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University of Virginia
Darden Graduate School of Business Administration

100 Darden Blvd.
Charlottesville, Virginia 22903
United States

In the school's own words...

Founded in 1955, the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business is a professional school that improves society by developing principled leaders for the world of practical affairs.

Integrated throughout Darden’s curriculum is the theme that while business has a financial bottom line, profitability, it must be achieved in an ethical and socially- and environmentally-responsible manner. The role of business is to create value for all stakeholders. Through the case-method, students learn decision-making frameworks applicable to complex situations involving many stakeholders.

At Darden, Ethics is a core discipline of business. Darden was one of the first top-ranked business schools to establish a required, standalone First Year course in Ethics. Ethics and sustainability issues are integrated into nine of the ten required courses in the first year curriculum and numerous ethics, social responsibility, entrepreneurship and sustainability focused electives are offered. Course information is available on the Beyond Grey Pinstripes website. The Darden Faculty includes internationally-known business ethics scholars who do research, as well as develop and actively teach courses at Darden. As part of the University of Virginia, Darden students participate in the 150-year old, student-run Honor System, allowing them to put principles into practice.

Darden is home to several institutions that support research and thought leadership on ethics and sustainability issues. The Olsson Center for Applied Ethics heightens awareness of ethical issues in business and has been instrumental in helping other business schools establish effective ethics programs. Darden’s Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics is an independent entity established in partnership with Business Roundtable – an association of 160 CEOs from leading companies – focused on renewing and enhancing the link between ethical behavior and business practice. In 2009 Darden will launch with five other academic institutions the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability (ARCS), which exists to provide data and networking that facilitate research on corporate sustainability.

Innovation for sustainability is a key research area for the Batten Institute, Darden’s center for entrepreneurship and innovation. The Executive Director of Batten is an expert on business strategy and corporate sustainability. Darden’s entrepreneurship programs provide guidance to student entrepreneurs, including those starting sustainability-related businesses while at Darden such as Husk Power Systems. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/education/edlife/ideas-huskpower-t.html?_r=1

The Darden community is engaged in achieving its goals of being a zero waste, carbon neutral enterprise by 2020, and a top ten school for teaching and research by 2013. Students are involved through for-credit projects on such topics as local food sourcing, composting, recycling, and sustainability strategy and have initiated such changes as electronic exam distribution and offsetting the carbon footprint of their Darden MBA. Darden recently launched the Darden GreenPod, a podcast series providing interviews with business and academic thought leaders on sustainability issues.

The University of Virginia is a member of the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) and the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE). UVA’s Sustainability web site is: http://www.virginia.edu/sustainability/

Darden is on the campus of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, which is ranked as the city with the greatest quality of life in the United States. Charlottesville is just two hours south of Washington, DC.