GreenBiz.com (Berdish) - According to recent research from Harvard Law School and the IRRC, only 28 percent of global companies have in place labor and human rights (LHR) policies covering their global supply chains. And for most green MBA and sustainability programs, human rights are too politically charged to warrant a place in the coursebook.
We argue that sustainability is not merely a series of financial decisions, but a complex web of social, environmental and economic ecosystems in which global companies need to operate in order to create long-term success and profitability. And the human elements of those systems, including working conditions, access to clean water and education, health care and other related issues, should be central to businesses' sustainability strategies.
To incorporate these complex issues into the curriculum, business schools must make a shift away from process thinking and into systems thinking, and take a more scientific approach to business education. They must help students make this radical shift in thinking by offering courses and projects that shift the way their analytical minds work...
Only when business education programs challenge their own "business as usual" can they truly prepare students to address the social challenges associated with sustainability not as hurdles, but as business opportunities.
David Berdish, manager of social sustainability at Ford Motor Company, is a guest lecturer and a member of the advisory board for the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
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