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CHINA's THE GREENING OF As China races to economic prosperity, the nation is threatened by pollution and environmental degradation. The good news is that a coalition of its new business schools is working to make principles of sustainable enterprise a key part of the education of every new MBA. B-SCHOOLS A by Rick Bunch and Nick Powers illustration by Chris McAllister environmental degradation and depletion of valuable natural resources, which entails economic costs of its own. In an effort to reconcile economic develop- ment with clean production, China's business leaders and business school com- munity are working together to train the next generation to seize competitive advantage through sustainable management. China's business schools have a tremendous opportunity to influence quarter-century of robust economic growth, coupled with accession to the World Trade Organization, has ensured that China will be one of the world's most prominent arenas for business expansion well into the 21st century. However, industrialization brings with it the potential for tem will have a huge effect on the way managers are trained—and, in turn, on the way Chinese businesses are run in the future. One avenue they're using is a collaboration with the Business-Education- the course of China's business sector because growth in the economy has caused demand for trained managers to skyrocket. MBA education didn't arrive in mainland China until 1990; there are now 63 business schools in China accredited by its National MBA Education Supervisory Committee. Inducing change in the still nascent business education sys- Leadership-Learning (BELL) program run by the World Resources Institute (WRI). BELL, which has operated successfully in North America for ten years, held its inaugural China BELL Conference in 2000. Since then, it has contin- ued working with China's business professors and senior government officials to help business schools infuse concepts of sustainability and environmental stew- ardship into their core curricula. 34 BizEd MAY/JUNE 2003