UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Five teams of MBA students from programs across the United States will compete for $17,500 in prize money Dec. 1-2 in the third annual Penn State Smeal College of Business MBA Sustainability Case Competition.

Teams from Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Georgetown, Notre Dame, and Penn State Smeal were chosen as finalists from a pool of 28 teams from 19 universities. They will compete for top prizes of $10,000 (first place), $5,000 (second place), and $2,500 (third place).

The preliminary-round entries — PowerPoint slides and an executive summary — were stripped of identifying features and judged by a panel of five Smeal faculty members, led by Emeritus Klein Professor of Management Gerald Susman.

“Sustainability education has been stitched into the fabric of the Smeal culture for nearly a decade,” Susman said. “The MBA sustainability case competition is a teaching initiative that underscores our commitment to helping students understand the ways in which sustainable business practices shape the world around us."

Each team will be allotted 30 minutes for its presentation on the case, which focuses on Verizon’s global supply chain operations and concerns about the increase in frequency and severity of severe weather events. Another 15 minutes will be devoted to questions and answers with the panel of judges that includes two senior executives from Verizon, one from IBM, and one from Alcoa.

IBM, SKF, Alcoa, International Paper, PepsiCo, and Verizon are sponsors of the competition, part of a broader focus on sustainability at Smeal, a strategic priority that permeates the educational experiences, research activities, and practices across the college.