Energy and Sustainability in Business Schools – Business School response (Part 3)

25 February 2013 by Leave a comment

clean_energy

Energy 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 Part 2 we looked at a series of measures that business schools are taking to raise awareness about and reduce their carbon footprints. Here we look at how schools are getting more deeply engaged in these issues through partnerships, curriculum and research.

Partnerships

Several schools are partnering with businesses, NGOs or governments to help them with their carbon reduction goals. Universidad del Pacifico in Peru collaborated with the Fundacion Ecologia y Desarrollo in Spain to create their carbon strategy. The project included an awareness raising campaign, a project to calculate the emissions on campus and work with the different parts of the campus to ensure that these efforts continue into the future. At Fordham University, they measured and implemented methods to reduce their carbon footprint, working to meet the City of New York’s program for carbon reduction of 30 percent by the year 2017. An energy and greenhouse gas emission study was completed as part of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s challenge to institutes of higher education to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by the year 2017. The University of Dubai in the UAE, invited the Dubai Water and Electricity Authority (DEWA) to campus to conduct a workshop on conservation and present the latest developments in the fields of water and energy for students, faculty and staff. On February 16, 2012, the University was given the ‘Conservation Award – For a Better Tomorrow’ from DEWA for its reduction of water consumption by 9%, electricity by 23%. At Copenhagen Business School green technology are showcased regularly on campus to demonstrate new green IT solutions, electric vehicles or paperless systems to raise awareness among students and faculty. Companies such as IBM and Velux were the first corporate partners to showcase green technology at CBS.

Courses

A range of businesses are providing elective courses focused on the topic of energy. Babson has a course called The Norwegian Experience, an off shore course that explores the drivers of opportunities in the energy domain and examines ways new ventures are applying technologies in wind, water, solar and alternative fuel.

A growing number of schools have gone beyond providing single courses around energy related topics to creating whole MBA’s focused on Energy. Both Warwick Business School in the UK and Centrum in Peru have MBA programmes focused on Energy. The Energy MBA at Centrum was created to understand how to generate value in the energy field. The program focuses on the application of knowledge, techniques and best practices in order to ensure the management of hydrocarbon resources in different industries. In Switzerland the University of Applied Sciences HTW Chur has a Master of Advanced Studies in Energy Economics. Escuela de Organizacion Industrial in Spain provides an executive programme focused on carbon training. St. Gallen in Switzerland has a Diploma Program in Renewable Energy Management which provides training for future leaders in tomorrow’s energy markets.

Centres and Research

Many schools in all regions of the world have centres focused on the topic of energy and climate change or tackle these issues within their sustainability and other related centres. At the Rotterdam School of management the Erasmus Centre for Future Energy Business develops the business foundation for tomorrow’s energy markets. Their research focuses on bringing together energy practitioners, policy makers, and researchers from Economics, Computer Science, Behavioural Sciences, and Management Sciences to guide and to shape the transformation of the energy sector. The school will be hosting their second annual Erasmus Energy Forum in May 2013 focused on exploring the future of the energy business. In the US the University of California at Davis has an Energy Efficiency Centre which works to accelerate the development and commercialization of energy efficiency technologies, and to train future leaders in energy efficiency. University of Applied Sciences HTW Chur in Switzerland has a similar centre and also hosts the Swiss Alpine Laboratory for Testing of Energy Efficiency where they conduct measurements in the area of energy efficiency in line with established Swiss and international norms and practices.

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

Filed under 1-Purpose, 2-Values, 3-Method, 4-Research, 5-Partnership, 6-Dialogue, Denmark, Latin America, Middle East and Africa, North America, Peru, Spain, Switzerland, UK, United Arab Emirates, United States, Western Europe

A Toolkit for embedding Anti-Corruption guidelines into MBA curriculum

12 November 2012 by Leave a comment

Anti-Corruption Working Group Meeting in Rio 2012

The PRME Working Group on Anti-Corruption in Curriculum Change has developed an innovative new resource for integrating anti-corruption values into the core curricula of leading business schools. Launched at the 3rd Global Forum, the Anti-corruption guidelines for curriculum change, or Anti-Corruption “Toolkit,” is part of a four-year project dedicated to providing a teaching framework that prepares students for the ethical, moral, and practical challenges that they will face in the marketplace.

