This year Rotman launched its new major in Sustainability (which brings the number of majors we offer at Rotman to 14). To coincide with this, we thought it would be a great opportunity to speak to all of the incredible things our students can get involved in on campus and beyond when it comes to sustainability.
The Sustainability Major
If you are interested in:
- Corporate social responsibility or corporate citizenship strategy and programs
- Environmental, social and governance issues in business
- Social entrepreneurship or social innovation
- Responsible investment or social finance
Then this major might be for you! Here is a sample of some of the really exciting courses we will be offering to in this space:
- Business Sustainability Strategy– Learn how companies design and deliver new business models by employing sustainability as the source of innovation to generate new growth. The course will also involve meeting with senior executives who have successfully made this happen.
- Entrepreneurship for Social Ventures– Learn how entrepreneurs create organizations that address social problems using innovative, sustainable approaches. Students also get the chance to design their own social ventures.
- Leading Social Innovation– Learn about new business models that tackle wicked problems and how to use those models to impact the social economy. This course also exposes students to guest speakers who share their insight and innovation that they’ve brought to the sector as well!
How Our Students Put Sustainability into Practice
- Rotman NeXus– This is a consulting firm housed in the Rotman building that focuses
primarily on social enterprise. While it is run by Rotman students (so you can do your summer internship here), it operates exactly like how any consulting firm would, pitching to clients, developing strategies for them, etc.
- Rotman Net Impact– Net Impact essentially operates like a student club but is also part of the global organization of Net Impact, with chapters at schools around the world. The organization focuses entirely around sustainability. Here at Rotman, this means getting students involved in case competitions, meeting with guest speakers in industry and hosting networking events. Fun fact for you- this past year, the Rotman chapter of Net Impact was placed in the top 3 (out of 300) in the whole world!
- The Hult Prize– This is a competition held throughout the world each year, aimed at solving the world’s toughest challenges. The goal of the competition is to identify and launch the most compelling social business ideas. The winner of the Hult Prize competition at Rotman goes onto the regional competition in one of the following cities: San Francisco, Boston, London, Dubai, Shanghai or Sao Paulo; and the winners from those regional competitions go to the finals at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City. The winner of it all receives $1 million in seed funding for their venture!
How Our Faculty and Research Centres Are Tackling Sustainability
- Here’s a sampling of what our professors have worked on:
- Anita McGahan– Health innovation, particularly in developing nations
- András Tilcsik– Corporate catastrophes, particularly environmental
- Laura Doering– Microfinance in developing economies
- The Michael-Lee Chin Family Institute for Corporate Citizenship– Specializes in helping businesses (and students!) learn how to integrate corporate citizenship into business strategy and practices. The Institute’s academic director, Roger Martin, has a new book coming out in October called Getting Beyond Better: How Social Entrepreneurship Works.
- The Clarkson Centre for Business Ethics and Board Effectiveness– Ever heard of the Clarkson Principles for Stakeholder Management? That came from this Centre. 🙂
- The Martin Prosperity Institute– Explores shared and sustainable prosperity as an essential part of democratic capitalism (that is, how can corporations be profitable while also being socially responsible).
Rotman also has a Sustainability Working Group, comprised of faculty, staff and students. This group meets a few times per year with the goal of discussing the latest trends and challenges in sustainability and how Rotman can do more in terms of teaching, research and other activities.
Finally, the actual Rotman building is LEED Gold certified. This means our building demonstrates excellence in traits such as: water saving, energy conservation, sustainable building materials and air quality. Talk about practicing what we preach, right? 🙂
So if you are looking to build your skills and connect to the professionals that are fostering positive change in our environment, you have plenty of ways to make this happen at Rotman!