Sustainability in Business: Developing an Undergraduate Business Course

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the rationale and process of creating a new course focused on business sustainability in the University’s Department of Business Administration. Currently, the University offers just one business sustainability course, delivered once every two years as a January study-abroad course in Chile. While an outstanding experience, a limited number of students can take advantage of the opportunity. After identifying this gap in our business programs, we created a stand-alone course that focuses on business sustainability. This paper addresses the following questions: What is the business case for adding the course? What should the learning goals and outcomes be? After an extensive review of business needs and existing program offerings, the authors created a new course: BUSI 2000: Sustainability through a Business Lens. The course framework includes: developing an understanding of business ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) focusing on social justice; exploring the triple bottom line framework (TBL); gaining a deeper understanding of business sustainability through experiential learning; and understanding the connec