THE FIRST PILLAR - EDUCATION - Aquinas College & Sustainability

In 2003, Aquinas College’s Center for Sustainability became the first in the country to offer an undergraduate degree in Sustainable Business. According to the college’s admissions office, this pioneering curriculum soon became a major reason some students applied to attend Aquinas.

To earn a degree in sustainable business, students can choose from four majors: business, science, environmental studies, or sustainable business. The degree program’s multi-disciplinary approach requires 20 courses across the curriculum.

The Aquinas College degree in sustainable business focuses on the “triple-bottom line.” The students’ education must be geared to improving economic, environmental, and social capital.

Aquinas College's greatest benefactor, Peter M. Wege, was the moving force behind this innovative sustainable-business undergraduate degree. The Wege Foundation has also inspired the Center for Sustainability where students and faculty work together putting on conferences and workshops covering sustainable-business topics.

The Center for Sustainability also keeps up a web-based clearinghouse providing the latest information on business practices that work to improve a private company’s triple-bottom line. The web site is also used by consumers, governments, and non-profits.

This fall Aquinas, for the first time, will offer a Masters Degree in Sustainable Business. The two-year program teaches evening classes in eight-week sessions enabling full-time employees to earn the M.S. after working hours. Deborah Steketee, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of the Center for Sustainability and Associate Professor of Sustainable Business.