SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS IMPACT LOOKS LIKE

Masters in Sustainable Business

AT A GLANCE

Credit hours: 33

Full-time, part-time

Online and evening class options

Fully online option

Start terms: fall, spring

GMAT/GRE Optional

The CU Denver MS in Sustainable Business prepares professionals to lead in sustainability by combining core business concepts with flexible specializations in strategy, project management, data analytics, supply chain management, or sustainable energy. Addressing climate change, carbon reform, and resource scarcity, this program equips graduates for impactful roles across public and private sectors, including finance, information systems, policy, and global supply chains. With a strong emphasis on real-world application, CU Denver’s program develops leaders ready to drive sustainability, innovation, and global business success.

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certificates to
tailor your degree

Classes offered in
the evening and online

Top ranked faculty leading
the field in their research

Robert Hobbins

"With an MS in Sustainable Business from CU Denver, you’ll gain deep sustainable business knowledge while having the opportunity to acquire interdisciplinary knowledge and skills from across CU Denver’s schools to earn a series of certificates tailored to your career goals. We offer the most flexible and customizable MS program on the market – at an incredible value – to accelerate your career as a sustainability professional in the private sector.”
– Robert Hobbins, Director of Sustainable Business

The CU Denver Master of Science in Sustainable Business (MS SUSB) program offers unparalleled flexibility and depth, with seven certificate options, interdisciplinary courses, and a wide selection of 8-week online classes. Through connections with the Sustainable Business Advisory Council and industry partners, you’ll benefit from networking opportunities, events, and guest speakers who provide real-world insights into sustainability practices.

In the MS SUSB program, you’ll gain expertise in essential topics such as Sustainable Business Accounting, Managing for Sustainability, Sustainable Supply Chains and Circularity, and Impact Investing. The program allows you to earn certificates along the way, including the foundational Foundations of Sustainable Business certificate. Customize your degree with additional certificates in Environmental Sustainability, Sustainable Energy, Risk Management and Resilience, Social Enterprise, Global Supply Chain Management, Project Management, or, for on-campus students, Urban Sustainability and Infrastructure.

With a strong focus on sustainability leadership, this degree prepares you to take on significant roles within your organization, entrepreneurial ventures, or other professional settings, driving innovation and successful outcomes in the sustainability sector.

Unlike a traditional MBA, which emphasizes a broad range of business functions, the MS in Sustainable Business digs deeper into the sustainable, environmental, and social aspects of running a business. The program offers an interdisciplinary and cross-college approach, integrating critical fields like data analytics and global supply chain management. This structure ensures you graduate with both a broad understanding and targeted expertise, empowering you to excel in roles requiring advanced sustainability knowledge, interdisciplinary problem-solving, and innovative leadership.

Graduates of the CU Denver Master’s programs also benefit from lifelong access to the CU Denver Business Career Connections team. With over a decade of recruiting and advising experience and connections to 300+ business partners, the Career Center provides exclusive networking opportunities and tailored career support. Services include:

Career workshops: Enhance your resume, LinkedIn profile, and job search strategies.
Individual appointments: Receive personalized career guidance, resume reviews, and mock interviews.
Career events: Develop networking skills and connect with hiring managers from leading companies.
Job announcements: Access tailored job and internship opportunities specific to sustainability, project management, and related fields.

The CU Denver MS in Sustainable Business is designed for professionals ready to lead in the critical field of sustainability, offering the skills, expertise, and connections to drive global impact and innovation.

The Master of Science in Sustainable Business curriculum consists of one required 15-credit certificate in Foundations of Sustainable Business (15 credits) and two certificates of 9 credits each (18 credits) that complete the elective requirements for a total of 33 credit hours.

Foundations of Sustainable Business Certificate (15 hours)

This certificate introduces the foundational knowledge and concepts for success in any sustainable business career. You’ll be able to compare and contrast competing conceptualizations of sustainable business models, redesign supply chains and products for waste reduction and circularity, set and achieve net-zero carbon targets, apply and report using various sustainability disclosure standards, manage and lead innovative sustainability initiatives and projects, and be aware of various impact investment strategies. Offered online only. Course topics include:

Key concepts and issues in sustainable business
Sustainable supply chains and circularity
Accounting and finance for sustainability
Managing for sustainability
Global climate change

Certificates (18 hours)

Based upon their interests, students choose two certificates, 9 credit hours each, from an offering of six certificates to complete the remaining 18 credit hours of electives in the MS SUSB degree.

