Professor Hunter Lovins, a respected environmentalist who wears her trademark Western hat, says Wal-Mart "has the leverage unlike any company I have ever seen" and pushes students to apply for jobs and internships there.

Bridging the gap between planet and profit is at the heart of the Presidio School of Management, one of a handful of US business schools that offer sustainable or "green" MBA (Master of Business Administration) programs.

The Presidio school is small, producing only 56 graduates in its short history. But with concern for global warming on suddenly rising and consumers demanding greener, cleaner and more socially just products and practices, enrollment at Presidio for next fall is nearing 200.

For companies like Wal-Mart that are trying to turn over a new, greener leaf, students of Presidio and other small schools like Seattle's Bainbridge Graduate Institute could bring sharper sustainability skills than those from more established MBA programs.

"These places are going to serve as laboratories ... where smart people are thinking very seriously about how to integrate business and sustainability," said Rich Leimsider of the Aspen Institute, where he reviews MBAs' social and environmental components for the "Beyond Grey Pinstripes" ranking.

SUSTAINABILITY 'BAKED INTO EVERYTHING'

Unlike top-ranked business schools like those at Stanford or Yale, which offer courses in sustainability, Presidio puts sustainability at the core of every course. For example, in accounting, students learn traditional practices plus environmental accounting.

"I didn't want to go to a school where it is an elective. I wanted a school where it is embedded and baked into everything," said Michelle Mullineaux, a 35-year-old executive from New York City who commutes to San Francisco for the school's four days of classes held once a month over two years.

Whether students wear Birkenstock sandals or business suits, they all seem to have the same basic reasons for pursuing a sustainable MBA: a passion for the environment and the desire to make a difference.

Many come after successful corporate careers and the average age is 36, compared to an MBA average of 28 to 29.

First-year student Shuli Goodman, 49, is a management consultant for global companies who wants to learn how to "transition an economy to a sustainable economy."

"People are from really different places," she said. "Some are tree-huggers and others are tree-huggers and business people."

Nick Aster, a recent Presidio graduate, actually works at TreeHugger, a media company dedicated to driving sustainability into the mainstream with an upbeat message on the environment.

"I want to use new media to help companies communicate their environmental message but also allow our audience to provide feedback toward what they are doing," said Aster, 33. "It is a big challenge to get a company to open up and be transparent enough to do something like that.

CORPORATE AMERICA BECKONS

Presidio Provost Ron Nahser says sustainable management is one of the biggest business opportunities to come along in a long time.

"We tell students it will not be slotted into traditional roles," he said. "There are going to be new opportunities coming up in every company."

And companies are going to Presidio for the students' expertise even before they graduate. Last semester, some 100 students worked on 30 projects for companies.

But the school's leaders recognize they need to push more students to work in Corporate America rather than just take the preferred paths of starting their own enterprises or working for nonprofit groups. And students need to get out of San Francisco to Middle America.