Momma, I'm going back to school

Welcome back to The Strawman, the daily climate newsletter that’s like your favourite teacher - we got jokes and we’re down with the kids (and if you’re lucky you might just learn something along the way).

Today we’re looking at a perhaps underappreciated part in the fight against climate change: executive education. Let’s dive in.

Back to School: The Green Edition

Kids these days - they don’t know what it was like to go to school in the good old days. Playground fights, scraping your shin playing football, and good old-fashioned bullying. Now kids just play on their Nintedo PS7’s (or something like that?)

A part of the whole education scene that’s often overlooked is executive education - people pay a ton of money to go back to school and learn about new topics that might be relevant to their jobs.

It’s why execs now who went to the school in the 90s, when sustainability was as well known as a fidget spinner (e.g., not at all!), are now looking at the good green stuff to figure out what’s going on.

Sustainable syllabuses (syllabi? idk what I’m doing)

See back in the day, business schools were all about the bottom line - but times are a-changin'.

Nowadays, those same schools are bustling with talk of sustainability, ESG initiatives, and responsible capitalism - kind of like a vegan at a barbecue, you can't ignore it anymore.

However, this has left a massive gap in understanding for some alumni who graduated when these concepts were still in their infancy or non-existent. But fear not, business schools are here to the rescue, offering remedial classes for those who missed the green wave.

It makes sense that they’re happy to serve this demand - hire a couple of professors, reach out to old graduates - wham bam thank you ma’am, that’s a few million USD in new revenue.

The Impact: More Than Just Ticking Boxes

So, what's the real-world impact of all this?

Well, as it turns out, sustainability is no longer just a box to tick on a corporate checklist or a cute puppy in a company's PR campaign.

It's a strategic imperative, woven into the very fabric of business operations and strategy. It's like adding spinach to your smoothie, you might not see it, but it's working wonders on the inside.

Of course, there are still sceptics who question whether business schools have the expertise to teach complex subjects like climate change. To them, we say: progress, not perfection. The tangible effects are yet to be seen, but let's remember, we're early in this process.

Until tomorrow, class dismissed!

The Strawman