Women, Responsible Leadership and the MBA (part 4): Women on campus

22 April 2013 by Leave a comment

imagesBusiness schools around the world have taken a wide range of approaches when it comes to providing specific opportunities to promote and empower women in business. In the first blog we looked at range of resources on this topic and in the second post we looked at schools that provide a range of free certificate programmes through the 10,000 Women initiative. The third post looked at programmes being developed to empower women in the corporate world. Now, this post will consider the range of ways that schools are bringing up these issues to campus. 

Social Enterprise Week is an annual event where student clubs at the Graziadio School of Business and Management host a range of events to communicate the value of social and environmental responsibility, as well as sound ethical practices in business. During this week, the MBA Women Club, part of an international network dedicated to the advancement of business women as corporate leaders, held a panel discussion on Achieving the Feminine Triple Bottom Line.

A large number of signatory schools, such as Queen’s School of Business in Canada and London Business School in the UK, are also members of the Forte Foundation, a non profit consortium of major corporations and top business schools working together to launch women into fulfilling, significant careers through access to business education and opportunities. The schools provide, among other things, scholarships for women with high potential.

The Simmons School of Management has done extensive research around how gender is explored at a range of different business schools around the world. In 2012 they had an intensive, interdisciplinary student experience entitled the Simmons World Challenge where teams of students are invited to work with a small team of faculty over their winter break to develop creative solutions for major world problems.  The 2012 World Challenge theme was “At the Edge of Poverty:  Empowering Women to Change their Lives and their Worlds.” The MBA concentration in Organizational Leadership continues to have as its primary focus the success of women in organizations. As part of this, Simmons added a travel course to the UAE, including attendance and active participation in the 2012 Women as Global Leaders Conference (WAGL).

Villanova School of Business in the US has a Women in Business Advocacy Committee, dedicated to proposing measures that will enable all students to explore and understand issues that confront women as business leaders. They collaborate with the university-level Women’s Executive Leadership Program to ensure that the needs of VSB undergraduate and graduate students, VSB alumnae, and VSB corporate partners are best served.

The University of New South Wales in Australia has several programmes focused on women. The Academic Women’s Employment Strategy 2012- 2014 positions gender equity as a strategic priority for UNSW. In 2012 for the eighth consecutive year, it was recognised as an Employer of Choice for its initiatives to support and advance women in the workplace by the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency. Initiatives developed under UNSW’s gender equity program include the Academic Women in Leadership program, the Vice-Chancellor’s Childcare Support Fund for Women Researchers and the Career Advancement Fund. The school has an Academic Women in Leadership Program, designed for women seeking to develop leadership capability and includes themes such as authentic style, executive influence, adaptive leadership, thought leadership and one-to-one coaching. Their AGSM Women Indigenous Leaders Scholarship is provided yearly to Indigenous women entering the Women in Leadership Programme.

Filed under 1-Purpose, 2-Values, 3-Method, 4-Research, 5-Partnership, 6-Dialogue, Australasia, Australia, Canada, North America, UK, United States, Western Europe Tagged with , , ,

Spreading the word about PRME on campus

1 February 2013 by Leave a comment

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Signatories to the Principles for Responsible Management Education from around the world are using a wide range of strategies to integrate PRME into their curriculums and raise awareness about the Principles among their students and staff. One method that schools from all regions of the world are able to implement is to create posters with the 6 Principles of PRME on them and posting them in high visibility spots around campus as a way.

Several schools such as ISAE FGV in Brazil (pictured below) and the University of Hull in the UK created large posters with information about the Principles and their commitment to these which are placed on walls around the entrance to campus. In Peru, Centrum Católica (pictured above) displays a poster with the Principles on campus and in each classroom. This makes students aware of the school’s commitment and, as a result, students will often ask faculty and administration for more information about the initiative.

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In the USA, Thunderbird School of Global Management has posted information about the Principles across campus. They are also used as a guideline in curriculum development and as a pedagogical tool. Many of their students report that they chose Thunderbird based on its commitment to managerial professionalism and responsibility.

