The Aspen Institute and World Resources Institute honored School of Management professor Andrew J. Hoffman with its Rising Star Award in an Oct. 8 report that recognized seven professors across the country for incorporating environmental issues into business education.

Hoffman said the institutes a non-profit organization and an environmental think tank, respectively give awards to business school faculty who work to integrate environmental and social issues into their colleges’ MBA programs.

The Rising Star Award specifically acknowledges faculty members who show great potential early in their academic careers, he added.

‘For me personally, it means a great deal because environmental issues within business schools are not often addressed,’ Hoffman said. ‘It is hard to get business schools to try to change and focus on this. You won’t necessarily be recognized in the regular metric.’

‘Beyond Grey Pinstripes 2003: Preparing MBAs for Social and Environmental Stewardship,’ singled out Hoffman for his ‘first-rate research, classroom innovations and ability to stimulate public debate on key social and environmental issues,’ according to a press release.

‘Professor Hoffman is a change agent within his business school, venturing into new academic territory,’ World Resources Institute Business Education Manager Meghan Chapple said in the statement.

Hoffman’s elective course ‘Competitive Environmental Strategy’ and his textbook ‘Competitive Environmental Strategy: A Guide to the Changing Business Landscape’ addressed issues particularly important to World Resources Institute, according to institute spokesman Christopher Legan.

Hoffman said ‘Competitive Environmental Strategy’ teaches that environmental issues are a clear business strategy.

‘The main point of the class is that you can be a good environmentalist and get an MBA at the same time,’ Hoffman said. ‘To solve environmental and social problems, businesses have to be part of the solution.’

A group of Hoffman’s peers including SMG Dean Louis Lataif nominated him for the award in February 2003.

‘This award identifies professor Hoffman as one of the nation’s leading scholars in the area of business social responsibility,’ Lataif said. ‘It reflects so well on his intellect and his academic credibility, and it also brings great honor to the School of Management.’

Hoffman also won the Rachel Carson Book Prize in 2001 from the Society for Social Studies of Science, the Broderick Research Prize in 1998 from SMG

and the Klegerman Award for Environmental Excellence from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Environmental Engineering Department.