Creating More Sustainable Campuses: Water (part 1)

14 May 2012 by Leave a comment

2012 Wang Center Symposium “Our Thirsty Planet”, Pacific Lutheran University

Water is one of the 7 critical issues being discussed at the upcoming Rio+20 summit in Brazil. According to the Rio+20 website, by 2050, at least one in four people is likely to live in a country affected by chronic or recurring shortages of fresh water.

The business sector, through the production of goods and services, impacts water resources – both directly and through supply chains. Increasing demand, water scarcity and unsustainable supply, and decline in water quality all provide businesses with a range of water related risks. In response to this, the UN Global Compact created the CEO Water Mandate in July 2007, a unique public-private initiative designed to assist companies in the development, implementation and disclosure of water sustainability policies and practices. The water mandate covers six elements: direct operations, supply chain and watershed management, collective action, public policy, community engagement and transparency. Companies who commit to the mandate also pledge to disclose, via an annual report, how they are implementing the Mandate’s elements.

There are quite a few tools available for companies who want to measure their water performance throughout the value chain and better understand and identify water related business risks and impacts, including the WBCSD Global Water Tool, GEMI Water Sustainability and the WFN Water Footprint. We are also currently in the International Decade for Action “Water for Life” (2005-2015) and every year, World Water Day is celebrated on March 22.

In a previous blog, we looked at how a growing number of campuses are choosing to Ban Water Bottles on Campus. In this two part series, we look more broadly at a range of initiatives that business schools are taking part in to reduce the amount of water used on campus and raise awareness about issues relating to water.

Raising awareness

In association with the Dubai Water and Electricity Authority (DEWA), the University of Dubai conducted a workshop on conservation of water for students, faculty and staff in 2011. Officials from DEWA emphasised the need for water conservation and showed different methods for implementing them.

The Faculty of Economics at the University of Ljubljana organised a green round table around the topic of ‘Water and our Adjustments to Climate Change’. The round table involved noted professionals from fields of expertise on protecting water resources and social responsibility.

The Green Initiative at the Institute of Productivity & Management is focused on making the campus greener and more environmental friendly and includes a green agenda that looks at using water resources more sensibly.

Student Initiatives

Students at Pacific Lutheran University voted to impose a $20 annual fee upon themselves to improve water quality, and the University has banned bottled water sales. During a recent international case study competition at John Molson School of Business, students pushed the “Lug-a-Mug” campaign. All attendees were provided with reusable mugs to reduce the use of disposable drinking cups. The University of Victoria has a university wide Revolving Sustainability Fund for students and staff interested in organising energy and water saving projects on campus.

What is your campus doing to minimize the use of water? Share your projects in the comments area below.

Filed under 1-Purpose, 5-Partnership, 6-Dialogue, Asia, Eastern Europe and CIS, North America, United States, Canada, Campus Greening, Slovenia, Rio+20, United Arab Emirates Tagged with , , , , , ,

Sustainable Food on Campus (part 2)

8 May 2012 by Leave a comment

Farmer’s Market, University of San Diego

Food is one of the 7 critical issues bring discussed at the upcoming Rio+20 summit taking place this June in Rio de Janeiro Brazil. As the Rio+20 site states, “It is time to rethink how we grow, share and consume our food,” and, in this two part blog, we will be looking at a range of ways that university campuses are doing just that throughout their operations.

Community Gardens

With the increased push to provide more locally produced food, some campuses are taking matters into their own hands by creating gardens where students and staff grow some of the vegetables and produce consumed in the cafeterias. Royal Holloway School of Management has launched its Campus Community Garden to encourage students to grow and eat their own fresh vegetables. With help from the College’s gardeners, an area of wasteland on campus, measuring 152 square meters, has been turned into vegetable patches ready for students to cultivate. SLUG (Student Led Unity Garden) at the University of Portland is an organic, sustainable garden started in 2006 by a small group of students. The University of Victoria Campus Community Garden provides a range of introductory gardening workshops. The school provides 90 plots at the gardens, including individual allotment gardens, communal gardens for volunteers and food bank donations and garden plots used by advocacy groups and classes.

