Written by Amanda Solliday, Ph.D. candidate in Horticultural Sciences and Graduate Business Sustainability certificate student in the Poole College of Management

As a Ph.D. student studying sustainability in the cut flower industry, I spend a lot of time thinking about environmental impacts. But early in my research, I realized that understanding supply chains required a very different kind of literacy. I could explain carbon emissions and resource flows, but not the trade-offs a business faces when planning for both profitability and climate resilience at the same time, or when sourcing locally increases cost but reduces risk. I needed the ability to speak in the vocabulary of operations, not just horticulture and environmental science.

That’s why I enrolled in NC State’s Graduate Business Sustainability Certificate, and where the Sustainable Operations Management (MBA 547) course gave me the supply-chain perspective I had been missing. The class, taught by Professor Tim Kraft, explored how sustainability plays out in real supply chains, particularly where disruptions, transparency demands, and sourcing decisions create both ethical and logistical challenges.

As an operations course, sustainability was not presented as theory but as an unavoidable business reality. I found myself looking forward to the Saturday sessions. In one class, the hands-on supply chain disruption simulation required our class teams to react in real time to inventory shortages and shifting customer demand. It was the kind of active learning that makes strategy feel urgent instead of abstract. Those simulations and case discussions helped me connect concepts like supply chain transparency and resource management to the kinds of sustainability questions I study in floriculture: Can a supply chain be both low-carbon and financially viable at scale? What trade-offs emerge when sustainability goals collide with seasonal demand spikes? How do we measure success when the “greenest” option isn’t the cheapest or fastest? The class also taught me how to communicate sustainability in the language business decision-makers respect, including risk, resilience, and cost, going beyond just good intentions and environmental data. 

The Graduate Business Sustainability Certificate, and especially the Sustainable Operations Management course, expanded my view of sustainability. I now see supply chains as systems full of people, decisions, and vulnerabilities, and that has made me a better researcher and advocate for sustainable business.

*This course is part of the Graduate Business Sustainability Certificate program.