In Canada, MacEwan School of Business created a poster which was unveiled when they first became a signatory in January 2011 and is now displayed on campus.

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In the United Arab Emirates, the University of Dubai put the PRME poster with the six Principles in three locations on campus; at the main entrance near the reception, in the students’ foyer and in the MBA lobby. The purpose was to create awareness about the organization and UD’s commitment to the Principles. In addition, all students have to take a core course, “Business and Society,” in which students learn about PRME, the Global Compact, and how the UD is involved in each of them.

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In Jordan, Talal Abu-Ghazaleh College of Business decided to show the written Principles to increase the awareness of both students and faculty members and show how they are deployed in the school’s MBA program. Introductory sessions were held to raise awareness of PRME and explain how TAGSB is fully committed to the Principles, assuring the full understanding of how crucial it is to align them.

Many of the schools listed have created their own banners; however, the PRME secretariat also has a banner which is available to download from the PRME website at http://unprme.org/resources/display-resources-sub.php?scid=10.

- Do you have a poster on campus showing the Principles? Let us know and send us a picture. - 

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Filed under 1-Purpose, 2-Values, Brazil, Canada, Jordan, Latin America, Middle East and Africa, North America, Peru, UK, United Arab Emirates, United States, Western Europe Tagged with , , , ,

Energy and Sustainability in Business Schools – Business School response (part 2)

30 January 2013 by Leave a comment

clean_energyEnergy and Climate Change are two very important issues for the business sector. Companies of all shapes and sizes are working both independently and together to reach various carbon reduction goals set by themselves or by the international community (see Part 1).

Business schools are also increasingly active with more and more schools reporting on their energy and carbon reduction activities. In the next couple of parts of this series we will look at some of these schools and what they are doing.

Reducing Energy Use on Campus

In 2012, Cotsakos College of Business  was named a finalist in the 2012 Second Nature Climate Leadership Awards competition, which recognizes the most innovative climate leaders in the US. The university has embarked on several energy saving initiatives. In October 2010, the university opened what was then the largest solar energy facility on any university campus in the US. The initiative is projected to save an estimated $4.3 million in energy costs over the next 15 years, while also reducing the university’s carbon footprint.In the Netherlands, Rotterdam School of Management’s ‘Campus under Construction’ project, which is being implemented until 2028, focuses on modernizing the campus to make it more energy efficient. The university administration has been collaborating closely with both the city of Rotterdam and sustainability faculty concerning city planning and environmentally sustainable considerations. In 2013 a 15‐story building for international student housing, the Erasmus Plaza; a vibrant green esplanade; pedestrian‐avenue with underground parking; and the energy-neutral Erasmus Pavilion will be completed. Ashridge Business School in the UK switched in 2011 to a 100% renewable electricity supply contract.

Measuring the Carbon Footprint

One of the main efforts on campuses around energy is measuring and reducing their carbon footprint. Winchester Business School has a commitment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions per square meter by 30% below the 2006 levels by 2015. In 2011, the university set a target for carbon reduction of 43% by 2012. A growing number of schools are looking not just to reduce but to become carbon neutral. Pacific Lutheran University has a goal of carbon neutrality by 2020. In 2010 the university dropped its total energy costs by 10% by changing out light fixtures, adding motion sensors for lighting, and installing better insulation and window seals. Bentley University has made a commitment to become carbon neutral by the year 2030. The office of sustainability provides a website with information on Bentley’s current carbon footprint and an overview of their plans to reach this goal through energy system upgrades, green building and electronics recycling among other things. They have also constructed a 3,000 square foot solar thermal wall as part of the Athletic Center which traps heat from the sun. When the heating, ventilation and air conditioning is turned on, the air is pulled through the solar walls and is heated in the process requiring less energy to warm the air in a room.

