Marketing Education For Sustainability

Abstract

Marketers are increasingly adopting sustainable business practices as the evidence mounts linking sustainability with market share, brand equity and long run profitability. While business coursework is following practice in some disciplines (e.g., environmental accounting/economics), attention to sustainability issues in marketing curricula is limited, for the most part, to discussions of “green” customers, environmental considerations in product development and packaging, and social/ethical issues in non-profit marketing (Beyond Grey Pinstripes 2009). Marketing courses wholly devoted to sustainable business strategy are rare, particularly at the undergraduate level. Thus, there appears to be an increasing discrepancy between the importance placed on a triple bottom line approach to setting marketing objectives by practitioners and its importance to marketing educators. Status quo marketing curricula fail to give students the knowledge and skills they need to be sustainability advocates and experts in their places of employment. This places them at a competitive disadvantage as they seek fulfilling careers in the field.