As the ecology movement came of age more than three decades ago, Allegheny was among the first institutions to recognize that study of the environment should become a major part of its curriculum. Today, it has become a national leader in the quality and scope of its programs , which emphasize that the environmental movement and business must come together to solve global warming and other environmental threats to the planet.

If you were to travel back in time to 1970, the year of the first Earth Day celebration, you would see that the battle lines in the environmental debate were crisply drawn. Environmentalists were on one side, industry on the other.

Thirty-seven years later, the battle lines have largely vanished. On one side are the environmentalists, and on that same side are a growing number of American and foreign industries, a group that includes General Electric, BP Oil, Wal-Mart, and the Ford Motor Company.

So it's not surprising that the environmental curriculum at Allegheny is not about "us versus them." It's about solving environmental problems. "Business is an integral part of solving environmental problems in the twenty-first century," says Terrence Bensel, associate professor of environmental science. "Business has the capital, the brains, and the entrepreneurial spirit. The idea that you will solve environmental problems without business is foolish."

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