Joining multiple established sustainability-focused MBA programs across the US, Colorado State University unveiled its new Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise program this spring. The program, which begins in August and includes 23 students from around the world in its first class, will combine a traditional MBA with core coursework in social, environmental, and economic sustainability. Students will particularly examine the global problems of poverty, environmental degradation, and community health.

The program’s mission, according to it’s website, is to take business to a level "where business innovations lift up the human condition and rebuild our planet’s capital." All students will spend a summer doing fieldwork that involves implementing sustainable business projects created during their time in the program. "At the core though, this program is about studying, creating and leading innovative new organizations that see these great challenges as great opportunities," said Paul Hudnut, director of the program.

Colorado State has a long tradition of addressing needs in developing countries: the Peace Corps has roots there, and engineering and business students more recently collaborated to create new sustainable technology such as a cleaner-burning biomass stove that generates energy stored in a battery for later use, to be implemented in the Philippines, India, and Vietnam. CSU is also the birthplace of EnviroFit’s two-stroke engine retrofit kit, designed to reduce emissions of tricycle taxis in the Philippines.