The Thunderbird MGM program with a concentration in Sustainability Solutions prepares students for the professions of the future. In this concentration, students earn a degree that benefits their career and the planet. There is an accelerating demand for leaders with a global mindset who possess expertise in sustainability, understand how to apply its principles and technology in approaching problems, and know how to work with and draw from different disciplines to develop practical solutions to the world's most urgent sustainability challenges.
The World Economic Forum reports that empathy and collaboration are two critical abilities for global manager success. These are equally critical for those seeking careers in sustainability solutions. These abilities rely on the development of social capital. This program is designed to develop a student's social capital through field-based action learning, team-based projects and stretch assignments. Students have the ability to build sustainable trusting relationships --- the basis of social capital --- with others from diverse parts of the world by learning techniques and methods of developing intercultural empathy, the ability to have interpersonal impact, and to act with diplomacy when influencing others. This concentration is offered in collaboration with ASU's School of Sustainability.