Educating the campus about efforts

A large part of reducing energy use on campus is raising awareness of the issues with students and staff. In India, the Institute of Productivity and Management Green Initiative works to make its campus greener. They created ‘Save Energy’ guidelines which include conservation of water and electricity, which are widely distributed amongst staff and students. In Slovenia, the Faculty of Economics Eco Team encourages employees and students to get engaged by organizing and implementing a wide range of energy reduction activities. In Korea, Kyung Hee University ‘s Green Team also conducts a range of awareness raising activities and projects around Energy management and lighting efficiency across campus.

Taking part in International and National Initiatives

Another way that schools are raising awareness about these issues on campus is by participating in international energy related events. The University of Dubai takes part in Earth Hour every year on March 22nd. Students, faculty, and staff at UD signed up to participate in the world earth hour and participated by switching off the lights for one hour. Schulich School of Business also celebrate Earth Hour with their event ‘Earth Hour Every Hour’ in collaboration with IRIS, and the Ecologically Conscious Organization aims to provide environmental knowledge, and to inspire the creation of a future where waste and energy reduction are daily considerations. In France, Clean Tuesdays began as an association in 2008 to promote the development of Cleantech throughout France. On the first Tuesday of every month, an event or mini-conference is organized in a different location in France bringing together participants to share their expertise, their activities and their best practices in the field. Grenoble Ecole de Management is affiliated with this project and has hosted several Clean Tuesday events on campus.

Getting students engaged

Several schools, such as EADA in Spain, have student clubs focused on energy issues. At EADA, the Green Society is a voluntary student club for individuals who have an interest in Climate Change. Throughout the year the club organizes interactive seminars on the topics of Carbon Politics, New Sources of Energy, Creating a Low-Carbon Economy, and more. Grenoble Ecole de Management has a student engineer specialized in Quality, Security & Environmental analysis who is currently carrying out a comprehensive study of the School carbon footprint. The University of Victoria in Canada has instituted voluntary carbon-offset programs for students travelling as part of their exchange program.

- This is part of a series of blogs in 2013 focused on business schools and energy - 

Filed under 1-Purpose, 2-Values, 3-Method, 5-Partnership, 6-Dialogue, Canada, France, India, Korea, Netherlands, North America, Slovenia, Spain, UK, United Arab Emirates, United States

2012 International Year of Cooperatives and Management Education – Business school response (Part 3)

24 December 2012 by Leave a comment

Each year the United Nations identifies an issue of global importance and uses that time to raise awareness about it in the international community. The 2012 International Year of Cooperatives recognizes the diversity of the cooperative movement around the world and its contribution to socio-economic developments, such as poverty reduction, employment generation and social integration.

In Part 1 of this series introduced the International Year, while Part 2 looked at a range of examples of cooperative operations around the world. In Part 3, we will see how business schools are exploring this topic in their programmes.

Some business schools provide specialized programmes focused on cooperatives. A leading programme is Saint Mary’s University in Canada’s Master of Management  Co-operatives and Credit Unions which is designed to improve students’ understanding of management within the context of the co-operative economic model.

SDA Bocconi School of Management in Italy created a Master in Management of Social Enterprises, Not for Profit Organizations and Cooperativesbased on intensive dialogue and discussion with the cooperatives themselves. Again in Canada, L’Université du Québec à Montréal offers a specialization in cooperatives and social organizations. They also bring in the topic of cooperatives across their programmes and initiatives, emphasizing cooperatives management during orientation activities and maintaining an endowed faculty chair on the subject.

Cornell University’s Cooperative Enterprise Program aims to enhance the performance of existing cooperative businesses and facilitate the development of emerging cooperative enterprise through teaching, research, and outreach. The CEP has grown out of a long-standing outreach effort at Cornell to agricultural cooperative businesses.

A few Business schools have Centers for Cooperatives. The University of Wisconsin’s Center for Cooperatives has a dedicated site for the International Year of Cooperatives with a wealth of information including how to start a coop. They also have links to research they have done around the economic impacts of cooperatives in the US.