Environmental Sustainability

This certificate is designed to introduce students to the various environmental challenges (e.g., water and natural resources, climate change, environmental waste, and pollution) that companies face. Courses in this certificate will teach students not only how to manage and report on a company’s environmental performance but also how to develop sustainable and regenerative business practices to protect, restore, and improve our natural environments and resources. Offered online, with many face-to-face options A sample of course topics include:

Environmental sustainability and stewardship
Earth environments and human impacts
Water quality and resources
Climate change: causes, impacts, and solutions
Environmental risk assessment
Carbon markets
ESG trends in energy and commodities
Sustainability in resources management
Global enterprise sustainability and resilience
Environmental justice
Environmental planning and management
Science, policy, and the environment
Environmental Politics and Policy
Environmental Life Cycle Assessment

Sustainable Energy

Courses in this certificate introduce students to the key concepts for understanding and managing renewable energy resources and how to lead the global energy transition to renewable energy. Offered primarily online with some in-person options. A sample of course topics include:

21^st century global energy issues and realities
Technical aspects of energy science
Strategic management of the energy industry
Carbon markets
Global history of energy
Sustainable energy policy
ESG trends in Energy and Commodities
Project development and leadership in renewable energy

Risk Management & Resilience

Courses in this certificate introduce students to the concepts of risks, hazards, exposure, and resilience. Students will learn how to successfully manage and lead a company through periods of volatility, complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity typical of many sustainability and environmental challenges. Offered online, with some face-to-face options. A sample of course topics include:

Strategic risk management
Leading organizational change
Practical enterprise risk management
Global risk management
Global enterprise sustainability and resilience
Disaster/Climate change planning

Social Enterprise

Courses in this certificate build students’ abilities to design and launch successful businesses that are responsive and sensitive to social needs, equity and justice, and human well-being. Offered online, with many face-to-face options. A sample of course topics include:

Social enterprise
Mission-driven and social entrepreneurship
Human health and environmental pollution
Marketing challenges at the global frontier
Civil society and non-governmental organizations
Managing for social equity
Public-private partnerships
Environmental justice
Community development

Managing for Sustainability

Courses in this certificate train students to launch and lead strategic initiatives in their enterprises that improve social and environmental outcomes and build sustainable enterprises that thrive in any business environment. Offered online only. A sample of course topics include:

Managing for sustainability
Leadership in new ventures
Project development, management, and leadership in renewable energy
Leading organizational change
Strategic management
Visionary leadership
Business ethics and corporate social responsibility
Managing for social equity
Transformative Leadership for Sustainability

Urban Sustainability and Infrastructure

Cities are the most rapidly growing regions globally. They must be designed collaboratively with public, private, and civic sectors to make them more sustainable in the future. This certificate is designed for aspiring business leaders who plan to engage or collaborate with the public and civic sector to make our cities more just, livable, and sustainable through urban design, infrastructure planning, land use, and other urban sustainability concepts. Offered face-to-face only. A sample of course topics include:

Urban sustainability
Urban design and environment
Sustainable urban infrastructure
Urban design economics and equity
Transportation, land use, and the environment
Sustainable transportation systems

Foundations of Sustainable Business Certificate

Key concepts and issues in sustainable business
Sustainable supply chains and circularity
Sustainability accounting, finance, and impact investing

We also offer this degree entirely online. The required Foundations of Sustainable Business Certificate for the MS in Sustainability degree is offered entirely online. However, not all elective certificates can be completed entirely online. In short, the following Certificates are possible to be completed entirely online.

Sustainable Energy
Environmental Sustainability
Foundations of Sustainable Business
Managing for Sustainability
Social Enterprise
Risk Management and Resilience

Take classes in a hybrid format (classroom and online) or complete your degree in a fully online curriculum. Your online courses are taught by the same professors and lecturers that teach on campus. We also offer hybrid courses in the evening for those working full-time.

Online courses are asynchronous, meaning there is no specific meeting day/time. Hybrid courses combine in-person and online learning. The in-person experience typically occurs once a week, from 6:30-9:15 p.m., one evening between Monday and Thursday. There will be at least six in-person meetings during the 8-week session, complemented by asynchronous content.

Most graduate courses are offered as an 8-week session within the 16-week fall and spring semesters. Graduate courses in the summer semester extend for the entire semester, which is an 8-week session as well.

National research shows increased graduation rates among students taking courses in an 8-week session. The data on 8-week courses shows increased student success and course completion rates. The course material is condensed into eight weeks. So, while the weekly workload is greater, you can complete the course in half the time! It is recommended to take one course per each 8-week session, particularly if you work full-time, which allows you to place your focus on just that course.

Additionally, offering courses in 8-week sessions every semester enables you to balance and manage life responsibilities while still prioritizing your education. For instance, if you have a vacation, family commitment or business trip occurring in the first 8-week session, you can choose to enroll only in a course offered in the second eight-week session.