According to the project coordinators, Matthias Kleinhempel and Gabriel Cecchini of IAE Business School’s Center for Governance and Transparency in Argentina, “The toolkit provides guidance and step by step approaches on successful guidelines, methods, techniques, mechanisms and processes for effective changes in responsible management curricula. By drawing lessons and experiences from several sources around the world, the Toolkit describes various methodologies and strategies. The toolkit is easy to use, it is constantly being updated and can be adapted to local use.”

What will you find in the toolkit?

The toolkit utilizes a mix of core concept readings, detailed case discussions, primary sources and documents, and scenarios devised for class discussion. Each of the ten study modules includes a long list of resources that allow faculty of different countries to design a course that is appropriately suited to the necessities of his/her students. The modules include;

 (1)   Core Concepts: The recognition and framing of ethical dilemmas and social responsibility and their importance in strategic decision making.

(2)   Economics, Market Failure and Professional Dilemmas:Economics and market failure in its various forms and how it is manifested in corruption.

(3)   Legislation, Control by Law, Agency and Fiduciary Duty: Many questions of agency leading to corruption arise from improper gifts, side deals and conflicts of interest.

(4)   Why Corruption, Behavioral Science: This module addresses the question: What does Behavioral Science teach us about how to design a performance incentive system that encourages integrity as well as productivity?

(5)   Gifts, Side Deals and Conflicts of Interest: Legislation and cases to understand gifts, side deals, and conflicts of interest and thelying and obfuscation that is often used to conceal them.

(6)   International Standards and Supply Chain Issues: Frameworks and analytic methods for discussing the problems that companies face in the need to respect moral standards across borders, local customs (e.g., giving and receiving gifts) and bribery.

(7)   Managing Anti-Corruption Issues: Designing, implementing, and overseeing corporate ethics and compliance systems in response to local and global compliance regimes.

(8)   Functional Department and Collective Action Roles in Combating Corruption: The functional departments examined include human resources, marketing, accounting and finance.

(9)   Truth and Disclosure, Whistle blowing and Loyalty: These topics raise issues of timing and context as towhat point and under what circumstances an agent or employee is permitted to blow the whistle on corruption.

(10)   The Developing Global Anti corruption Compliance Regime: Topics include (a)global public policy principles and how are they promoted/enforced and (b) links between corruption and forms of state failure such as deprivation of human rights and environmental degradation.

How can others use this resource?

The basic idea of the Toolkit is to present a buffet of ideas and resources on how to take education on anti-corruption to the next level. It presents up-to-date content in a comprehensive way and supports its delivery in the classroom. Faculty can choose those elements deemed most useful in revising their curriculum or creating a new stand-alone course. The corresponding chapters outline their importance, define learning goals and questions, provide a listing of relevant literature, cases and dilemmas address.

Who is currently implementing this project?

More than ten schools are currently involved in the pilot phase of the Toolkit. Taking place in the second half of 2012 and first half of 2013, this process will enable adaptation of lesson for local use and improve core elements. The participating pilot schools include HSBA Hamburg School of Business Administration (Germany), University of Applied Sciences HTW Chur (Switzerland), Bangalore University (India), IAE Business School (Argentina), Copenhagen Business School (Denmark), AESE Business School (Portugal), Lagos Business School (Nigeria), Silesian University of Technology (Poland), Faculty of Business Management – Open University (Tanzania), and Audencia Nantes School of Management (France).

How can others get involved?

Once the pilot phase concludes in the first half of 2013 and the feedback from pilot schools has been received and processed, the Toolkit will be openly available to all interested institutions around the world through an online platform. In early 2013 we will post some further blogs with some of the lessons learnt from this process.

The toolkit will also be presented by Ron Berenbeim of NYU Stern and a member of the PRME working group at the upcoming International Anti-Corruption Conference.

You can access the toolkit online.

