Students completing a Cross-Sector Leadership certificate through ASU's Next Generation Service Corps program are required to take a course on social entrepreneurship. In partnership with the program and Tony's Chocolonely, a Dutch chocolate company working to make 100% slave free the norm in the chocolate industry, a semester-long course has been designed for this, including a week-long study abroad element to the company headquarters in Amsterdam. This required designing 15 weeks of academic content from start to finish; planning a trip itinerary and budget; collaborating with employees from Tony's Chocolonely, the ASU Global Education Office, the UNDP, and the Next Generation Service Corps at ASU; and preparing all of the material necessary for proposing a study abroad course for a future course instructor to present to the Global Education Office when it is ready to be implemented.

Over the last few decades, sustainability has become a great focus for individuals as well as businesses globally. The focus of this study was to understand why businesses purchase certain office supplies and why they may not be choosing to purchase the most sustainable options. The research question asked, “why are certain businesses reluctant to make positive, sustainable changes to their usage of office materials in their workplace environments?” Most companies do not look for alternatives that would benefit the environment when purchasing products for their office space. The reasons behind this hesitancy to change was studied through current literature on the topic as well as interviews conducted with Office Managers of several different businesses. Comparisons were made between each businesses’ decision patterns in order to find the root cause or causes of why companies do not choose more sustainable options when purchasing products for their workspaces. The interviews revealed that cost and quality are the most important factors these businesses take into consideration when purchasing office supplies. While some companies have looked into alternative products for their supplies, they ultimately choose to still purchase the less sustainable option. This is because the less sustainable option is often cheaper, and the company knows what quality to expect for the item. Overall, all of the Office Managers who were interviewed acknowledged some sort of sustainable practice that their company was taking part in, even if it did not directly relate to the types of office supplies that they purchase. This inclusion of general sustainable practices demonstrates how businesses are making efforts one way or another towards a more sustainable future. Therefore, this awareness to sustainability suggests that most, if not all businesses will eventually end up purchasing sustainable alternatives for their office supplies. However, the timeframe for which this occurs for each company will likely vary.