Sustainable Enterprise and Strategic Management of the Natural Environment

By Mark Coleman

Since 2018 I have had the privilege of teaching Sustainable Enterprise and Strategic Management of the Natural Environment to undergraduate and graduate students at Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management. This fall 2025 semester there were nearly 60 students enrolled in the Sustainable Enterprise class, the largest cohort of undergraduate students since I began teaching the class seven years ago.

Each semester I use a simple but effective assignment to get to know the students. With all credit due to Simon Sinek, I leverage the deep insight from his well known book and philosophy, “Start with Why” to get the students thinking about their innate purpose, and how it connects with their personal views on sustainability. I have found the exercise to be invaluable. For this assignment, I task the students to watch Simon Sinek’s original Ted Talk where he describes the Golden Circle with Why at the center, followed by How and What. I ask the students to apply Sinek’s framework to their life, and to go deeper on their interest in sustainable enterprise.

As a prelude to the assignment, I also ask the students to think about one or two sustainability challenges or opportunities that they see impacting their personal life and the world today. I challenge them to explore the “S-word,” sustainability in a way that aligns with their Why. I explain to the students that the “S-word” can be abstract and has unfortunately become politicized and weaponized in our current culture. Thus, it is important to demystify, deconstruct, and examine the purpose, or “Why” that the S-word is seeking to accomplish. By having a clear value proposition and stronger Why, the S-word has a greater likelihood of being accepted. 

Intentionally, I keep the assignment simple. After the students have watched Sinek’s Ted Talk I ask them to submit a couple of paragraphs, examining their personal “Why.” What I typically receive from student submissions is a full page and often a couple of pages of thoughtful introspection, self-examination, and insightful purpose. Selfishly, the assignment allows me to learn something unique about each student. After seven years of issuing this assignment, I’ve found that many students (undergraduate juniors and seniors) have never been given permission to articulate their Why. Their responses reveal both innocence and wisdom that is often found in younger and less confounded minds. Transparency and purity shine through each student response, often illuminating ideals for justice, peace, living in harmony with nature, and the desire to create a better world. Even if not clearly articulated, the underlying strong sense of values and principles is felt in most of the student Whys. Why is this?

I’ve used “Start with Why” for over 7 years, guiding students to be curious, introspective, and forthright as they align their Why within the context of Sustainable Enterprise. In reviewing more than 250 Why statements over the past seven years I have observed that most of the students have processed and internalized their life and the external world in ways which prior generations did not or could not. Within each of the students’ Why statements I have noticed a humanistic yearning for greater and deeper connection – with nature, and among people. 

🎓 Regarding my class this past fall… I found this year’s “Why” exercise particularly interesting and informative. Students expressed an innate sense of introspection and wisdom in exploring their “Why” in the context of sustainability and sustainable enterprise. As once student noted in their Why response, “…Caring is the easiest thing a human can do, and if our generation starts to, we can help maximize sustainability in our society.” More insights via the post link.

⁉️ As a point of view… We don’t need more sustainability “yes” people. Rather, we need contrarian critical thinkers and pragmatists that can anchor their “Why” with that of an enterprise in a way that drives sustainable innovation and change. I believe that the education and training of the next generation of principled leaders is the most compelling investment we can make toward a more sustainable future.

Ecology Prime proudly shares the perspective of three inspiring students: