Jay Falk: Given today's marketplace, what advantages will a graduate with an MBA oriented toward sustainability have over someone with a traditional MBA?

Ralph Meima: Put simply, the traditional MBA curriculum - and culture - was developed in a world where sustainability was not an issue, and where the environmental, workplace, consumer safety, social justice and other issues that today make up the sustainability puzzle could easily be relegated to the margins of the core curriculum and labeled "Send in the lawyers" or "Send in the engineers." In other words, be framed as problems outside of the normal concerns of managers.

Today, this is, of course, different. MBA programs like ours are being developed to cultivate all the essential skills of the manager or entrepreneur in the context that is relevant today - marked by concerns about energy, climate change, global competition, diversity in the workplace, intercontinental social justice, local economies, livable wages, and corporate ethics.

I can't emphasize enough the fact that the mainstream MBA as an institution assumed its present form and content before any of these were of widespread concern. Now, they are topics of daily concern. Our graduates will enter the workplace or entrepreneurial space as skilled as any MBA graduate, but with the worldview, attitudes, and sensitivity that is in line with the times.

JF: How is the job market developing for graduates of sustainable MBA programs?

RM: We believe that graduates of sustainability-oriented MBA programs - and there are only a handful in the US - possess a valuable competitive edge that is of general use in the business world.

However, the potential employers most likely to see this work in sustainability-driven businesses, where either the market or the owners/investors make the pursuit of more sustainable practices a condition of the business' survival.

Today, you find such businesses in areas like renewable energy, fair/ethical trade, organic products, socially responsible investment, health and fitness, and green building. Many of these are seeing healthy growth, and hiring. The list is expanding as sustainability becomes established as a driver in more and more industries.

JF: Given its history of sustainable business, Vermont seems like a logical place to offer an MBA program that focuses on sustainability. Will the Marlboro program be using any "local" resources in the classroom?

RM: Absolutely! Through our Advisory Council, course assignments, invited guest speakers, volunteer mentors, the "capstone" independent study project, informal networking, and service projects, our students and faculty will enjoy considerable contact with entrepreneurs and businesses around Brattleboro, Windham County, Vermont, and New England.

On the state level, we are active members of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility and its equivalents in Maine and New Hampshire. On our most local level, we have frequent and lively interaction with businesses and business associations. Our students will become embedded in our professional networks that span the range from the local to the global.

JF: There are a number of MBA programs being offered by business schools that include sustainability. How is the Marlboro's program different?

RM: Marlboro College Graduate Center's MBA curriculum and delivery model have been consciously inspired and informed by the three West Coast pioneers: Bainbridge Graduate Institute, Presidio, and Dominican University [formerly New College]. You'll therefore see similarities if you compare them. In fact, BGI has been very open and supportive in this regard, and we have recently been in contact with Presidio to compare notes as well.

Where the Marlboro MBA is designed to distinguish itself is largely a function of where we are located and when we are being launched. Regarding the former, we offer considerable depth in accounting and finance because of our proximity to the New York financial markets and the social investment analysts and fund managers concentrated in or near New York and Boston.

Systems thinking and ecological economics occupy strong positions in the curriculum because of the salience of these ideas in New England, especially in connection with debates about food and energy on a regional level.

And our location in Vermont allows us to maintain links with the kinds of companies that make up Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, such as Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, NRG Systems, Seventh Generation, The Farmer's Diner, Gardeners Supply, ForesTrade, Chroma Technologies, and many more.

JF: Does the Marlboro MBA program offer classes on sustainability or is sustainability integrated with traditional businesses classes?

RM: Sustainability, the triple bottom line, and CSR tools and practices are attended to throughout the curriculum, but there are several courses that address sustainability specifically: Foundations of Sustainable Business; Climate Change: Understanding, Measuring, Mitigating; Exploring Sustainability; and Systems Thinking I: Ecology of Food, Water, Energy, and Human Welfare

JF: The Marlboro MBA program offers both classroom and online instruction. How is this structured?

RM: Students and faculty meet ten times each year for 3-day, weekend-anchored intensives. The rest of their interaction is online. The program takes 2 years to finish at the normal pace, or 4 years at half-speed.

JF: Was the Marlboro MBA program designed with a particular type of student in mind?

RM: Generally, planning and market research suggested that there was a segment of idealistic pragmatists out there, with career experience, who wanted to live their values through their work, which might include entrepreneurial start-ups.

Since then, we have identified two narrower target segments that our MBA program is especially well-positioned to support, namely (1) employees of self-identified socially responsible businesses, and (2) people in professional CSR [corporate social responsibility] roles in, for example, larger corporations, consulting and auditing firms, and investment management and research firms.