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For too long, it has been assumed that environmental stewardship was a first-world luxury that could only be addressed once a certain level of economic prosperity had been reached. first to champion principles of sustainable enterprise. Once professors from prestigious Chinese business schools became "track leaders" for China BELL programs and other sustain- able enterprise classes, they helped create a buzz in the Chinese business education community about principles of environmental management. When top schools embrace these concepts, the smaller schools are likely to follow. In North America and Europe, the market for education at business schools is largely driven by demand, which sends a steady stream of students and revenues through their pro- grams. In addition, because Western education systems have freedom to innovate, even a single professor can bring about significant institutional change that ripples to faculty and administrators at other schools. In China, on the other hand, it's quite different. The Chinese educational system is driven by supply, which places limits on its capacity for innovation. Furthermore, a centralized bureaucracy is still evident, even in China's relatively new busi- ness education system. For any change to occur in programs, the resources must be approved, and usually made available, through various bureaucratic units. For the most part, individ- ual professors and institutions are effectively discouraged from promoting innovation, since innovators not only have to devel- op a new curriculum, but persuade an entire educational system to approve it before it can be put into practice. For now, the demand-driven nature of American education has have surfaced in Chinese business schools have come as a direct result of collaboration with Western counterparts. For example, Betty Diener of the University of Massachusetts in Boston spent a semester as a Fulbright visiting professor at Tsinghua University. Her work there with marketing pro- fessor Song Xuebao proved to be of great assistance in fur- thering the infusion of sustainability and environmental modules into Song's core marketing course. Eric Orts of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia also spent several months at Tsinghua as a Freeman visiting professor. His presence added environ- mental subjects to an already extensive collaboration between the two schools. Much of the resource development that can be initiated these parts of the world. This has implications for the mem- bers of the global business community, who will see that understanding the complex interaction between business and the environment is necessary for tomorrow's business lead- ers—not only in China, but worldwide. Collaboration is key. Several of the innovative programs that proved to be more conducive to institutionalizing change. But in the long run, we may find that the bureaucratic nature of Chinese education will bring about curricular change on a large scale in a relatively short span of time, because once the bureaucracy approves new programming, virtually all schools will adopt it. First Lessons More than two years after business schools and China BELL began working together, two points have become clear: Sustainability matters. Concepts of environmental manage- ment and sustainable development are extremely important to the developing world. For too long, it has been assumed that environmental stewardship was a first-world luxury that could only be addressed once a certain level of economic prosperity had been reached. It was also assumed that devel- oping countries would fail to make a concentrated effort to balance economic growth with sustainability. Yet government leaders and business faculty have shown great enthusiasm for the integration of sustainability into business education, proving that developing countries place value on the environment. Their commitment shows that sustainable enterprise is not only possible, but necessary, in by groups such as the BELL team also relies heavily on inter- national collaboration. Course modules, which have been the first step in developing China's first environmental man- agement textbook, are the products of collaborative work- shops between Chinese track leaders and their American counterparts—business school faculty who have themselves successfully integrated environmental topics into main- stream management curriculum. For example, the business cases that are currently in development as the result of BELL collaborations have benefited from similar trans-Pacific working relationships. Of course, these collaborations are often fruitful for American professors as well, whether they are working in China or hosting Chinese professors at American schools. These exchanges provide outstanding opportunities for Westerners to gain insights into a developing country's per- spectives on the ways business and environmental steward- ship can drive each other. It's an exciting time to be involved in business education in China. As the country itself grows into a powerful indus- trialized nation, business schools will be providing managers to lead the new corporations to wealth and stability. The bet- ter the schools, the more prepared managers will be to meet the challenges of the 21st century. ■ z Rick Bunch is director of business education for the Sustainable Enterprise Program of the World Resources Institute located in Washington, D.C. Nick Powers is an assistant in the Sustainable Enterprise Program. BizEd MAY/JUNE 2003 37