IDEAS TO SHAPE THE FUTURE

Hotter temperatures. More severe storms. A warming, rising ocean. Increased drought. More health risks.

Those are the dire consequences of climate crisis, the most significant threat to the planet since the invention of the atomic bomb.

The dangers of the crisis, however, have been a wakeup call for governments, companies, and universities all over the world. And increasingly, the pursuit of sustainability careers among young professionals is skyrocketing.

The world’s business schools have responded, embedding ESG issues into their core courses, adding electives and graduate degrees in sustainability, and putting society’s biggest challenge front and center. This means that for prospective students who care deeply about the environment, there are more options than ever before to prepare for a career with positive impact.

After all, today the fastest-growing segment of the economy is directly linked to combating the climate crisis. Green jobs are exploding, and climate change may well become the defining theme for tomorrow’s business leaders. According to LinkedIn’s Global Green Skills Report 2022, green jobs grew by more than a third from 2015 to 2021, from 9.6 percent to 13.3 percent, and renewable and environmental jobs grew by a staggering 237 percent over the last five years. “The Financial Times reported that CEOs are finding it challenging to find talent that understand how businesses affect the climate and how the climate affects business,” they write. “This skills gap only looks to widen in the near future.”

Not surprisingly, American University’s master’s degree in sustainability management is the school’s fastest-growing program, with applications up 100 percent year over year. And business school deans, from Columbia Business School in New York to INSEAD in France, have made climate change a top strategic priority.

This is also true at IE Business School in Spain. This year, the Financial Times MBA Ranking put IE Business School No. 1 in the world in ESG and Net Zero Teaching and second in the world for its carbon footprint. IE is one of eight top European b-schools that have partnered together to accelerate the business response to the climate crisis. The group, Business Schools for Climate Leadership, just held its first in-person conference at IESE Business School in Barcelona.

At Stanford Graduate School of Business, MBA students are publishing a newsletter aptly named The Gigaton to quantify, in actual gigatons, the impact emerging solutions have on the climate. Their target audience? Talented young professionals looking for careers with impact.

Business schools have already moved beyond rhetoric in this field. The hope is that they continue to do so and to innovate new research, courses, and degree programs to play a critical role in training and educating a new generation of leaders who want to dedicate their lives to the opportunities and challenges our world now faces. What is certain about the future is that we will need leaders who can rise to the occasion. Business schools are uniquely situated to prepare them for that endeavor and if the schools dare take the gauntlet, our future will be the better for it.

© IE Insights.