Colorado State University
AC-4: Graduate Program

The Impact MBA at CSU’s College of Business provides the critical business skills needed to drive organizational change and create ventures that incorporate the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit. Implementing a triple bottom line in business plans can increase competitive advantages in reputation, efficiency and resiliency, and produce long-term financial returns.

The Impact MBA has two tracks - Social Entrepreneurship and Corporate Sustainability. The Social Entrepreneurship track encourages students to start team-based ventures that focus on global, social, or environmental challenges with a field practicum and hands on learning for pitching new ideas, developing business models, and creating financial projections. The Corporate Sustainability track is for students looking to gain skills in making existing businesses more sustainable through internship placements and coursework in Greenhouse Gas management, life cycle assessment, and climate impact.

CSU's Impact MBA ranked No. 5 nationwide and No. 20 worldwide in the 2021 Corporate Knights Better World MBA Ranking and was the recipient of the 2020 Wharton-QS Reimagine Education silver award for sustainability education. The Impact MBA is popular for international students, with students from over 71 countries represented in the program.

Students and researchers in environmental health investigate how natural and built environments affect human and animal health and seek solutions to minimize negative health consequences of environmental and workplace exposure. Within this program, students can choose concentrations including occupational ergonomics and safety, industrial hygiene, and epidemiology.

Graduate research opportunities exist in the area of agroecosystems management, with an emphasis on a systems approach to research that incorporates the interactions of the ecosystem with soil and crop management. Research focuses on improving crop and nutrient management systems, the development of biofuel, and the beneficial use of resources. Local studies are integrated to the global scale including efforts focused on climate change and carbon cycling. Emphasis is on understanding processes and mechanisms controlling the interaction of soils, plants, nutrients, and climate. Research opportunities in agroecology include field studies, state-of-the-art analytical laboratories, and computer simulation modeling. Students will gain a broad perspective of the soil, plant, and environmental interactions as well as specialized training in their area of interest.

https://green.colostate.edu/academics

This concentration focuses on environmental knowledge and the framework of resilience for solving linked social and ecological problems. Within the program, students study human-environment interactions, integrating economics, ecology, political and social sciences. By studying cross-cultural sustainability and environmental interactions, along with research methodology, students leave this program prepared to engage in culturally and socially aware sustainable development and environmental challenges.

Many scientists recognize the need for greater communication, interpretation, and even advocacy and policy-making in environmental sciences, but most report they are reluctant or unsure about venturing into communications for conservation. The online Graduate Certificate in Communications for Conservation at Colorado State University offers conservation practitioners and communicators a holistic program for learning ideas, skills, and tools to communicate and engage with a wide range of public stakeholders, including media and communications specialists, decision-makers, and thought leaders, other scientists, and everyday citizens.

The certificate courses focus on global water resources as a means of interpreting stability in socio-political systems. This certificate has a basis in Global Environmental Sustainability, with students then exploring water economy, sustainable watershed management, irrigation system design, and GIS or other monitoring techniques.

https://green.colostate.edu/academics

The complete inventory of sustainability-focused majors, minors, specializations, and certificates at both the graduate and undergraduate level are listed at https://green.colostate.edu/academics. Total of 22 undergraduate majors (including 14 concentrations), 46 graduate programs (including 14 concentrations), 22 minors, and 9 certificates that are sustainability-focused programs.