Gustavson School of Business in Canada incorporates cooperatives into several of their courses. The international finance course includes frequent discussions based on current news from international financial markets, and students present in class on the topic of financial co-operative institutions and their role in developing countries. They also have an active interdisciplinary Centre for Co-operative and Community-Based Economy.

 Some schools also provide space for cooperatives to develop. ISAE/FGV for example has Technological Incubators for Popular Cooperatives (ITCP), in partnership with the Stickel Foundation. These incubators have been working with two solidarity and inclusive enterprises created by women from the Brasilândia, a low‐income neighbourhood in São Paulo: Doces Talentos, an organic catering service; and Brasilianas, a sustainable fashion project.

Is your school providing programmes on Cooperatives? Share your examples in the comments area below.

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2012 International Year of Cooperatives and Management Education – Business Examples from Around the World (Part 2)

10 December 2012 by Leave a comment

Each year the United Nations identifies an issue of global importance and raises awareness about it in the international community. The 2012 International Year of Cooperatives recognizes the diversity of the cooperative movement around the world and its contribution to socio-economic developments, such as poverty reduction, employment generation and social integration.

The World Co-operative Monitor launched in October 2012 ranks the 300 largest co-operative and mutual enterprises by turnover and provides a list of these organized by industry. The official website for the Year also provides a list of national cooperative associations organized by region. A few PRME professors shared their thoughts on top cooperative practices with us:

Leo Wang, Assistant Professor, School of Business, McEwan University, Canada: Mountain Equipment Co-op in Canada is a great example of an alternative business model that is built around leaving the world a better place than when we arrived. As both a cooperative and a business engaging in sustainable practices, it tries to champion sustainability in many different aspects (supply chain, internal processes, communications with consumers, etc.). For just $5 you can get a lifetime membership which gives you the right to vote. They now have over 3.3 million members.

Elizabeth Franklin-Johnson, Euromed Management, France & CEREFIGE, France: Sol à Sol is playing an important part in constructing the social economy as well as preserving nature. Selling organic fair-trade “Maté”, a traditional Argentinean drink, this cooperative offers rural workers in Argentina a chance to develop sustainably, have access to training and have a fair price for their products. From Sol à Sol’s base in Marseille, France, goods are packaged by employees in an environment which helps the social and professional integration of adults with disabilities. Sol à Sol has managed to combine the social, economic and environmental pillars into their business model, as well as having the additional ethical angle, all of which confirm their implication is sustainability, and in my mind ticks all the boxes!

Other examples recommended by faculty and students include;

  • Mondragon in the Basque region of Spain is a cooperative movement of workers that began in 1956 which has more than 83,000 employees and 9,000 students. 85% of its industrial workers are members.
  • Rabobank in the Netherlands was founded as a cooperative over 100 years ago by enterprising rural people who had virtually no access to capital markets. It has since grown in into an international financial service provider with a wide range of products. Its focus on sustainability revolves around four themes: safe and sustainable food supply, renewable energy and cleaner production, economic participation and access to finance for all and community involvement.
  • Unimed do Brasil is the largest private healthcare operator in the world. It also has the largest number of coops – 370 – which include 109,000 doctors and 3,029 accredited hospitals that provide care for more than 18 million customers.
  • Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Cooperative Union in Japan is an organization that started in 1965.  Initially, a single Tokyo housewife organized 200 women to buy 300 bottles of milk in order to reduce the price. It has since grown and now places an emphasis on direct producer/consumer links and is dedicated to the environment, empowerment of women and improvement of workers condition. Today, there are 600 consumer co-operatives with over 22 million members (almost a fifth of the country’s total population of 127 million) who buy a wide range of food products, clothing, publications and daily goods.

What other examples of cooperatives can you think of? Share them in the comments box below.

- This is part of a three part series on the International Year of Cooperatives. Part 3 will feature the response from business schools.

