Our colors on the athletics field may be Keaney blue and white, but one of our favorite colors is green. Named for the fourth consecutive year in The Princeton Review’s Guide to Green Colleges, the University of Rhode Island has made its mark as an eco-friendly campus with a longstanding commitment to sustainability—in our academic offerings, campus infrastructure, activities, and career preparation.
And we’re getting greener every day. In 2013-14, we’re offering one of the nation’s first undergraduate programs focused on green business—a four-year program that lets you combine majors in general business and environmental economics. Focused on building a new green economy, the dual major program is a collaboration between URI’s College of Business Administration and College of the Environment and Life Sciences, which houses the Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics. So if you can’t decide between business and the environment, now you don’t have to. We expect this exciting—and timely—dual major program to be a popular student choice.
The private sector needs professionals who have creative ideas and the tools to formulate corporate strategies that help businesses be both economically viable and environmentally sustainable.
Sophomore Marissa Pereira was drawn to the program when she first learned of it last year. Although she came to URI with a business major in mind, she was also interested in environmental science and the environmental economics major. The green business double major allows her to pursue both of her interests—and still graduate in four years.
“I am really passionate about our environment and the problems that have been occurring,” she says. “With this double major I can help in every way possible.”
Marissa and other students in the program will analyze problems, identify opportunities, and design creative solutions for businesses and societies to become sustainable. Some of these solutions might include a focus on green markets and marketing, greening the supply chain, and creating innovative corporate environmental strategies. Depending on your particular interests, the challenges of the green economy offer endless career possibilities in renewable energy, corporate sustainability, carbon/environmental markets, energy finance, and public-private environmental partnerships, for starters.
Our goal is to prepare you for a successful career launch. “The double major in green business gives students a competitive edge for many professional careers in the new green economy,” says Emi Uchida, assistant professor of environmental and natural resource economics. “The private sector needs professionals who have creative ideas and the tools to formulate corporate strategies that help businesses be both economically viable and environmentally sustainable.”