One of the challenges of choosing a green MBA program is to find the right school, and the good news is that the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine have just published their first rankings of the top 16 green MBA programs in the USA. The 16 business schools were also highlighted in the April 2011 Entrepreneur article entitled "A Sustainable Degree," which was based on a survey of administrators and students at 325 business schools in 2009-2010.

As the Green MBA is relatively new, it has been hard to effectively evaluate the quality of the programs. As a starting point the rankings methodology included the following four criteria:

• The quantity of sustainability research conducted by the school

• The range and choice of sustainability courses

• The proportion of faculty teaching these courses

The school’s career services for students looking for green and socially responsible jobs.

Entrepreneur Magazine also adds its own information about the programs including local impact, which is an important yet often overlooked aspect of green education. Here is an example of a description from Stanford University

Stanford University Graduate School of Business

Stanford, Calif.

gsb.stanford.edu

Tuition: $53,118

MBA Enrollment: 765

Green Curriculum: The school offers a Public Management Certificate in socially responsible business, as well as a joint MS/MBA in Environment and Resources.

Local Impact: This spring, the School of Business opened the Knight Management Center, a LEED Platinum certified eight-building campus designed to reduce energy use 40 percent and generate 12 percent of its own electricity.

The 16 schools on the list are ( in alphabetical order):

• Babson College F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business (Babson Park / Wellesley, MA)

• Bentley University McCallum Graduate School of Business (Waltham, MA)

• Brandeis University International Business School (Waltham, MA)

• Claremont Graduate University Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management (Claremont, CA)

• Clark University Graduate School of Management (Worcester, MA)

• Columbia Business School (New York, NY)

• Duke University The Fuqua School of Business (Durham, NC)

• McGill University Desautels Faculty of Management (Montreal, Quebec, Canada)

• New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business (New York, NY)

• Portland State University School of Business Administration (Portland, OR)

• Stanford University Graduate School of Business (Stanford, CA)

• University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business (Ann Arbor, MI)

• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School (Chapel Hill, NC)

• Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business (Notre Dame, IN)

• University of Virginia Darden Graduate School of Business (Charlottesville, VA)

• University of Wisconsin-Madison Wisconsin School of Business (Madison, WI)

There are some very well known schools on the list that confirms the increasing popularity of green MBA programs. Many of the same schools have been tracked over the last decade by the Aspen Institute that features most of these programs in its top 10 rankings, published with its most recent "Beyond Grey Pinstripes" survey. For ten years, this survey has evaluated these schools and how well the MBA programs prepare students to develop careers that make a positive contribution to the environment and society. Businesses are increasingly looking for a new generation of leaders that can find solutions to our most urgent environmental challenges like climate change and water shortages. The Green MBA is the ideal qualification to help meet this demand.