 

Filed under 1-Purpose, 2-Values, 3-Method, 4-Research, 5-Partnership, 6-Dialogue, Asia, Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, Latin America, Netherlands, North America, Spain, Western Europe Tagged with , , , , , ,

Competition Challenges Business Students to Rethink Course in Sustainable Terms

15 October 2012 by Leave a comment

A team from MacEwan University, School of Business in Canada recently took second place in the PRME Leaders +20 Challenge, organized by Aarhus University. For this contest, students and lecturers in the field of management education teamed up to integrate sustainability perspectives into new or existing course descriptions.

The second place team was made up of Dr. Leo Wong, Caitlin Farrell, Rory Kirkpatrick, Cam McCoy, William Pasieka and Dan Scott, all bachelor of commerce students. Their entry involved revising the core Introduction to Business course – a requirement for over 600 students a year – based on the premise that responsible leadership and effective management require multiple perspectives: an understanding of business and its substantive disciplines, as well as emerging issues in the world of sustainable business. I recently had the chance to speak to Dr. Leo Wong about their winning entry.

1. Why change the core Introduction to Business course?

The BUSN 201 course has been around for a while, but its current delivery does not include sustainability content. In fact, we have struggled to get students engaged in the course as it is a general introductory course to all things business. This contest presented the opportunity to re-imagine what a course like this could look like if we integrated sustainability and changed the approach to be about inspiring and fostering responsible leaders.

The main advantage is that you introduce the topic early on, when students are starting to learn other business concepts. This helps them integrate a framework of sustainability into other concepts at the same time, instead of as an after-thought. You also expose all students to the topic, not just those who have self-selected into an elective. Some students, who may never have thought about sustainability or cared about it, now have an opportunity to assess whether it applies to their own careers and personal lives.

2. What are some of the changes that you are proposing?

We want to make the course much more student-driven. The students will be engaged in discussions about pertinent sustainability topics throughout the course, with a bit less emphasis on ‘lecturing’ material from a textbook (which was how the course ran previously). We also want to introduce a community service campaign, where all the students have the opportunity to apply basic business concepts by organizing themselves around innovative ideas to address community needs. Lastly, we want to bring in more local speakers who have first-hand experience with integrating sustainability into their businesses, and possibly even focusing on a few of them as live case studies, for the students to really get familiar with.

3. How did you go about putting together the proposal and how was it received?

I was able to recruit some students in one of my classes, Introduction to Nonprofit Management, as well as students from a group on campus called Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) to join the team for this competition. Fortunately, those students also had a nice complement of skills – such as in video and audio production and connections to resources like a local composer who created original music – that made our entry to the competition higher quality. The students also ranged from 1st to 4th year students, so their perspectives were duly represented throughout the proposal. It truly became a passion for the students to submit something that we felt could win the competition and inspire people within and outside our school.

Engaging them was easy… they were so motivated to begin with. All I needed to do was create the space and opportunity for them to come together, and provide the necessary resources so they wouldn’t get slowed down. After putting the video together, we received a lot of online support for our proposal. Students who saw the video were often moved and inspired and looked forward to what this course would look like. Other staff and faculty were also very supportive of our work and, though some were a bit worried about the scale of the changes we proposed, I think the concern was from a well-intentioned place. It is an ambitious task, but everyone who has seen our video and heard about our proposal, has been very supportive in wanting to see these changes happen.

4. What are the challenges that you are encountering in making this happen and how are you dealing with them?

The main challenge is trying to strike the right balance between content and outcomes. We want to provide enough content for students to develop a basic understanding of introductory business concepts, but enough space for them to follow a path of self-discovery about sustainability issues. We do not plan to preach sustainability, but rather present it as a business option and let the students decide how it relates to their career path. We hope that as an outcome, they will take ownership over their time in this course and take advantage of the opportunity to become more engaged. As a result, their learning and practical application of concepts will increase.

We also need to coordinate the changes we make to this course and how it flows into other courses. Being the initial core course students take, they start with little background knowledge of business, but leave it to go into other courses. So we need to ensure the content they learn in this course transitions well into other courses, particularly how we address sustainability issues. These changes may eventually lead to a cascade of changes in other courses, which is something that should be discussed sooner, rather than later.

The other challenges relate to patience. I would love to make all the changes to the course right away, but some changes will take more time than others. For example, we want to reschedule how the various sections of the course are offered so we can accommodate high profile speakers coming in to address all the students.

5. So what’s next and what advice do you have for other schools thinking of doing a similar change?

Changing a course as dramatically as we are proposing will take a few years. We intend to make the easier changes regarding course content this coming school year. These focus on adding sustainability content (lecture materials, exercises, guest speakers) and encouraging our instructors to focus on facilitating discussion and exploration of issues over direct lecturing. We will then work on other structural changes to the course, which include scheduling and organizing students in classrooms to maximize their ability to learn collaboratively. Also, we are trying to integrate the course with senior students and student groups in order to provide mentoring and extra-curricular opportunities that will enhance what they learn in the classroom.

I would encourage schools to start that discussion now about how to do it. It is a much more difficult challenge to carry out than I thought originally, particularly since it involves other courses  and how they might potentially embed sustainability content. To be honest, we have not had that discussion from a strategic point of view. We are experimenting a little here. Having students involved in this process was vital to giving the proposal credibility. I can go and share these plans with other instructors and say that students were behind this and this is how they felt the course should be designed. That goes a long way to making these changes adoptable.

To see the full entry visit Introduction to Sustainable Business.

Filed under 1-Purpose, 3-Method, 6-Dialogue, Canada, North America Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Business Examples from Around the World – Canada, UK, New Zealand

30 August 2012 by Leave a comment

As businesses become more and more engaged in sustainability around the world, we are presented with an increasing range of interesting examples of active companies. However, when I speak with students and faculty, they say that they often hear about the same examples from the same international companies over and over again.

In an attempt to share some new best practice examples, I asked a handful of faculty members from around the world about their favourite classroom examples of local companies that are actively involved in sustainability. Here are some examples from New Zealand, Canada and the UK.

David Lank, David O’Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise, John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, Canada

The companies that we like in Montreal are the ones that are not just environmentally focused. For example, there’s a Montreal newspaper with a social focus called L’Itineraire that is produced and sold by homeless people. It provides them with a small income and, more importantly, a sense of purpose. There’s a non-for-profit restaurant called Robin Des Bois that has a social enterprise focus. All the employees are volunteers, and all profits are donated to charity organizations in the community that work to overcome social isolation and poverty. This type of venture taps into an often neglected basic human need – to be part of something bigger than oneself. We also love Bixi, the bike sharing company that started in Montreal and now can be found in some of the biggest cities around the world. Bixi is environmentally friendly and healthy: What’s not to love?

Victoria Johnsen, Environment and Sustainability Officer, Aston University, UK

I think the university sector is a great example of sustainability initiatives. One of my favourite projects is the national Student Switch Off scheme, which encourages students living in school residences to save energy and rewards them with prizes. They have a number of large sponsors, but last year also worked with local companies, such as the Electric Cinema in Birmingham, so we have recommended some more great local shops and cafes for them to approach, such as the Warehouse Café, who serve local, vegetarian food. Birmingham is home to more and more independent shops and cafes, which is a really encouraging sign; I think that encouraging this type of business, and working with local companies is the way forward.

Ross McDonald, Senior Lecturer, University of Auckland Business School, New Zealand

There are a few businesses in New Zealand that I think are just great. Hot Rot was started by a group of women in Christchurch who are experimenting with composting disposable diapers and removing and recycling the plastic. Ask, Share, Give is a site that allows people to give, exchange and request almost anything that is not nailed down – and indeed that too. You Rent is an effective tool library that similarly allows for a boost in collaborative modes of consuming. But overall, it is not so much individual businesses as the culture of doing business in New Zealand that I like. People here support local businesses, growers, artists and initiatives focused on sustainability wholeheartedly.

