BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY SIMULATION

The Green Business Lab

The Green Business Lab is a business sustainability simulation game with triple-bottom-line goals.
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Join our growing community! The Green Business Lab empowers purpose-driven people who are interested in driving change to more sustainable business practices.

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The Green Business Lab is:

The Green Business Lab is an engaging and dynamic business simulation that immerses students in leading a company measured by a Triple Bottom Line.
As an Executive Team, students plan their strategy, make design and operational decisions, manage their supply chain, create a marketing campaign, engage stakeholders, and assess and improve their performance.  Students take various functional roles and gain an integrated perspective of how sustainability affects every aspect of the company.
Competing against other student-led companies and simulated competitors, they strive to deliver financial, environmental, and social value.  The Lab uses current, relevant content, including Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), circularity, water stewardship, and decarbonization.

Engaging

Sustainability connects to people’s desire for meaningful, purposeful, and action-oriented work. Our hands-on Lab teaches students what they can do to address some of today’s most pressing problems.

Relevant

The environmental and social landscape moves quickly in today’s rapidly changing world.  We regularly update the Lab to include the current content.

Comprehensive

The simulation provides triple-bottom-line performance results, including:

  • Financial Reports – Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement
  • Environmental Reports – Pollution Impact and Energy Efficiency over 5 life cycle stages
  • Social Assessments – Customer & Community Care, Labor Practices, Stakeholder Engagement

What’s New in The Green Business Lab

We’ve expanded The Lab with fresh updates based on faculty feedback and emerging trends in business sustainability. Highlights include new and enhanced Leadership Decisions, updated stakeholder perspectives, real-world skills tutorials, refreshed student marketing examples, and improved grading transparency.

Circularity

Apply closed-loop processes to reuse rather than discard components and products.

Life Cycle Thinking

Manage environmental and social trade-offs through innovation.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Respond to the growing public perception that companies are responsible for their social and environmental impact.

Water Stewardship

Consider the full value of water and discover sustainable practices

Supply Chain

Reflect on an example of supply chain challenges regarding safety, livelihoods, and environmental impact

Climate Solutions

Implement energy efficient, renewable, and adaptation practices

ESG Assessment

Explore a framework for evaluating sustainability risk.

Sustainable Development Goals

Use the 17 goals established by the United Nations to encourage action

The Green Business Lab enables students to grapple with current, essential topics drawn from today’s business landscape such as:

Participants, acting as Executive Teams,
practice creative and analytical skills such as:

Strategic thinking

Crafting a vision & values statement

Managing Operations

Analyzing competitors

Creating a marketing campaign

Engaging with stakeholders designed into the Lab

Managing their Executive Team’s effectiveness

Assessing and improving performance

This 10-minute video provides an overview of The Green Business Lab.

Request your demo access to learn more about the simulation.

We are delighted to announce that The Green Business Lab was inducted into the 2024 International Green Industry Hall of Fame. This award recognizes pioneers, leaders, innovators, and visionaries who make significant contributions to a greener world.

The Lab consists of a practice cycle, three business cycles, and a presentation to the Board of Directors.

ASSESSMENT

The Lab includes written debrief questions, assignments, and quizzes that give you the tools to assess your students’ understanding of the concepts of sustainability. These are graded online and include both qualitative and quantitative feedback.
You’ll assign the weights to these elements that are appropriate for your course.  A common rubric is:

  • Simulation Results

  • Evaluation of the Board Presentation

  • Debrief Assignments

  • Readiness Assessment

Business sustainability topics often relate to personal values and beliefs.  In the Lab students are exposed to multiple perspectives when they discuss these topics with peers and instructors. This can enrich the student experience and enhance the team’s ability to work effectively.  The Lab uses peer and faculty-led discussion to enrich the learning experience.
In addition, the Lab has an option to engage with stakeholders within the simulation to introduce multiple points of view on a topic. Stakeholder interaction can emphasize key course lessons and offer opportunities to practice transparency, respect, and accountability.

Ready to go: We’ve got everything you need for a great simulation experience.

  • Participant & Instructor Guides
  • Participant & Instructor Dashboards
  • Video Tutorials
  • Curated Web Links to real-world examples
  • Downloadable Grading Spreadsheet

Schedule a demo