In early 2002, Elizabeth and Gifford Pinchot, Jill Bamburg and Dr. Sherman Severin founded BGI in order to offer an alternative to the traditional business school model for students who wanted to integrate values about social justice and environmental sustainability into their business education. Combining their collective expertise in business innovation and business education, they designed BGI to offer world-class sustainable innovation and management training. The pioneering curriculum preserved the rigor of a traditional MBA program while infusing social responsibility and environmental sustainability perspectives throughout every course.

 BGI was authorized by the State of Washington In the fall of 2002 to confer the Master of Business Administration degree. BGI admitted an initial class of 14 students taught by an outstanding founding faculty that included Amory Lovins, Elisabet Sahtouris, John Adams, Mark Anielski and John Ehrenfeld. The hybrid program was structured with a monthly 4-day residency supported by online distance learning. In the summer of 2003, Lorinda Rowledge joined BGI as its Dean and then became the first Provost.BGI enrollment increased to 34 MBA students in 2003, and it initiated a Certificate in Sustainable Business program with an inaugural group of six students. BGI also launched a Sustainable Business Speaker Series for the public and two in-residence programs, one for entrepreneurs and one for executives, to connect students directly with business leaders at the vanguard of innovation and social change and to enrich student’s real-world experience. Speakers like Amory Lovins (co-author of Natural Capitalism), Paul Dolan (former CEO of Fetzer Vineyards), Christine Ervin (former CEO of the US Green Building Council), Jeffery Hollender (CEO of Seventh Generation) , Gary Smith (Timberland), Sarah Severn (Nike), and Chris Van Dyke (Nau) and many more have shared their experiences and provided inspiration to the greater BGI community.

In May 2004, BGI graduated its first MBA class and paid tribute to the school’s pioneering students, faculty and staff (and their families) at a gala celebration on Bainbridge Island. In the fall of 2004, when enrollment jumped to 54 MBA students and six certificate students, BGI moved its monthly residential classes to IslandWood, a 255-acre LEED gold-certified residential environmental education center. Founded by Paul and Debbie Brainerd to provide environmental education to grade schoolers, IslandWood offers an ideal setting for BGI’s programs, with acres of trails, sustainably designed meeting spaces and lodges, locally raised food and state-of-the-art classroom technology.

In 2005, BGI almost doubled its enrollment again to approximately 80 MBA students and 18 certificate students, as well as adding a year-long Action Learning Project (ALP) to the first-year MBA program. In December 2005, founder Gifford Pinchot III was named President.

In 2006, BGI brought its MBA enrollment to 107 students and its certificate enrollment to 33 students. The certificate program was reconfigured and the Institute launched its first weekly night school Certificate in Sustainable Business program in downtown Seattle while continuing the monthly intensive-format for the Certificate in Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship. The pilot Industry Concentration program was initiated with a focus on Sustainable Outdoor Industry.

In 2007, BGI doubled the size of its entering class. In addition, the school expanded its change-agents-in-residence (CAIR) program to include an Activist-in-Residence each month. The success of the Industry Concentration program prompted an expansion to include five industries:

• Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems
• Sustainable Community Economic Development
• Sustainable Energy Solutions
• Sustainable Green Building
• Sustainable Outdoor Industry

In 2008, BGI enrolled 157 MBA students and 43 certificate students and expanded to two weekends a month at IslandWood.