Filed under 1-Purpose, 3-Method, 6-Dialogue, Australasia, Canada, New Zealand, North America, UK, Western Europe

Sustainable Professional Investment Certification: 5 Questions with David Lank at Concordia University

16 August 2012 by 1 Comment

The David O’Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise in cooperation with Finance and Sustainability Initiative Montreal has created the Sustainable Investment Professional Certification Program (SIPC).  This program offers basic sustainability training to business professionals with 70 to 80 hours of self-study curriculum material, online study guidance, certification testing, culminating in the Sustainable Investment Professional Certificate. I recently had the chance to speak with David Lank from the John Molson School of Business about the programme.

1. Why did you decide to start the Certification?

We saw a growing demand coming from the investment community in Montreal who wanted to understand the basics of sustainability and sustainable investing. Their clients or their own organizations were looking to invest in initiatives that offer a financial return while providing a social and environmental benefit. The SIPC was developed to equip investment professionals with the new set of skills and knowledge required to understand and seek out opportunities in the rapidly emerging sustainable finance sector.

2. How did you go about starting it?

The SIPC program’s curriculum was developed by a select group of faculty at the John Molson School of Business (JMSB) at Concordia University. The Program is guided by a Business Advisory Council (BAC) consisting of practitioners in the fields of sustainability and finance from some of Quebec’s most esteemed corporations including Addenda Capital, Caisse de dépot et placement du Québec, Cascades, Desjardins, GIR and Osisko. Along with JMSB professors, the BAC was integral to ensuring that the program curriculum was relevant for the educational needs of investment professionals. In addition, the SIPC Program itself was born from, and developed with the help of, the Finance and Sustainability Initiative (FSI). The FSI is a Montreal based, not-for-profit organization that encourages and promotes sustainability as a best practice in the financial sector. It is comprised of over 65 participants/members, representing the mainstream financing and investment community, social and green finance, academia and academia service providers.

3. What were some of the challenges and how did you overcome them?

We thought the biggest challenge would be raising corporate funds to start the program, but we actually found that partners were eager to jump on board with their support. There’s always a challenge in convincing the mainstream financial industry of the need for change, and of the financial, social and environmentally benefits of sustainable investing. However, it’s starting to take less convincing as recent events (banking scandals, economic crisis etc.) are showing that things can’t continue business as usual.

4. What have been some of your successes? How has the program been received?

The program has been really well received. We will have put over 70 students through this first year and have gotten back really positive feedback. Some successes include receiving Approved Provider Program status from the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst institute) and other similar financial industry governing bodies. We have had major companies such as the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) commit a number of their employees into the program because they saw the value in this kind of training and in associating themselves with this type of initiative.

5. What would you recommend to other schools thinking of putting in place certification courses around the topic of sustainability? What are your plans/hopes for the program moving forward?

The goal of any program should be to make it as relevant as possible to working professionals. Therefore, it was crucial for us to have actual practitioners in the field of sustainable investing involved at all stages. It also such a rapidly developing area that it requires curriculum to be constantly updated in order for the training to stay relevant. Our goal is to bring our certification to the next level this upcoming year by increasing enrollment and having a larger international student body. We want the SIPC to be recognized as the go-to program internationally for this type of training.

Filed under 3-Method, 5-Partnership, Canada, North America Tagged with , , , ,

Promoting Research around Sustainability: Examples from the UK, France, Belgium and Canada

6 August 2012 by Leave a comment

During the 3rd PRME Global Forum at Rio+20 in June, one of the discussion topics revolved around research and how to promote research on sustainability topics. How can we facilitate faculty need for research publications on sustainability? What type of change strategy can be developed that will shift the emphasis in research toward rigorous, yet practical, theoretically informed research?

An Inspirational Guide for the Implementation of PRME: Placing sustainability at the heart of management education, which launched at the 3rd Global Forum, provides answers to the most frequently asked questions concerning how to move forward in embedding sustainability into management education. In putting together the Guide, many schools shared projects and initiatives around promoting sustainability research on campus. Here are some examples from the UK, France, Belgium and Canada.