Farmers Markets

A growing number of schools are also providing space for farmers markets, where local farmers and producers can sell their products. The University of San Diego started a market in 2009 that provides fresh fruit and vegetables and food cooked on site on Wednesdays from 11-2pm. The University of London  also has a certified organic farmers market on campus, where students can grab their lunch every Thursday.

Celebrating Progress made

Copenhagen Business School celebrates Sustainable Food Day on campus. The day gives students the opportunity to sample delicious sustainable foods while becoming better informed about the links between social entrepreneurship and sustainable food production. It also gives students and staff the opportunity to interact with innovators who have turned their passion for sustainable food into profitable businesses. EM Strasbourg has been organising annual eco-banquets for volunteers who had taken part in actions dedicated to sustainable development in the School through the year. Each participant is able to discover the regional specialties and chat over a glass of organic cider and fair trade apple juice. The banquet is also an opportunity to speak about progress made on sustainable development projects over the previous year.

Giving back to the community
Campuses are not just looking at food on campus, but how to help ensure food donations for local charities. Students from Marketing Institute of Singapore Training Center had a Food donation drive in support of a local charity called Food from the Heart. They also partnered with the Singapore Environment Council to deliver a talk on “Being a Responsible Consumer by Going Green” to enhance understanding of the impact of food choices. “Food Fight” is an annual tradition in which a number of MBA programs across the US, including the University of Michigan, compete to see who can raise the most food to donate to local communities in need. The school that collects the most food (total or per student) wins money to donate to the charity of their choice and a coveted trophy. Staff, faculty and students at Grenoble Ecole de Management worked with Danone, an international food company, on a humanitarian project to collect food for the Restaurants du Cœur, a nationwide association that distributes meals and food to those in need.


For more on the Rio+20 theme of Food, read the Issue Brief prepared by UN-DESA visit the Rio+20 site.

Filed under 3-Method, 6-Dialogue, Asia, Campus Greening, Canada, Denmark, France, North America, Singapore, UK, United States, Western Europe Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sustainable Food on Campus (part 1)

30 April 2012 by Leave a comment

Addie's Cafe, Boston College

Food is one of the 7 critical issues bring discussed at the upcoming Rio+20 summit taking place this June in Rio de Janeiro Brazil. As the Rio+20 site states, “It is time to rethink how we grow, share and consume our food,” and, in this two part blog, we will be looking at a range of ways that university campuses are doing just that throughout their operations.

Campuses are taking a closer look at the kinds of food that they offer in their dining facilities. This includes, but isn’t limited to, sourcing food locally, from within 100km, buying certified organic or fair trade, sustainable fish certification through the Marine Stewardship Council, adapting menus based on the availability of seasonal product and using free-range eggs.

A focus on local

Many are putting in place comprehensive policies around food sourcing. At Audencia Nantes School of Business, all coffee, teas and juices have been fair trade since 2005. The University of Calgary’s dining services purchase local and organic products as well as sustainably harvested seafood items and fair trade coffee and tea. Grenoble Ecole de Management has a number of initiatives that have been undertaken by staff and students to promote the integration of fair trade and organic products in the School’s vending machines and cafeterias.

Following external certifications

Several campuses have chosen not to do this alone but to also work with external organisations and groups that are working to make dining facilities more sustainable. The University of Gloucestershire is working towards the Soil Association Food for Life Partnership catering mark, an independent guarantee that what’s on the menu is freshly prepared, free from undesirable additives and better for animal welfare. The University of Winchester currently has this mark for its conference and hospitality menus. At the University of California, by 2020, 20 percent of the purchases made in the dining facilities and fast food franchises on all campuses will meet one or more of 16 sustainable food criteria set by the Real Food Challenge, a national activist network focused on steering American colleges and universities toward sustainability.

Minimising food waste

Campuses are also looking at how to minimise food waste. Many already provide composting facilities on campus as well as recycling in cafeterias and dining facilities. The University of California significantly reduced food waste by ditching dining trays, which they found led most diners to opt for less food per meal. At Richard Ivey School of Business, Styrofoam was eliminated from residence dining halls and replaced with bio-degradable and compostable take out containers. Discounts are also provided to customers who purchase hot beverages with a travel mug.

Student Led Initiatives

Many of these initiatives around food on campus are being driven by the students themselves in collaboration with staff and dining facilities. Students at Boston College started Real Food BC, an organisation that works to promote the purchasing of food from local, green, humane sources in order to support localised food production and reduce carbon emissions associated with long-distance food shipment. Members, in collaboration with dining services, created Addie’s Loft, an organic eatery on campus that offers food from local and sustainable sources.

For more on the Rio+20 theme of Food, read the Issue Brief prepared by UN-DESA and visit the Rio+20 site.

Filed under 1-Purpose, 5-Partnership, 6-Dialogue, Campus Greening, Canada, France, North America, Rio+20, UK, United States, Western Europe Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Research Collaborations around Sustainability – Canada, US, France, UK and Denmark

24 April 2012 by 1 Comment

To advance sustainability and the related themes being explored at Rio+20 in June 2012 and beyond, there needs to be an increase in research around the topics of sustainability and responsible leadership. Below are some examples from Canada, the US, France, the UK and Denmark.

  • The David O’Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise at Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business has launched a Sustainability Scholars Program. Researchers from around the world are invited to visit for two to eight weeks and are encouraged to collaborate with faculty at the business school on research around sustainability and responsible leadership.
  • Villanova School of Business (VSB) has formed a Strategic Initiative Groups (SIGs) to enable diverse, multidisciplinary groups of faculty to collaborate around shared research and pedagogical interests. One such VSB group is the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) SIG, which serves as a hub of ethics-related scholarship and teaching at the school.
  • Euromed Management is a member of the international academic network SEABUS (International Research Network on Social and Environmental Aspects in Business and Management). This network, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research, brings together ten research institutions from across the globe to foster research in the area of social and environmental aspects of business and management.
  • Aarhus University, Business and Social Sciences (ASB) provides seed money to stimulate interdisciplinary research collaborations within sustainability through a programme called Virtual Communities on Sustainability. If an ASB researcher has an idea for a research theme that requires expertise from more than one department at ASB, other research units at Aarhus or other universities, an organisational framework is now in place to support such initiatives.
  • Cranfield School of Management has set up a Small Grant fund, whereby applicants from across the School can apply for funding to support research that intersects with responsible and sustainable management.

An Inspirational Guide for the Implementation of PRME: Placing sustainability at the heart of management education, which includes more great examples of how schools are engaging faculty and addressing other common questions/concerns related to embedding sustainability, will be launched at PRME’s 3rd Global Forum at Rio+20 in June.

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Creating Teaching Cases around Sustainability

16 April 2012 by Leave a comment

Management related academic institutions play an important role in training the current and future generations of leaders. Part of the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) and the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative is to encourage research on sustainable development issues, in particular leading up to Rio+20.

In an earlier blog, we looked at a selection of business schools that are developing teaching cases focused on sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR). There have been a growing number of schools writing case studies around these topics, and here we look at a few more examples from the US, UK, Spain and China.

San Francisco State University College of Business has an initiative to develop a series of case studies of local businesses in the Bay Area on their journey to sustainability. The initiative will include a variety of efforts to promote and support the development of business sustainability case studies by 1) fostering collaboration among leading sustainability case writers who teach at business schools in the Bay Area; 2) providing incentives and support to help faculty develop and apply case writing skills in the area of business sustainability; and 3) distributing and promoting cases. The initiative is sponsoring a forum to create a community of case writers from the area and is offering workshops to assist faculty in the development of case writing skills.

Cranfield School of Management, through a partnership with the Pears Foundation, which involves a collaboration between Cranfield School of Management, London Business School and the Said Business School at Oxford University have been developing a series of 27 case studies on themes such as sustainability, corporate governance and ethical decision making on companies.

There are also several examples of schools involving students in the writing of new case studies focused on responsible leadership. Columbia Case Works at Columbia Business School pairs second year students with faculty to write new cases around sustainability topics. Students also work with faculty to write introductory papers, which are distributed to all entering students on the topics of CSR, governance and values based leadership. Each summer, IESE Business School sponsors positions for research assistants with the aim of writing cases involving responsible management. The School’s professors are invited to identify and discuss situations (with colleagues and students, during and after class) that they have experienced during their professional activity and may be useful for developing a case study.

In May 2010, Hong Kong Baptist University School of Business organised the Symposium on Social Enterprises in China to provide a platform for discussion on the business models and success factors of social enterprises in China. Case studies were mainly developed by students of the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) programme after visiting different social enterprises in Hong Kong and several cities in Mainland China, including Anhui, Beijing, Shanghai, Shanxi, and Qinghai. Subsequent to the Symposium, a casebook entitled “Social Enterprises of the New Age: Case Studies in China” was published by Chinese Businesses Case Research Center and DBA students in May 2011.

Are you working on an initiative to create case studies around corporate sustainability or responsible leadership in your region? Share your experiences in the comments area below this blog.

Filed under 3-Method, 4-Research, Asia, China, North America, Spain, Teaching, UK, United States, Western Europe Tagged with , ,

Getting Faculty on Board with Sustainability

9 April 2012 by Leave a comment

Business Schools are increasingly looking at how to embed sustainability into their curricula and in particular core courses. How to get faculty on board is one of the most common questions/concerns relayed by schools as they work in this area. Here are a handful of examples from Denmark, France, Turkey, Germany and the US showing how schools are bringing their faculty together to look at these issues.

  • Euromed Management has created CSR faculty officers who are mandated to provide a link between Euromed Management’s CSR Department and their own departments, with at least on representative from each area. Their role is to transmit and disseminate the CSR strategy to their departments, but also to bring ideas and information that may affect the school’s strategy to the attention of management. The CSR Officers have become vectors of Sustainable Development throughout the school. Last year, their commitment resulted in the creation of a student well-being project and working groups on dematerialisation and responsible purchasing.
  • Istanbul Bilgi University Department of Business Administration formed a working team consisting of four faculty members from Operations Management, Statistics, Economics and Marketing to look at sustainability. The multi-disciplinary taskforce held various in-depth interviews with faculty members from all the subject areas of the Business Department. During these interviews, they explained the main principles of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and PRME. Afterwards, the faculty were encouraged to integrate these concepts into their courses.
  • At the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business, faculty created “primers” for each academic department to assist faculty with identifying ways to incorporate responsible leadership concepts (e.g. using case studies and readings) into academic frameworks and courses. They also conduct workshops for faculty to learn and discuss this very issue, present leading ideas and promising practices from other institution and firms, and share what others at Smith are already doing.
  • For several years now, HHL- Leipzig Graduate School of Management has been gradually expanding its institutional co-teaching (i.e. the joint teaching of courses by faculty from different areas of expertise). Students are very interested in understanding interfaces between different disciplines, such as the interaction between Ethics and Financial Management, Marketing Management, Strategic Management, Accounting, or Logistics Management. Examples include the incorporation of a session on ethical approaches in a marketing management module and the discussion of financial theory from a business ethics point of view.

An Inspirational Guide for the Implementation of PRME: Placing sustainability at the heart of management education, which includes more great examples of how schools are engaging faculty and addressing other common questions/concerns related to embedding sustainability, will be launched at PRME’s 3rd Global Forum at Rio+20 in June.

Filed under 3-Method, France, Germany, North America, Teaching, Turkey, United States, Western Europe Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Management Education and Rio+20 (Part 2)

2 April 2012 by Leave a comment

This June will see representatives from governments, the UN, major groups, business and a range of international organisations come together in Rio e Janeiro, Brazil for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, better known as the Rio+20 Earth Summit. The management education and business communities will be playing an active part in this historic event. In preparation for this summit, here are 10 things you need to know (read part 1 here):

6. The 3rd Global Forum for Responsible Management Education is the official platform for management-related Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) at both the Global Compact Corporate Sustainability Forum and Rio+20. On 14-15 June, 2012 in Rio, the Global Forum will focus on the role of management education in society for the future we want and how the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) can facilitate individual and systemic change within higher education as the community mobilises action toward achieving the Rio+20 vision on sustainable development. The event will be highly interactive, with an ultimate goal for participants to agree on concrete actions items and next steps. The formal outcomes of the Global forum will also inform the proceedings and outcomes of the Rio+20 Summit.

7. On the occasion of the Rio+20, the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative calls upon the leaders of the international academic community to sign a declaration of commitment to teach sustainable development concepts, encourage research on sustainable development issues, green their campuses, support sustainability efforts, engage with and share results through international frameworks, and engage with and share results through international frameworks. Heads of HEIs are invited to sign the declaration and submit it online.

8. There are a range of other management education-related projects feeding into the Global Forum. The Inspirational Guide for the Implementation of PRME will also be presented at the Global Forum. Through a range of case studies from schools around the world, the Guide responds to the most frequently asked questions concerning the implementation of the Principles of PRME with the further intention to help current and future signatories make progress on these issues beyond the events of Rio+20. Also, the PRME Working Groups on Anti-Corruption, Gender Equality and Poverty will present progress on their ongoing work.

9. 50+20: Management Education for the World is collaborative initiative between PRME, the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI) and the World Business School Council for Sustainable Business that seeks to find new ways and opportunities for management and business education to transform and reinvent itself. The report will launch officially at Rio+20 during the Global Forum.

10. Another project that will contribute to the proceedings of the Global Forum is the research report by Ashridge Business School, International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) and PRME about the changing role of business leaders. Released on 29 March, the report ‘Leadership in a Rapidly Changing World: How Business Leaders are Reframing Success’ shows how an increasingly number of business leaders are connecting company success with social progress, and paying attention to social and environmental issues that have conventionally been the territory of political leaders and NGO activists.

Filed under 1-Purpose, 2-Values, 3-Method, 4-Research, 5-Partnership, 6-Dialogue, Global, Rio+20 Tagged with , , , , , ,

Management Education and Rio + 20 (Part 1)

29 March 2012 by 1 Comment

This June will see representatives from governments, the UN, major groups, business and a range of international organisations come together in Rio e Janeiro, Brazil for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, better known as the Rio+20 Earth Summit. The management education and business communities will be playing an active part in this historic event. In preparation for this summit, here are 10 things you need to know.

1. The first Earth Summit, the Conference on Environment and Development, took place in Brazil in 1992. The 10th anniversary World Summit on Sustainable Development, took place in 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The 20th anniversary Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as Rio+20 will take place June 20-22, 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is envisaged as a conference at the highest possible level, including Heads of State and Government, and will result in a focused political document.

2. The aim of Rio+20 is to secure renewed political commitment for sustainable development, assess the progress to date and the remaining gaps in the implementation of the outcomes of the major summits on sustainable development, and address new and emerging challenges.  The conference will focus on two main themes: a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication and the institutional framework for sustainable development. For more information about the summit and why it is being convened, read the Rio+20 Brochure-The Future We Want.

3. The Rio+20 conference will address seven critical issues: jobs (trade, green jobs and social inclusion), energy, cities, food, water, oceans, and disasters. To learn more about these critical issues and other themes, you can read the issue briefs prepared for the event.

4. At the first Earth Summit in 1992, there was a realization that sustainable development could not become a reality without the active participation of stakeholders. Agenda 21 formalized nine groups that include Business and Industry, Children and Youth, Farmers, Indigenous Peoples, Local Authorities, NGOs, Scientific and Technological Community, Women and Workers and Trade Unions. Each has been contributing to the process, and their position papers can be accessed online.

5. The private sector plays a crucial role in moving sustainable development forward. Over 2,000 participants from business are expected to attend the Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum: Innovation and Collaboration for the Future We Want, which will take place on 15-18 June 2012 in Rio. This event will inform the proceedings and outcomes of the Rio+20 high-level meetings. For more information on the business contribution, read their input to the preparatory process, Corporate Sustainability Leadership: A Framework for Action at Rio+20 and Beyond.

Filed under 1-Purpose, 2-Values, 5-Partnership, 6-Dialogue, Global, Rio+20 Tagged with , , , , , ,

Certificates in Sustainable Business

26 March 2012 by 1 Comment

Queen's School of Business Certificate Graduates

A growing number of schools are putting in place certificate programmes that give their students the flexibility to pursue a traditional curriculum while specialising in the topic of sustainability. Below are a selection of such programmes from the US, France, Canada and Denmark.

Pepperdine University Graziadio School of Business and Management started offering their students the opportunity to pursue a Certificate in Socially, Environmentally and Ethically Responsible Business Practice in 2010. The certificate requires 8 units of course work, 6 units of elective choices and a capstone course on Responsible Business Practice. Students also need to be members of the campus Net Impact Club and get involved in events related to these topics. This programme is offered to all students enrolled in their business programmes.

The University of Georgia in the US has an Environmental Ethics Certificate programme that was founded in 1983. This interdisciplinary program incorporates coursework from the Odum School of Ecology, the law school and a diverse collection of departments across the campus, including philosophy, agricultural and applied economics, anthropology, history and political science.

Students at Queen’s School of Business in Canada can graduate with a Certificate in Socially Responsible Leadership in addition to their MBA. To receive this certificate, students must complete relevant courses, attend Responsible Leadership related conferences and speaker sessions, and engage in meaningful community volunteer work.  The certificate in the Commerce program started in 2004 and, in 2009, the certificate program was expanded to the School’s Accelerated MBA program.

In addition to their degree, Copenhagen Business School graduate students can choose to pursue a minor in sustainable business, which explores how innovative companies simultaneously attain social, environmental and economic business objectives. They also have access to a minor in Social Entrepreneurship and Not-for-Profit Management, which is intended to equip students with the instruments needed to develop earned-income strategies for charities and to launch social enterprises.

IESEG School of Management has recently set up a Certificate Programme in Sustainable Management. Students need to take a series of core courses and electives in the field to earn the certificate. They also need to do a work/study period of a minimum of 6 weeks at an NGO in Cape Town, South Africa.

Do you offer your students certificate programmes in sustainable business? Share your experiences in the comments area below.

Filed under 1-Purpose, 2-Values, 3-Method, Canada, Denmark, France, North America, Teaching, United States Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

Online and connected 4: Online Lectures on Sustainability

19 March 2012 by Leave a comment

In the fourth installment of our series about how universities are using the internet to engage students and the wider community in sustainability, we look at the growing range of online platforms where students can hear lectures about topics relating to sustainability. But these are not only interesting resources for students, for faculty these can be interesting additions to courses but also the opportunity to post your own lectures and courses to gain a wider audience for your work.

As we have seen in previous blogs, there are several universities around the world that already post their lectures and courses online for free on their websites. This includes, but is not limited to, Yale, MIT, Open University. There are also several lecturers and universities posting lectures to popular online video sites, such as Youtube and Vimeo, for example from the University of California Berkeley.

ITunesU contains over 500,000 lectures and courses from leading universities and other schools, all free of charge. Several schools, such as INSEAD, HEC, Western Reserve University and the University of Warwick also have podcasts of lectures relating to sustainability available through iTunes.

There are several not for profits that are also providing a space to post and share lectures online. Academic Earth was founded with the goal of extending high-quality online learning opportunities to people around the globe. It contains a range of lectures available to listen to free online from the academics across the US. Udemy is platform where you can take a course (free or for a limited charge) or teach a course in any topic you like.

Khan Academy  is a library of over 2,600 videos covering everything from arithmetic to physics, finance and history. Khan Academy is a not for profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world class education to anyone anywhere.

Finally, TED is a not for profit devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading.” Its conferences bring together the worlds of technology, entertainment and design. The website provides a range of short (20 minute) videos on a wide range of topics including many relating to sustainability.

Have you contributed to any of these platforms? Are there others that you have or would like to contribute to? Share you views in the discussion area below.

Filed under 3-Method, 4-Research, 5-Partnership, 6-Dialogue, Asia, Australasia, Eastern Europe and CIS, Global, Latin America, Middle East and Africa, North America, Online and Connected, Western Europe

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