Students in the M.B.A. program of the Brandeis International Business School have a new opportunity to study the economic, environmental and social impact of businesses through a new Socially Responsible Business concentration, IBS administrators said.This "is an area of business that is hot now," IBS M.B.A. Program Director Prof. Ben Gomes-Casseres said. Companies are interested in hiring people to think through areas of socially responsible business, he said.

The Socially Responsible Business concentration, one of four concentrations students can choose when completing the M.B.A. program, consists of four semester-equivalent courses in addition to the M.B.A. core requirements. Students entering IBS this fall and second-year students can complete the concentration.

Two new courses created specifically for this concentration include "Business and the Environment," a class taught by Prof. Preeta Banerjee (IBS), and "What is Green Business?," a class that will be offered in the spring.

Students who choose to complete this concentration are also required to complete a project course in which they will consult on or complete a field project on a topic concerning the social impact, sustainability, stakeholder relations and environmental impact of a business.

Students will also take one elective through IBS or another school or department at Brandeis, according to the IBS Web site.

"We want our students to be able to really explore the trade-offs between economic, social and environmental goals in the study of business," said Matthew Parillo, IBS senior associate director of communications.

Gomes-Casseres explained that businesses are now focusing on the concept of the "triple bottom line," in which businesses focus on three things: their profit, their environmental impact and their social impact. A company's social impact includes issues related to labor and consumers.

He said that the term "green" now encompasses the global and international responsibilities of businesses in addition to their entrepreneurial motives.

Parillo said IBS staff members discussed the idea for this new concentration for the past year, and new IBS Dean Bruce Magid facilitated the concentration's inclusion into the M.B.A. program after he arrived last year.

Parillo said the program "advances the principles and values of Justice Louis Brandeis."

The IBS Web site explains that Justice Brandeis called a professional business one that is "pursued largely for others" and one "in which the amount of financial return is not the accepted measure of success."

Banerjee, who studies the way individuals, technologies, firms and industries evolve over time, said "a lot of the new firms are all dealing with how innovation can accomplish a lot of our shortcomings in terms of alternative energy, cleaner technology and sustainability."

Banerjee said the "Business and the Environment" class will examine the interactions between people and groups who are invested in seeing a certain business succeed. This may include customers, governments, advocacy groups, employees of the firms and shareholders.

The first part of "Business and the Environment" will focus on the way government and the political economy affects business.

The students will then examine how firms can be "proactive with how they deal with issues of the environment and being socially responsible."

The third part of the course deals with entrepreneurship, and the last part will look at how businesses can sustain themselves using existing resources.

Sustainability can include "recycling, revamping, renewing and innovating," Banerjee said.

The class will examine cases concerning 10 businesses including McDonald's and Chevron.

Gomes-Casseres said jobs students could pursue following graduation could range from consulting to marketing to managing operations for a business.