For its focus on social and environmental responsibility education, SF State's master of business administration program has been ranked 23rd in the United States and 29th in the world by the Aspen Institute's Center for Business Education.

The 60-year-old Aspen Institute provides business educators with classroom resources to include the ideas of corporate profitability and social value into their teaching.
Beyond Grey Pinstripes is a biennial ranking of business schools based on their commitment to integrating social and environmental ethics into the curriculum.

"This focus on ethics and sustainability also supports the social justice goals of SF State as a whole," College of Business Dean Nancy Hayes said.

The Sustainable SF State Web site says the University's mission is to "educate students, faculty and staff to embrace the values and principles of sustainability ... integrating them into the University's planning and policies, academics, operations, student activities and community engagement." Sustainable SF State is part of the facilities department, and oversees the universities sustainability initiatives.

SF State is up nine spaces from its 2007 global ranking and is one of only two state schools in the top 50.

Professor of management Murray Silverman said SF State is able to compete with the other top-ranked schools, which benefit from bigger budgets, by "bootstrapping it," stretching the department's funds as far as possible.

"We'd even be higher if we had the dollars to support the research and the curriculum development that other schools do," Silverman said.

Even working with a state university budget ,whose purse strings are even tighter thanks to state budget cuts, the College of Business has been able to take its focus on social and environmental responsibility from a single required class on business and society, introduced 25 years ago, to an MBA emphasis in sustainable business.

"In terms of what we offer our students we're really doing great," Silverman said. "Now we need to reach out and provide more access to the business community and get more involved."

Just in time for this year's ranking announcement, the College of Business kicked off its fourth annual business ethics week.

Along with guest speakers and special presentations, all of the business courses focus on issues of ethics and sustainability during the week.

"Within the classrooms of all College of Business classes, there should be some introduction, by faculty, of ethical or sustainable issues related to their discipline," said Assistant Professor Denise Kleinrichert.

The College of Business also sponsored two events open to all students and faculty. One was a panel discussion with a representative from Bay Area company Genentech, where eight college of business student organizations prepared questions relevant to their area of study.

And Tim Smith, founder of All About the Future which provides sustainable business services to companies, spoke at SF State's downtown campus about sustainable strategic initiatives.