Ashridge Business Schoolwanted to understand the proportion of faculty engaged in research that related in some way to sustainability. The thinking was that, if a member of faculty was researching how sustainability related to their core area of expertise, then that could be a good indicator as to whether new thinking on sustainable business might also be coming into his/her educational work. As a result, the school measured, over an 18 month period, that 25% of faculty had either published some kind of research or thought leadership, or had spoken or played a facilitative role in an event where there was a connection with the theme of sustainable business.

At Euromed Management, over 30% of academic activities and publications are linked to corporate social responsibility (CSR) or sustainability issues, and the number of publications continues to rise. These results are due to various initiatives, including the creation of projects, networks and research chairs. However, the deciding factor lies in the school’s decision to structure research into five priority groups, one of which is dedicated to the CSR.

Louvain School of Managementorganises the CSR Research Seminar, which aims to bring together researchers, PhD candidates and prominent professors from around the world to discuss their respective research projects. Participants come from various disciplines and fields, including, but not limited to, management, law, sociology, philosophy, economics, political science, and social psychology, but sharing a common interest for CSR and business and society issues. The goal is to explore the diverse dimensions of these questions, and special attention is given to research projects that involve strong linkages with industry participants.

The University of Western Ontario Richard Ivey School of Business’s Building Sustainable Value Research Center has a Research Network for Sustainability that connects researchers, teachers and practitioners to better facilitate the creation and dissemination of evidence-based research in business sustainability. The network, which includes more than 2,700 managers, academics and students, maintains a website with an online database. There is a section specifically for researchers that includes both recent articles focused on sustainability in a range of academic journals as well as journals that are looking for contributions for special sustainability editions.

The Inspirational Guide for the Implementation of PRME: Placing sustainability at the heart of management education, is available online at http://www.gseresearch.com/about/prme.htm.

Filed under 4-Research, 5-Partnership, 6-Dialogue, Belgium, Canada, France, North America, UK, Western Europe Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

Communicating your work with stakeholders

30 July 2012 by Leave a comment

Having a strong sustainability plan is one thing, but it is equally important to be able to communicate your sustainability related activities to a variety of audiences in an effective way. Here are four examples of different approaches taken by business schools from Canada, Brazil, the UK and the Philippines in communicating their work in the field of sustainability to internal and external partners.

Rachel Goldsworthy, Coordinator at the Centre for Social and Sustainable Innovation at the University of Victoria Peter B. Gustavson School of Business in Canada started a CSSI Communique. This short email, which goes out to faculty and staff across the university every two weeks, outlines a range of interesting research, publications, news items and websites that could be of interest to faculty looking to incorporate sustainability into their curricula and daily classroom activities. “Regularly sharing educational resources with faculty members is one of the key initiatives of the Centre. It goes hand in hand with another key initiative, which is to ensure that sustainability and/or social responsibility are included in every educational offering at Gustavson. By keeping it brief (a page), and providing links (instead of entire articles or reports), we hope that professors can easily follow up on the items that interest them.”

Fondação Dom Cabral regularly produces a Sustainability Committee Information Report that highlights the activities carried out by each working group linked to the Sustainability Committee. There is also an online intranet portal dedicated to updating the university community on sustainability topics on campus.

 

 

Cranfield School of Management’s Knowledge Interchange ‘KI Online’ is an online platform that is constantly updated with faculty interviews, podcasts, opinion pieces, books, topical issue reviews and commentary by faculty, as well as relevant research. It is used for their international Executive Education provision of blended learning for customised programmes, which are run in more than 30 countries around the world.

 

Faculty at the Ramon V. Del Rosario College of Business in the Philippines write a column focusing on socially responsible business in The Manila Times entitled “Managing for Society,” which has been running weekly since 2005. Faculty members write for the column by rotation, focusing on various social responsibility themes. The school also has regular weekly columns in Business World and Manila Standard Today.

How do you communicate your work in the field of sustainability to stakeholders both inside and outside the university? Share your examples in the comments area below.

Filed under 6-Dialogue, Asia, Brazil, Canada, Latin America, North America, Philippines, UK, Western Europe Tagged with , , , , , ,

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