Social Innovation and Sustainable Business

Gabelli School students don’t simply want to do business.

They want to change the world.

If that’s your mindset, you’ll find a natural home in social innovation and sustainable business — two areas of study where you can learn how to make a difference.

Business with purpose

In these two fast-growing disciplines, you’ll learn to master the “triple bottom line” of people, planet, and profit—a concern to companies such as Coca-Cola, Deloitte, Intel, Adidas, GE, Unilever, Nestlé, and beyond.

You’ll come to understand what turns a leader into a “changemaker,” and how you can apply those skills from the smallest startups to the largest multinational firms.

You will see how business can still turn a profit while benefiting human beings around the world: leading with empathy, providing better working conditions, improving the environment, and finding paths to innovation where others see closed doors.

Did you know?

Fordham is one of only 37 universities worldwide chosen by the United Nations as a model of responsible management education.
 
Fordham is one of only 42 universities worldwide designated a “Changemaker Campus” by the global social innovation organization Ashoka.

Academic tracks

Students can pursue at the Rose Hill campus as a:

  • Primary Dual concentration* [social innovation]
  • Secondary concentration [social innovation]
  • Minor [sustainable business]

*The primary dual concentration option can be chosen only in conjunction with another primary concentration: for example, if a student completes a business administration major with a dual concentration in marketing and social innovation.

Students can pursue at the Lincoln Center campus as a:

  • Secondary concentration [social innovation]
  • Minor [sustainable business]

For more information on specific requirements, please visit our undergraduate Course Bulletin Supplement for the current academic year.

Sustainable business courses, taken from across many academic departments, include:

  • Sustainable Business Foundations
  • Social Entrepreneurship
  • Sustainability and Finance
  • Entrepreneurship and Fair Trade
  • Spirituality, Fair Trade, and Social Justice
  • Fair Trade and Microfinance

Ashoka U Seal

The following organizations recently visited Fordham to talk about sustainability and social justice:

  • Bloomberg LP
  • Center for an Urban Future
  • Deloitte
  • Eileen Fisher
  • Environmental Defense Fund
  • Florida Crystals
  • G2 Organics
  • New York City Mayor’s Office
  • Tesla
  • Tiffany & Co.
  • Whole Foods