

Sustainable Business Stewardship Academy
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Time (EST): Schedule below |
Format: In-person and Online |
Tuition: $5,950* |
Application deadline: TBD |
Location: Columbia University and Online |
Payment deadline: TBD |
Certificate of Participation: Sustainable Business Stewardship |
*$4,760 (discounted price for Columbia alumni, groups, and corporate partners)
**Please note, the Spring 2025 Sustainable Business Stewardship Academy has been rescheduled for Fall 2025.
Overview
The 21st century has brought with it profound challenges to our economic, social, and planetary wellbeing. We now face an accelerating pace of change and disruption to our social and political institutions, as well as growing global systemic-level threats, from global warming to pandemics and poverty.
To respond to the increased expectations and pressures by their various constituencies, to leverage opportunities, and to build shareholder value, investors, corporate executives, and directors alike need to understand how to address these system-level challenges and respond to the increased expectations and pressures faced by their various constituencies.
SIPA's Sustainable Investing Research Initiative (SIRI) offers two new Executive Education Academies -- the Sustainable Finance Stewardship Academy (SFSA) and the Sustainable Business Stewardship Academy (SBSA) -- which are designed to help inform and train corporate directors, executives, and senior managers from large financial and corporate institutions to develop and implement effective stewardship strategies to help lead their organization through these turbulent times.
Become a leader in developing financial and business strategies to drive systemic change and create a more sustainable future for generations to come. Join the SFSA to master system-level investing--the new frontier in sustainable investing--and the SBSA to become an expert in business stewardship, aligning corporate social, environmental, and policy initiatives with your business strategy. The SFSA and SBSA academies are endorsed and supported by the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) and the High Meadows Institute.
Tuition
- $5,950 (full price)
- $4,760 (discounted price for Columbia alumni, groups, and corporate partners)
Professional Benefits
Participants of the SBSA will learn how to integrate and align their corporate social, environmental, and policy engagements with their business strategies to sustain their competitiveness and firm value. Moreover, they will discuss whether and how corporations can act as stewards of systemic change by actively engaging with policymakers to improve industry-wide business practices that level the playing field and mitigate systemic challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, social inequality, poverty, and others.
Following the completion of the course, participants will earn a Certification of Participation awarded by Columbia University as well as given the opportunity to join an alumni peer learning network.
Who Should Attend
Corporate directors, executives, and senior managers of large financial firms and corporations.
Program Sponsors
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Curriculum

Learning Objectives
For more details about the specific learning goals for each session, see the “Learning Goals” listed in the Tentative Course Schedule of the respective programs.
Key Topics/Areas of Concentration
- Sustainable business stewardship strategy
- Systemic challenges
- Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies
- Corporate Political Responsibility (CPR) strategies
- Key drivers behind rising public, stakeholder, and shareholder expectations for companies
- Aligning the firm’s policy engagement with its social and environmental business practices and corporate strategies to help mitigate systemic challenges
- Adopt a systems perspective to identify material systemic (social and environmental) issues and priorities with respect to firms’ CSR and CPR
- Integrate and align companies’ corporate social, environmental, and policy engagements with their business strategies to sustain their competitiveness and firm value
Program Format
Online and in-person sessions
Special Program Features
- Access to world-renowned Columbia University faculty and guest speakers
- Case Studies
- Executive Coaching
- Peer-to-peer learning
- Combination of online and in-person learning
- The in-person meeting will bring participants from both academies – the Sustainable Finance Stewardship Academy (SFSA) and the Sustainable Business Stewardship Academy (SBSA) – together to foster dialogue, learning, networking, and collaboration across the financial and corporate sectors
- After completion of the course, participants will
- Earn a Certification of Participation awarded by Columbia University
- Have the opportunity to join an alumni peer learning network.
Schedule
The SIRI SFSA and SBSA academies will run in parallel. The first 6 sessions will be held online, followed by a 1.5 day in-person meeting on the campus of Columbia University. The in-person meeting will bring both academies together to foster dialogue, learning, networking, and collaboration across the financial and corporate sectors.
Program Faculty
William (Bill) Burckart, Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs; The Brandmeyer Fellow for Impact and Sustainable Investing
Caroline Flammer, A. Barton Hepburn, Professor of Economics; Director, Sustainable Investing Research Initiative (SIRI)
Dylan Minor, Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs; The Brandmeyer Fellow for Impact and Sustainable Investing
Jon Lukomnik, Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs; The Brandmeyer Fellow for Impact and Sustainable Investing

Contact
The Picker Center for Executive Education
Laura McCreedy
Manager of Executive Education
[email protected]
Columbia University | SIPA
Picker Center for Executive Education
118th Street, Room 400
New York, NY 10027
P: +1 212-854-2710