™
We keep it real.
“The Green Business
Lab teaches all the
things other business
simulations teach and
adds sustainability
to it. And it does this
in an integrative and
smart way. Plus, it is
fun. The students love
it. They have a blast
with it!”
ANNE YORK,
Associate Professor of
Entrepreneurship and
Strategy, Creighton
University
Easy for you.
Competitive
fun for them.
The Green Business Lab is the
comprehensive experiential learning
simulation you’ve been searching for.
“The Green Business
Lab is an incredible
tool for teaching
strategic leadership.
I think sometimes
my students learn as
much about strategic
leadership as they do
about sustainability
and that is great, and
they actually do it
together.”
STEVE OLSON,
Faculty Director,
Innovation Programs,
Robinson College of
Business, Georgia State
University
A student team performing their commercial jingle
What is The Green Business Lab?
The Green Business Lab is a comprehensive business simulation that gives participants hands-on experience running a
sustainable company. In The Green Business Lab, we simulate a realistic business
environment so that participants learn
about sustainable business while they are
engaged in business. Participants remember and can better apply the lessons they
have learned because they experience
them in a realistic and relevant context.
Scenarios are based on real company case examples from manufacturing
and service industries. Topics are fresh,
relevant and pressing because they are
based on thought leaders and industry
best practices.
Participants are immersed in running
a company, and each member plays a
key functional role. This new Executive
Team shapes company strategy and is
accountable for performance.
T H E
G R E E N
B U S I N E S S
L A B While making manufacturing,
marketing and management decisions,
executives email real time with
stakeholders – including customers,
employees and suppliers, government
representatives and NGOs – all played
by Green Business Lab instructors.
The Board of Directors has expanded
company performance to include triplebottom-line metrics. Companies use
dynamic, detailed financial reports to monitor their performance both as they make
decisions and as they compare their results
to competitors at the end of the cycle.
In the final cycle, executive teams
present their strategy and outlook for the
future to a Board of Directors (meeting
in-person or virtually). Participants learn
to craft the story of their strategy, field
tough questions, and gain experience in
how to develop a skilled Board Room
presence.
P A G E
2
Cornell Dyson School students building SphereMovers
T
he
Green Business Lab delivers the learning po-
“Business
simulations and
experiential learning
are so valuable to
students. If they
don’t have a chance
to practice in realtime, the learning
doesn’t cement for
them and they can’t
connect the dots.”
DEBORAH MANN,
College of Human
Ecology, Cornell
University
T H E
G R E E N
tential expected from a great simulation.
What sets us apart from other available
simulations is our individualized, dynamic
and tangible approach.
Individual attention. Our
instructors will work with you to
understand your overall course content
and learning objectives in order to draw
connections to simulation topics. And
they will work real-time with individual
participants giving feedback or coaching
as needed.
Dynamic stakeholder
involvement. Our instructors roleplay stakeholders via email so that
communication with participants
is specific and creative rather than
generalized and tightly-scripted.
Tangible Product. Participants use
both creativity and analytical reasoning
to design and manufacture a physical
product. This product is central to
their business strategy and mission, and
participants quickly identify with it much
more strongly than if it were simply a
virtual product in a computer simulation.
B U S I N E S S
L A B Rio Tinto participants and their SphereMover
Participant listening to ideas from her team
P A G E
3
Participants evaluate their SphereMovers on a test track
“The Green Business
Lab was a really
powerful experience
for them, which they
will carry forward to
their workplaces in
the future.”
JIM VOLCKHAUSEN,
Assistant Director,
Cornell Team &
Leadership Center
Our Laboratory fosters Experimentation,
Creativity and Learning
The Green Business Lab is adaptable to both business and non-business students at
various levels of education including:
l Executive Education
l MBAs/Graduate Programs
l Undergraduate Programs
And integrates with many different courses including:
l Business Strategy
l Leadership
l International business
l Marketing
l Capstone
T H E
G R E E N
B U S I N E S S
L A B l Sustainability/CSR/Ethics
l Entrepreneurship
l Interdisciplinary
l Engineering
l The Sciences
P A G E
4
10 Reasons to Use
our Sustainable
Business Simulation
1|
Easy to use. The Lab fits into new
or existing courses. And Green Business Lab instructors deliver the Lab with
you so you decide your level of involvement.
Tailored learning. Our instruc|
2 tors emphasize your course learn-
ing objectives and work real-time with
individual participants giving feedback or
coaching.
3|
Easy to grade. The Lab has all the
tools to easily put together a grading
rubric that fits your learning objectives
based on quizzes, company progress
reports, debrief questions, team effectiveness surveys and company presentations.
“The Green
Business Lab
is actually a
microcosm of what
students are going
to experience in
real life.”
AL GONZALEZ,
Founding Partner,
GIVE Leadership
Institute
4|
Flexible format. We offer classroom, virtual or blended formats
that fit into your schedule. And we can
adapt Lab lessons to suit undergraduate,
MBA or corporate business programs, as
well as, Engineering and Interdisciplinary
courses.
