The aspen Institute's ethical and sustainable approach to MBas has been embraced by the University of Exeter Business School. Its new One Planet MBa course is ranked second in the UK by Beyond Grey Pinstripes. Shannon Springer, a former strategist and programme manager with Saatchi and Saatchi S, the global sustainability and marketing consultancy, enrolled on the course in September. a graduate of the department of communication at the University of California Santa Barbara, Springer, 27, has wide experience in helping big firms to become more sustainable. "My passion is working with business to create a positive impact," she says. "This has led me constantly to challenge the status quo. So when I came across the new MBa programme the university was running with the World Wildlife Fund I decided to join it. I have found the course incredibly inspiring and stimulating - it's a very collaborative environment. "We look at the core concepts, principles and techniques across the disciplines of finance, economics and operations but also go further and ask questions such as what impact does this have on where we are today in business? With the financial crisis? Climate change? What could be done differently? "The MBa programme is built in the same manner as companies should be building themselves: it systematically embeds sustainability into the business management discipline. It is not an add-on elective course. "It is fundamental to everything we study to look at all the aspects - the financial, of course, but also to look at the environmental, the social - and how to integrate all these. Sustainability has to be at the core of everything we do. The One Planet MBa represents the next generation of programmes. We will hit a point where business and sustainability are naturally one and the same. This is a very forward-thinking programme." SIMON MIDGLEY