation topics.

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