SAN FRANCISCO: The student dinner begins as one might expect in a progressive hotbed like San Francisco: the self-proclaimed “Saturday night composter” urges people to recycle their trash and another student touts silent group meditation.

But then these students get down to discussing big business, namely Wal-Mart, and how to work with the world’s largest retailer on its new road to “affordable sustainability”.

Professor Hunter Lovins, a respected environmentalist who wears her trademark Western hat, says Wal-Mart “has the leverage unlike any company I have ever seen” and pushes students to apply for jobs and internships there.

Bridging the gap between planet and profit is at the heart of the Presidio School of Management, one of a handful of US business schools that offer sustainable or “green” MBA (Master of Business Administration) programmes.

The Presidio school is small, producing only 56 graduates in its short history.

But with concern for global warming on suddenly rising and consumers demanding greener, cleaner and more socially just products and practices, enrollment at Presidio for next fall is nearing 200.

For companies like Wal-Mart that are trying to turn over a new, greener leaf, students of Presidio and other small schools like Seattle’s Bainbridge Graduate Institute could bring sharper sustainability skills than those from more established MBA programmes.

“These places are going to serve as laboratories ... where smart people are thinking very seriously about how to integrate business and sustainability,” said Rich Leimsider of the Aspen Institute, where he reviews MBAs’ social and environmental components for the “Beyond Grey Pinstripes” ranking.—Reuters