Associate Professor of Legal Studies
Will your business education prepare you for the world as it exists today, or for the one that will evolve throughout your career? At Ithaca College we've asked that question, and found some surprising answers.
Many businesses -- and business schools -- still operate under a 19th-century mind-set of unlimited natural resources and a boundless capacity for human activity. But today that worldview is clashing with the growing body of scientific evidence indicating we are nearing our planet's systemic limitations.
"We're rapidly learning the world is a closed-loop system," says Ithaca College professor Marlene Barken. "The bottom line is you can't consume nonrenewable resources forever, and you can't produce more environmental waste than a planet can absorb. Those are facts. And they are going to impact the way people live and work in the next century."
Barken and her colleagues are addressing these issues in an innovative undergraduate business curriculum. Ithaca is a leader in the emerging field of sustainability, a strategic practice that finds ways to achieve near-term business goals while minimizing unintended long-range consequences.
"It's going to require a fundamental change in business thinking," Barken says, "and young people today will be the generation to shoulder the responsibility. We're giving our students the skills to lead the way."
At Ithaca sustainability is part of an interdisciplinary program soundly rooted in the fundamentals of modern business management. It's even reflected in the new "green" building that will house the School of Business in a few years. When complete, the structure will serve as a learning lab for successful sustainable design.
"As a comprehensive college, we're in a unique position to link all the different disciplines involved," Barken says. "We link finance, strategic planning, resource planning, markets, and all the core skills of business with the social and scientific issues surrounding the natural and human environment. Businesses of the future will have to integrate all those components. And our students will be at a competitive advantage for all the opportunities that come along with it."
