Now that the business case for sustainability is on firm ground companies need to learn how to integrate the complex issues involved. An effective way to do this is through on-line learning. The Foundation for Business and Sustainable Development, the educational arm of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development 
(WBCSD), is building the Virtual University for Sustainability on the Internet. [sorry this link is no longer available]
There are presently three introductory web-based courses. Corporate Social Responsibility is a 5-hour, self-paced course that teaches senior managers how to develop a corporate social responsibility policy and manage ethical issues. It exposes participants to recent concepts, tools, and best practices regarding social responsibility.
The Sustainable Business Challenge began as a collaboration between the WBCSD and the international student organization AIESEC to discover what students entering the workforce need to know to become business leaders in sustainable development. 16,000 students and employees worldwide have completed the resulting Sustainable Business Challenge Internet exam. The WBCSD Foundation has updated this on-line learning experience course and developed an accompanying text book that is being used as a standard text by businesses and universities.
The issues are presented from the perspective of a fictional corporation as key personnel there come to terms with the policy implications of environmental issues in the 21st century.
The Global Scenario Challenge introduces the concept of building scenarios and their application to sustainability. Building scenarios opens up options for identifying sustainable business opportunities.
Two courses that are offered as part of a minor in Sustainable Development at the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Mexico, will soon be offered on-line, at http://www.tec.com.mx, “Social Responsibility” and “Eco-Efficiency.” Eco-Efficiency was offered for the first time last semester and met with great success. Contact INNOVA Center for Sustainable Development: innova@itesm.mx.
The first words you read when you enter the web site are: “Radical entrepreneurial approaches to sustainability: postgraduate professional practice redirection.” The new on-line, distance learning post-graduate degree, The Master of Sustainment Design, “aims to deliver the most advanced strategies on the planet today for sustaining those things that urgently need to be sustained.” Since design is the basis for technologies, buildings, organizational structures, products, images, modes of communication, and ways of life, this program is for people from a wide variety of disciplines who want to incorporate the power of sustainable design into their professions.
The Masters will be taught by members of the EcoDesign Foundation in conjunction with the University of Western Sydney, Australia. Students will learn on-line and at a yearly two-week intensive residential workshop near Sydney, Australia. The program can be completed in one year on a full-time basis, or in as long as four years, part-time.
Students will learn how to design “sustainments”: built environments, product environments and service relations that can establish cultures and economies with the ability to sustain. Students will become fluent with current sustainment tools and their limitations: environmental management planning, life cycle analysis, design-for-environment, cleaner production, energy efficiency, and extended producer responsibility. And students will become adept at finding design and business opportunities for sustainments even in conventional projects, and learn how to present arguments for sustainability to clients and colleagues.
You can experiment with the program by completing phase one on-line, and then decide whether you would like to enroll in the full masters. [sorry this link is no longer available]
To order Sustainable Business Challenge text book: sales@greenleaf-publishing.com
http://www.greenleaf-publishing.com
The Foundation for Business and Sustainable Development: foundation@wbcsd.org
[sorry this link is no longer available]
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