Offering the tools to manage for sustainability     Spring Open House   

To succeed in the new millennium, organizational leaders must understand the impact of management practices on the environment, the workforce, local cultures and profits. At Marlboro College, this multiple-bottom-line philosophy will be integrated into all our MBA courses, from accounting and finance to business law and economic theory.

The Marlboro MBA doesn’t simply instill a compassionate approach to business, it instills a realistic approach to business. Organizations today face an economic landscape marked by resource depletion, intense efforts to protect the environment, and the emergence of “LOHAS consumers”—50 million Americans who make choices based on their Lifestyles Of Health And Sustainability. People with the acumen to lead in this climate will be well-placed to advance within their organizations, enter new fields and establish their own enterprises.

The Marlboro MBA is taught in person and online, with students and faculty coming together for three days each month at the downtown Brattleboro, Vermont, campus of the Marlboro College Graduate Center. Faculty members work with students on addressing real-world problems. Community Sessions, inspired by our undergraduate program’s renowned monthly Town Meetings, offer students an opportunity to participate in college decisions and offer program evaluations. The learning community created during these bricks-and-mortar sessions continues online, using collaborative learning tools drawn from the Graduate Center's decade of experience in delivering low-residency master’s programs to working adults.

Over the course of two years, MBA students earn 60 credits in classes, internships and independent research.

The Marlboro Graduate Center MBA offers the curriculum, the philosophy and the academic track record to challenge intellects, inspire imaginations and prepare for the future.

Sustainability is increasingly used as a unifying concept to help us grasp such varied topics as global warming, fossil fuel prices and scarcity, trends in wealth and income levels and distribution, diversity, and social justice. It is increasingly cited as cities, towns, and regions in advanced industrial nations ponder their futures in a competitive, uncertain world. A companion concept that came into use in the late 1990s is the “triple bottom line.” It suggests that balanced social, environmental, and economic performance by companies contributes to the sustainable development of the communities and regions where they operate, and is of strategic importance to their long-term performance. Now, especially in view of concerns about global warming and peak oil, some argue that evolving public policies and social movements will accelerate requirements that companies and other organizations operate in more sustainable ways.

The MBA Fact Sheet (pdf)

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