Learning outcomes

The MS Sustainable Business degree will prepare students specifically for the Sustainability Excellence Associate (SEA) credential granted by the Green Business Certification Institute (GBCI), which is an optional exam to be taken at the culmination of the MS in Sustainable Business. The SEA credential demonstrates to employers that a graduate has the knowledge and skills typically required of an entry-level sustainability professional. The knowledge and skills required for the SEA certification are derived from the ISSP’s 2010 Competency Survey Report (Willard et al., 2010). Each of these competencies is elaborated on below and adapted from the GBCI (2022) SEA Candidate Handbook. These concepts serve as the learning goals of the MS Sustainable Business curriculum.

Core Sustainability Concepts: Demonstrated familiarity with the core issues, trends, concepts, and frameworks of sustainability
1. Explain ideas, concepts, and importance of sustainability to various audiences
2. Choose and customize appropriate third-party sustainability resources
Stakeholder Engagement: Skills and knowledge related to collaboratively working with stakeholders to forward a mutually satisfactory beneficial agenda
1. Identify, map, and prioritize stakeholders and their primary interests or concerns
2. Develop a strategy and means of engaging with each stakeholder
3. Implement and institutionalize procedures for engaging and communicating with internal stakeholders (e.g., senior management, functional leads, line employees)
4. Implement procedures for engaging and communicating with external stakeholders (e.g. suppliers, industry partners, NGO’s community members)
5. Build relationships across organizational functions
6. Prepare communications with input from key stakeholders
Plan Sustainability Strategies: Create a comprehensive, long-term and inclusive approach to the systematic implementation of sustainability vision and initiatives
1. Develop a high level, long-term sustainability road map
2. Articulate the business case for sustainability
3. Articulate the long-term vision of sustainability for the organization and a strategy to achieve it
4. Create an overarching project framework to support the higher-level framework, that can be operationalized and implemented
5. Identify material issues and the relevant key indicators, specific metrics and targets.
6. Identify the critical components of a SMS
Implement Sustainability Strategies: Managing the ongoing activities related to the successful integration and fulfillment of sustainability goals.
1. Establish effective support and governance structures for the implementation of sustainability strategies and initiatives
2. Implement an SMS in alignment with accepted standards and protocols
3. Integrate sustainability principles into organizational functions, policies, and practices
4. Manage complex projects
5. Communicate sustainability plans and concepts and choose strategies for buy-in from all members and levels of an organization
6. Launch and support teams and work groups
7. Drive innovation, improvement, and continuous learning
8. Distribute communication and determine processes for gathering feedback.
Evaluate and Report Sustainability Efforts: Collect, analyze, and report the results of sustainability metrics.
1. Conduct an impact assessment of organizational or community inputs, operations, outputs, and stakeholder relationships
2. Design, implement, and maintain data systems for collecting accurate, timely, and reliable data (maximally integrated with other data collection systems of the organization)
3. Analyze data and draw conclusions about progress
4. Gather data, case studies, and examples, and logically compile and order them.
Adjust Plans: Continuously review efforts and adjust to meet emerging needs and opportunities.
1. Maintain and continuously refine management systems
2. Prioritize action based on context, analysis, and set targets

Careers in Sustainable Business

Become a sustainable business professional ready to lead a firm's sustainability efforts, work with teams or consult on sustainable business initiatives, or serve as a change agent or entrepreneur in initiating sustainable business practices within your organization. Examples of typical sustainable business career paths are below. By tailoring your degree carefully by choosing from two of our elective sustainable business certificates, you can tailor your MS Sustainable Business degree to pursue any of the below careers within specific spheres of interest, such as sustainable energy, environmental sustainability, sustainability management, etc.

Examples of Sustainable Business career paths:

Chief Sustainability Officer
ESG Manager
Sustainability Program Manager
Sustainability Coordinator
Sustainability Value/Supply Chain Manager
Manager of Global Sustainability
Sustainability Consultant
Circularity Manager
Sustainability Analyst
Equity, Social Justice, and DEI Manager
ESG Financial Advisor
Water stewardship and sustainability auditor

Visit our Careers page for more detailed information on the resources available.

Tuition

The cost of tuition for the MS in Sustainable Business degree is different for in-state and out-of-state students.

Residents of western states may qualify for in-state tuition. The Western Regional Graduate Program (WRGP) requires students to maintain current residency of WRGP state until degree completion.

Scholarships

Scholarships are available for students. As a current student, you can apply for scholarships every semester. Some awards are based on program and course enrollment.