5|
Engaged participants. Participants love the competitive fun coupled with realistic, relevant lessons. They
get hooked by the pace and compete for
success.
6|
Fresh, updated topics. The Lab’s
unique design makes it easy to update in order to stay current. For example, instructors or participants may add
to the application web-links to relevant
research, headlines, and expert opinions.
Or stakeholder comments may include
the day’s news. And quizzes, surveys and
T H E
G R E E N
B U S I N E S S
L A B GE participants discussing the options
assignments may be added while the Lab
is in progress.
7|
Real-time stakeholder involvement. Participants engage real-time
with stakeholders via an internal email
application and meet directly with the
Board of Directors
8|
Connecting the dots. Because
members of the executive team have
different roles and information, students
observe how issues cut across the company and this helps them to connect the
dots between different disciplines.
Physical product. Companies
|
9 design and manufacture a physical
product that engages them more actively
than if they were making decisions in an
application with an imagined product
alone.
10|
It’s scalable. The Lab can be
used with classes as small as
15 participants or as large as several
hundred.
P A G E
5
“For 20 years or more,
we have recognized
that the way we do
business has serious
impacts on the world
around us. Now it
is increasingly clear
that the state of the
world around us
affects the way we do
business.”
K P M G R E P O R T,
“Expect the Unexpected:
Building Business Value
in a Changing World.”
T H E
G R E E N
Participants learn to work collaboratively
Is Green Business Really that Important?
In a recent hard-hitting report, the
chairman of KPMG cautioned that if
we don’t make significant and sweeping
changes toward sustainability, things will
begin to go badly. KPMG isn’t alone in
this opinion. Even a cursory review of
business sustainability literature produces
hundreds of similar reports from credible,
thoughtful sources.
But change isn’t easy and the way
forward is a bit uncertain. A 2012 survey
of sustainability experts (conducted by
SustainAbility and GlobeScan in preparation for the Rio +20 Earth Summit)
found that the complexity of sustainability issues makes changing or improving
practices difficult. The report explains
B U S I N E S S
L A B that business sustainability issues require
a systems perspective as well as knowledge of the drivers and leverage points for
change. It further points out that some
topics may be so politically charged that
they are not even up for discussion.
This is where the Green Business
Lab helps participants look broadly at
sustainable business practices, identify
leverage points, and discuss solutions in a
realistic and safe setting.
The Green Business Lab is not about
tree-hugging or adopting unrealistic or
over-simplistic solutions. Instead, it takes
real-world challenges and frames the issues
in terms of business value and measurable
results.
P A G E
6
Staying on Top
of the Trends
The field of sustainable business is
constantly changing and growing so The
Green Business Lab is designed to keep
up to date. Here are a few examples:
Students mirror roles found on a real
management team
l Instructors or participants may add
l Debrief materials include the latest
“It is important for
students to learn
about sustainable
business as a
fundamental aspect
of creating value for a
company, and
this is particularly
well-illustrated in
The Green Business
Lab. In addition, it
is very rare that
students get the
chance to look at all
aspects of business in
one simulation.”
BRUCE HUTTON,
Piccinati Professor in
Teaching Innovation,
Daniels College of
Business, University of
Denver
subjects from your syllabus or today’s
news.
l Information links throughout our
application connect participants to
current best practices.
Meeting the Need for a Practical
Sustainability Simulation
Given the complex and integrated nature of green business
topics, Susan Svoboda saw the need for a practical tool
that was comprehensive, yet hands-on. After getting her
MBA at Michigan’s Ross School of Business and working
at the University of Michigan for several years in what is
now the Erb Institute, she developed The Green Business
Lab.
During her time at the University of Michigan, Susan
had the opportunity to work with Professor Stuart Hart, a
Susan Svoboda
pioneer in the field of sustainable enterprise. He, too, saw
the need for practical tools, and together they spent many
hours discussing ideas for what would later become The Green Business
Lab. Auspiciously, a third colleague, Richard Duke, known to many as “the
founder of simulation and gaming as a scientific activity,” joined in the
early conversations, offering instruction in simulation design concepts that
proved invaluable.
Today, the Green Business Lab is used in university and corporate programs. Past clients include:
l Cornell University
l Georgia State University
l Central Michigan University
l Denver University
l University of Michigan
T H E
G R E E N
web-links to the application about
relevant research, headlines, and
expert opinions.
l Updatable business challenges are
patterned after real issues facing
companies today.
B U S I N E S S
L A B l Georgetown University
l Wayne State University
l General Electric
l Rio Tinto
l Chrysler Financial
P A G E
7
Ready to learn more
about how your students
can participate in The
Green Business Lab for
the per-student cost of a
textbook?
We invite you to explore The Green
Business Lab today:
l Request a demo. Contact Realia
™
Group at (313) 469-6619 or
Info@GreenBusinessLab.com.
l Visit www.greenbusinesslab.com.
We keep it real.
Watch video interviews with those
who have experienced The Green
Business Lab firsthand.