New program offers "sustainable" business degree

B.A. students can combo with sustainability, communication and more

More people and businesses want to find ways to conserve energy and help make our natural resources last longer. As the new school year begins, a groundbreaking new degree program at the W. P. Carey School of Business will make it easier for business students to help their future companies utilize sustainability practices.

The brand new undergraduate business degree offers incoming freshmen the chance to combine a traditional, high-caliber degree with specializations in sustainability, tourism management, communication or urban policy. ASU’s popular School of Sustainability – the only school of its kind – will provide many of the classes required for the new sustainability specialization. Other ASU schools, including the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, will offer faculty experts for the other specializations.

“We’ve introduced a unique program that will help future business leaders use some of the best practices in sustainability,” says Tim Desch, assistant dean for undergraduate admissions at the W. P. Carey School of Business. “We’ve also created new opportunities for students to learn about how to apply business know-how to other exciting fields such as communication and tourism management. Those students will get great interdisciplinary experience from top experts in other areas of the university, as well as from the business school.”

The program also makes it possible for the W. P. Carey School of Business to offer access to more freshmen than usual by supplementing the school’s own resources with the use of faculty members and classes outside the business school. This is consistent with ASU President Michael Crow’s universitywide message of offering access to even more deserving students.

This week more than 900 incoming freshmen will become the first ever to work toward a B.A. degree in business at the W. P. Carey School. Hundreds more students will start working toward the school’s more traditional B.S. business degree.

The Princeton Review recently named Arizona State University one of the “greenest” universities in the country. The W. P. Carey School of Business is also one of the top-ranked and largest business schools in the nation.