I use the Green Business Lab in two different courses, a capstone marketing strategy course and an MBA course focused on running a sustainable business. I love this simulation because you can adapt it to different courses because of the open-ended nature of some aspects of the Lab. In addition, having open-ended capabilities allows me to make adjustments to focus on the concepts that I am covering in my courses.

Other things I like about this simulation that makes it stand out from many other simulations include:

• Students really enjoy the hands-on aspect of the project, to build and test a real product.
• It allows students to work on their business communication skills because they send out emails to various stakeholders.
• This simulation makes students aware of the importance of external stakeholders to their business.
• It allows for a lot of creativity regarding how students will tackle different problems in the Lab.
• It has students make decisions on issues that are current and based on situations that real businesses have had to face.
• It includes different roles for different team members, which helps keep various team members accountable, reducing slacking.

Overall, I have gotten very positive student feedback regarding the use of this simulation in my courses. I love that I can use this simulation across multiple courses due to its flexibility.

Significant Improvements in business sustainability worldwide would truly make a positive impact to our objectives at World Wildlife Fund. Due to growing pressure for resources such as food, fiber, and fuel, there is an increasing need for businesses to be good corporate citizens and understand and be accountable to improving their impact on the planet. Fundamental to businesses making progress is teaching employees, managers, and leaders the importance of integrating environmental and social factors into their decision-making practices. The benefit for companies is that it is increasingly important to understand the risks that climate change and other environmental threats pose for their company and supply chains.

The Green Business Lab is a terrific business sustainability simulation that addresses topics such as climate and energy, water, forests, and supply chain risk from the business perspective. It provides robust and adaptable content, realistic scenarios, and a hands-on learning environment. I would recommend it to any business or university that wants to make strides in learning about business sustainability and how to apply it to our world that needs a lot of help.

Sustainability as advantage

• “The companies that succeed long-term integrate profit, planet, and people into one strategy rather than treating them as separate priorities.” (MBA executive team)
• “Being measured by the triple bottom line forced us to take a more holistic approach to our product and leadership decisions.” (MBA executive team)
• “Sustainability went from something we barely focused on to a key part of our strategy that helped us differentiate and build a stronger brand.” (Undergraduate executive team)
• “It is not enough to ask, is this profitable? You also have to ask who this benefits and what it costs the environment.” (MBA executive team)

Marketing that earns trust

• “We accidentally greenwashed, because our marketing communicated sustainability goals that our decisions did not back up. We learned the message and the choices have to align.” (Undergraduate executive team)
• “We built our campaign around proof, not promises, communicating sustainability with verifiable data rather than claims.” (MBA executive team)
• “We designed sustainability messaging to be consumer-friendly and easy to absorb, so customers would actually engage with it.” (MBA executive team)
• “We aligned product, pricing, and promotion into one consistent positioning strategy, and performance improved dramatically.” (Undergraduate executive team)

Resilience by design

• “We shifted to a climate-resilient, multi-sourcing strategy, diversifying suppliers across regions and positioning inventory closer to key markets.” (Undergraduate executive team)
• “We proposed a climate risk assessment process for suppliers, to strengthen their resilience and prepare for disruptions from climate change.” (Undergraduate executive team)
• “We assessed suppliers by their geographic and climate exposure, then ranked them by disruption risk.” (Undergraduate executive team)
• “We would build sustainability into the business strategy from inception, rather than treating it as a separate workstream.” (MBA executive team)

Leadership with integrity

• “Effective leadership is about making informed decisions, learning from mistakes, and balancing short-term performance with long-term sustainability.” (MBA executive team)
• “We shifted from defending individual preferences to building alignment around the team’s objectives.” (Graduate engineering executive team)
• “Customers were no longer responding to general sustainability claims. They wanted clear proof of performance.” (MBA executive team)
• “We designed our employee program around worker participation, treating workers as genuine stakeholders rather than labor inputs.” (MBA executive team)

Strategy that crosses borders

• “We selected a country whose culture shared our commitment to labor, community, and sustainability, so our production and sales reinforced each other.” (MBA executive team)
• “Producing where our certifications and labor standards are credible lets us justify a premium price rather than compete on cost.” (MBA executive team)
• “We stopped guessing and started actually using the data from the reports.” (Undergraduate executive team)
• “Short-term financial thinking and long-term sustainability thinking are not opposites, they are interdependent.” (MBA executive team)