Filed under 3-Method, 6-Dialogue, Argentina, Asia, Denmark, Eastern Europe and CIS, France, Germany, Global, India, Latin America, Middle East and Africa, Nigeria, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Tanzania, Western Europe Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Creating new courses around sustainability – 5 questions with the winning team of the PRME Leaders +20 competition

9 July 2012 by Leave a comment

A team from the University of Auckland has recently been chosen as the winning team in the PRME Leaders +20  Challenge organised by Aarhus University. The challenge asked students and lecturers within management related education to team up to integrate sustainability perspectives into new or existing course descriptions.

The winning course was created by Dr Ross McDonald, Sian Coleman (masters student) and Daniel Cullum (undergraduate student) from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. I had the chance to speak to Ross, Daniel and Sian, who attended the Rio+20 PRME Global Forum as part of the prize, about their winning entry.

1. Tell us a little bit about your winning entry.

The course is called “Managing Change for a better world” and is designed for undergraduate students in their third year of study. It is designed as a collaborative learning experience, emphasizing open-discussion, practical engagement and reflective enquiry as modes of critical learning. The course is divided into three parts. The first part is about managing personal change where students learn about self-management and the impact that they can have as an individual. The second part looks at managing local change by engaging in small groups with projects in the community. The third part of the course looks at managing global change where students see how these issues are affecting the country and the world. The assessment of the course is based on reflective journals, a practical local project and an innovation social business plan where their ideas are judges by a panel of mentors from the community.

2. Why did you develop the course?

Ross: Expertise lies in looking over our shoulders to the way things have been, and hardly any time is spent looking forward to how things will change and how they will have to change. At the moment it seems that we have forgotten that business is not an end in itself but part of a larger system of mutual obligations. With this course, it was interesting to be able to think openly about what could be done without being limited by existing regulations and bureaucracy. In essence, the course is about empowering people to build a better world by challenging themselves to become more responsible in their daily lives, asking them to work with and local community groups and challenging them to design positive impact social businesses.

Daniel: A really key concept is viewing the course and its parts as building blocks on top of one another. How the personal reflection component is essential before tangible community involvement, and tackling global issues can be undertaken. Business schools desperately need to change their approaches to educating students for the future, a future that is shifting and changing in ways that we are struggling to measure and keep up with.

Sian: The course aims to address these issues from a very practical and experiential perspective. It aims to literally get students’ hands dirty with real life experiences. We want students to feel empowered and inspired that what little action they may engage in during their lifetimes really can make a positive impact to those around them.

3. What parts of the course excite you the most?

Ross: The community engagement part. My feeling is that if we get students involved in making these critical decisions and give them the responsibility to make projects work, they will more than adequately rise to the occasion.

Daniel: I love the fact that the course is one complete journey. I see it this way: when we travel we are so conscious of the landscapes and cities that change around us, but sometimes miss the change that also happens inwardly.

Sian: One of the most exciting aspects of this course is the engagement with the wider community. It takes learning out of the confines of the four walls of a class room, gets students working in real-life, practical situations where they reflect on their practice and their interactions with others

4. Is sustainability becoming the norm at the University of Auckland?

Ross: Yes, but slowly. As with most business schools, old ideas adapt slowly and many in the middle realms of our teaching structures are still operating largely oblivious to the need to adapt. With the changes coming from above and below, and with an increasing number of staff actively researching and teaching around issues of sustainability and justice, the norms are shifting, but it needs to be accelerated.

Daniel: Yes, because it has to! But we have a lot of opportunities to improve on. My heart is for it not to become the norm, but rather the culture. Where people don’t just grudgingly oblige to sustainability education or practice, but rather are passionate about engaging with why it is so important.

Sian: I feel there are pockets of action dotted around the university but there does not seem to be an all-prevailing attitude throughout the campus towards more sustainable outcomes. On saying this though, there is generally a good push from students whose eyes have been opened to issues of broader significance to humankind who are demanding more courses that center on sustainability issues. However, this tends to fall on rather deaf ears, typically.

