Bloomberg BusinessWeek asked senior business students nationwide to grade their business programs from A-F in 12 specialty areas. The results: the College of Business Administration captured an impressive seventh-place standing in sustainability.

But the college is just getting started. An expansion to the curriculum and increased journal submissions are among the areas that are expected to grow. In addition, existing events, such as an annual Green Supply Chain Management Forum, offered through the college’s Ryder Center for Supply Chain Management, enable students to broaden their knowledge.

“When I created a Green Management course, I knew it would be cutting edge and timely, but I had no idea it would be so well received,” said Constance Bates, one of the members of the Department of Management and International Business who revamped the business school’s Green Management Track in 2009 and a member of Florida International University’s (FIU) Building and Environment Committee. “I taught the course for the first time this spring. The 60 students went out to the community where each group audited a real business and developed a green plan for each.”

She and colleagues Ronnie Silverblatt and Jack Kleban have already written two articles and delivered a paper on green curriculum issues to enable FIU Business to become Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS)–certified to teach in the area.

“We are working on two new articles and are pre-testing a student survey on green right now,” Bates said. “Preliminarily, 91 percent of the students want green content in their courses.”

Enthusiastic support exists at department and college level.

According to Bates, department chair Galen Kroeck “recognized that ‘green’ is part of doing business today, and we will be adding another course, Environmental Management, in the fall 2010 semester.”

For Executive Dean Joyce J. Elam, the recognition is both an affirmation and a spur to do even more.

“This exceptionally high ranking adds to our motivation to launch additional ‘green’ innovations in our undergraduate program, such as building on our strengths and reputation in entrepreneurship,” she said.

The survey also ranked the college in the top 25 in the specialty areas of operations management and marketing.