Newly Admitted and Continuing Students:

You can apply for additional scholarships every semester of enrollment. Some awards may be specific to individual programs or enrollment in specific courses. Certain certificates, including risk management and insurance, commodities, and entrepreneurship, have additional scholarship opportunities.

Application Checklist

$50 domestic, $75 international application fee
Online application
Official transcripts from each college or university attended
Essay responses
Resume

GMAT/GRE optional
English language proficiency—international applicants only

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Application Process

Applicants are required to submit all application materials. Interviews are not a part of the admission process. To receive priority admission, we must have received your online application and all other required materials including transcripts and GMAT/GRE (if required by program) by the deadline.

You can check your admission status online through the account you created for the online application. You will receive a final decision by email within two to three weeks from the submission of all materials.

Admission Requirements

Applicants must have completed an undergraduate program at an accredited United States college or its equivalent in another country.
No work experience or formal business education is required for admission, however, you may have to provide a GMAT or GRE score if you do not have enough work experience, see below.

The GMAT/GRE is not required for this program

The MS in Sustainable Business program does not require GMAT or GRE scores for their degree program as part of the graduate admissions requirements. The requirements are a cumulative GPA of 3.25 or better from a US-accredited four-year undergraduate institution or the successful completion of a graduate degree and five or more years of full-time professional work experience.

However, if you received your bachelor’s degree with a grade point average of less than 3.25 or have less than 5 years of professional work experience, you will be asked to submit a statement that outlines other indicators of exceptional motivation, such as solid upper-division performance, GMAT or GRE scores, and other relevant professional experience. The MS in Sustainable Business admissions committee may require a minimum GMAT or GRE score for students that do not automatically qualify by GPA and prior work.

How Decisions Are Made

The admissions committee considers each candidate’s entire record of achievement. This is demonstrated through:

Academic transcripts
Essay responses
Work experience
Extracurricular and community activities
Letters of recommendation if applicable
GMAT/GRE scores if applicable

No work experience or formal business education is required for admission. However, professional experience strengthens your application. Candidates with less work experience can show potential through academic and experiential success.

For any questions, please contact our admissions team at bschool.admissions@ucdenver.edu or call 303-315-8200.

International Students

International graduate applicants must have their academic credentials evaluated by either Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE) or World Education Services (WES). If you have already had an international credential evaluation from another company, please contact CU Denver International Admissions at intldocuments@ucdenver.edu to determine whether it meets our requirements.

To meet the English Language Proficiency (ELP) criteria, you must showcase your proficiency through different exemptions or an English Language Proficiency test (TOEFL, IELTS, PTE or Duolingo).

To determine English Language Proficiency (ELP), you must complete one of the following criteria. Please note for Business School graduate programs the minimum TOEFL score requirements of 83 (IBT) or 560 (PBT).

Plan to submit materials early to expedite processing. Deadlines apply to all required documents.

Fall

Domestic Applications

Priority: April 15
Final: July 15

International Applications

Priority: March 15
Final: May 15

Spring

Domestic Applications

Priority: October 15
Final: December 15

International Applications

Priority: September 15
Final: October 15

Take the next step in your career.

Our Business Career Connections (BCC) office connects top Denver employers to our students. They know what recruiters are looking for and have a wealth of resources that you have access to as a student and alumnus.

As a student, you’ll have access to a number of high-profile guest speakers. Past speakers have included executives from across the country representing companies including:

Amazon
Ball Aerospace
Kaiser Permanente
Neurotech

Start the conversation.

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Attend a graduate open house, online or in-person information session, or a GMAT test prep workshop. Visit our events page for all upcoming events.

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SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS IMPACT LOOKS LIKE

Masters in Sustainable Business

Foundations of Sustainable Business Certificate (15 hours)

Environmental Sustainability

Sustainable Energy

Risk Management & Resilience

Social Enterprise

Managing for Sustainability

Urban Sustainability and Infrastructure

Foundations of Sustainable Business Certificate

Careers in Sustainable Business

Tuition

Scholarships

Application Checklist

Application Process

Admission Requirements

The GMAT/GRE is not required for this program

International Students

Fall

Domestic Applications

International Applications

Spring

Domestic Applications

International Applications

Request More Information

Upcoming events

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SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS IMPACT LOOKS LIKE

Breadcrumb

Masters in Sustainable Business

Foundations of Sustainable Business Certificate (15 hours)

Careers in Sustainable Business

Tuition

Scholarships

Application Checklist

Application Process

Admission Requirements

The GMAT/GRE is not required for this program

International Students

Fall

Domestic Applications

International Applications

Spring

Domestic Applications

International Applications

Request More Information

Upcoming events