5. So what’s next?

Ross: The next thing is to apply this whole course. The wonderful thing about winning this competition is that it is as much a beginning for us as an end. The first thing Dan said to me when we had a moment to say things beyond a stunned ‘unbelievable’ was, ‘So when are we going to do this course?’ We would like to collaborate with others interested in the practicalities of changing curriculum and class processes to ensure a better form of education for management students.

Daniel: This course has to happen. We’ve designed it as a very open and adaptable model, which will hopefully be taken and replicated by other universities. If other institutions wish to take on board the idea, we would love to give them our resources and experience to make it happen.

Sian: As Dan said, this course needs to be established in our university first and foremost. It is this kind of dialogue between teachers, learners, and stakeholders that is needed to widen the sustainability agenda and improve consciousness and action regarding the issues.

To see the full winning entry, visit Managing Change for a Better World. To see the other 21 entries submitted, visit the PRME Leaders +20.

 

Filed under 3-Method, 5-Partnership, Australasia, Denmark, New Zealand, Western Europe Tagged with , , , ,

Getting Started: An Inspirational Guide for the Implementation of PRME

4 June 2012 by Leave a comment

Getting started is one of the biggest challenges when it comes to exploring how to embed sustainability and responsible leadership into MBA and management education programmes. The second big challenge is keeping up momentum moving forward.

The PRME Secretariat commissioned a collection of case stories that provides answers to the most frequently asked questions concerning the implementation of the Principles for Responsible Management Education and seeks to inspire further integration of PRME by highlighting real world examples of the Principles in practice in signatory schools and universities. The Inspirational Guide for the Implementation of PRME: Placing sustainability at the heart of management launched today as a contribution of the PRME community to the Rio+20 Earth Summit. The Guide includes great examples of how schools are engaging faculty, incentivising change, adapting curricula, engaging with the business community and other stakeholders, conducting research and reporting on their efforts.

What became clear while developing the Guide was that every school takes a slightly different and unique approach to committing to PRME and then beginning the process of implementing the Principles. At Copenhagen Business School, the process of signing the principles for responsible management education was initiated by the former manager and director of the centre for CSR who started the discussion with the support of 12-20 committed staff members. The discussion was then raised to 40 top managers, including heads of departments, where it was soon realised that RME already had a strong presence at CBS.

At Queen’s Business School a curriculum review committee, comprised of faculty and administrative staff from across programmes and disciplines, was formed. Key individuals who have become strong supporters within each programme area were identified and then engaged to advise on the process and help to create buy in from within each programme review committee. The Queen’s Centre for Responsible Leadership  also formed an External Advisory Board comprised of leaders in industry and influential non-profit organisations to advise on emerging trends and how to best deliver programme content to meet the needs of the future.

Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame also formed an external Business Advisory Council (BAC) to advance the College’s mission. The BAC is comprised of alumni, representatives from a wide range of organisations, and friends of the College. Council members serve as ambassadors of the College and engage in the internal operations of the College by offering counsel to the deans and directors and by assisting in targeted initiatives.

Bentley University created the Alliance for Ethics and Social Responsibility (BAESR), a collaborative effort involving an array of campus-based centres and initiatives. It is meant to build on, enhance and extend the work of various centres, including the Centre for Business Ethics and the Service-Learning Centre. Its mission is to support and encourage greater awareness of, respect for, and commitment to ethics, service, social responsibility and sustainability in their research, curricula and campus culture.

At the University of Stellenbosch Business School, the USB’s Social Impact Initiative aims to ingrain sustainable human development into all academic, research and other activities. The initiative is part of the University’s Hope Project, which aims to create sustainable solutions to some of South Africa and wider Africa’s most pressing challenges.

To reinforce their commitments, many schools also make revisions to their mission statements. The University of Applied Sciences HTW Chur recently revised their code of conduct to reflect the PRME value base in three out of the four central value statements of the university: “reflection and communication”, “appreciation of partnerships”, and “ethical responsibility”.

Over the upcoming months there will be more blog posts featuring the many examples collecting for the guide.

