Green Business Jobs Driving Rising Enrollment at Business Colleges

The Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise has seen a 30% rise in enrollment over the 2007-2008 school year due to students’ confidence in the bright, lucrative future of green business.  The Erb Institute is a program that partners with the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business and School of Natural Resources and the Environment.

School administrators at the Erb Institute believe that enrollment in 2010 will be even higher, as more students seek to get into the green business field.  From Mlive.com:

“The program has been growing steadily over the years, especially since 2004, but still this was such a big jump that it took me by surprise” said Thomas P. Lyon, Erb Institute director. “I think the biggest driver has been the greater public awareness of green issues, especially climate change. A number of things have contributed to this shift: new scientific information about the risks of climate change, Al Gore’s movie ‘An Inconvenient Truth,’ (and) Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.”

“I think a lot of that trend is people seeing a shift in markets, this ‘greening’ of America,” said Brewster Boyd, an MBA student planning to graduate in 2009.

Rising enrollment at the Erb Institute is no doubt a sign of a broader trend across the country.  College students are looking toward the future, and they’re seeing success and fulfillment in green industries.  Environmental issues are tied to our country’s economic future, and many opportunities will be opening up over the coming decade.

Lyon, the Erb Institute director, hopes that the younger generation’s drive toward green business will help the Michigan economy, which is the weakest in the nation.

Link [Mlive.com]

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