An 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 1-Purpose, 2-Values, 3-Method, 4-Research, 5-Partnership, 6-Dialogue, Global, North America, Western Europe, United States, Canada, Teaching, South Africa, Service-Based Learning, Denmark, Switzerland 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 , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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.

Filed under 4-Research, Canada, Denmark, France, UK, United States 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 , , , , , , , , , , ,

PRME LEADERS+20 competition

31 January 2012 by Leave a comment

I recently had the chance to speak with Pernille Kallehave, Head of Development at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Organizational Architecture and Consultant to the dean on sustainability issues at Aarhus University, Business and Social Sciences. Pernille is the organizer of a new contest called PRME LEADERS+20, which encourages faculty and student teams to submit innovative ideas on how to address sustainable development as part of management education courses and curricula at business schools and management-related university faculties.

1. Tell us a little bit about sustainability at Aarhus University.

Aarhus has been working since 2009 to implement PRME by integrating our strategic focus of Sustainable Growth through Innovation into research, education, knowledge exchange, operations, culture, etc. From the beginning, we chose an “integration” strategy, meaning that we did not establish a CSR or sustainability centre, but rather tried to integrate the sustainability perspective into our products and processes – a well known strategy in many companies and organisations.

The question is: How do you integrate such a perspective into classical programmes such as economics, law, communication, supply chain, marketing, organisational behaviour, etc.? It takes good incentives and deep understanding of what drives people to create impact and change the way they do things. For us, it all comes down to the four I’s: Incentives, Innovation, Integration and Impact. How can we create INCENTIVES to stimulate business school INNOVATION through the INTEGRATION of sustainability in programmes and curricula in a way that creates the biggest IMPACT? This is the challenge that we want to meet with the PRME LEADERS +20 competition.

2. What is PRME LEADERS+20?

We thought that the upcoming Rio+20 UN Conference provided the perfect opportunity for Aarhus to sponsor a contest that incentivises students and lecturers to collaborate in developing innovative ways to integrate sustainability issues into management education course and programme offerings. The competition will create both great ambassadors and valuable, up-to-date material. This is a bottom-up approach is supported fully by Aarhus Dean Svend Hylleberg.

3. What are the details?

Teams consisting of a lecturer and students are invited to either adapt an existing course or develop a new course with a focus on the 6 Principles of PRME as well as the themes of the Rio+20. Submissions are welcome from any program that educates future leaders and managers, including business schools, engineering, law and science, to name a few.

Submissions consist of a 3 page written entry and a 3 minute video entry, which will be judged first and foremost by their originality and creativity.

First place wins a trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to attend the PRME Global Forum and Global Compact Corporate Sustainability Forum. Second place wins a trip to Denmark to attend Aarhus summer university and visits to Maersk to learn about their sustainability activities and the world renowned Renewable Energy Island of Samso.

4. Who are the wide range of partners (academic, business, etc.) involved in this event?

Sustainable development requires new partnerships and cooperation across sectors and disciplines. Several businesses and public organisations are involved in the contest in a variety of different ways, from providing prizes to acting as judges and advisors. In addition to Aarhus University, Business and Social Sciences, PRME, and the Global Compact Office, t partners include Global Compact participant companies Maersk, China Minmetals Corporation, Vestas, Vale, and Novozymes, the Danish City of Aarhus, PRME Steering Committee members CEEMAN and GRLI, as well as Challenge:Future, Lead Africa, Mandagmorgen (Monday Morning) and Sustainia.

The PRME LEADERS+20 competition has also been invited to join the official Danish delegation to Rio+20. We see this as recognition of the important role that universities play in the development of the future leaders.

5. What impact are you hoping that this will have?

We are hoping to be surprised and inspired by a robust pool of innovative entries that motivate change across the responsible management education community. It would also be great to see these ideas implemented in the coming semesters.

The deadline for submission is Monday, 19 March 2012. For more information, visit http://prme-leaders20.au.dk/. To learn more about sustainability at Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University, visit www.bss.au.dk or read their PRME report.


Filed under 3-Method, 4-Research, 6-Dialogue, Denmark, Rio+20, Student, Teaching Tagged with , , , , , ,

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