Education for Sustainable Business Practice

2005 begins the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development [DESD] 2005-2014. The conceptual base, socio-economic implications, and the environmental and cultural connections make the DESD an enterprise that potentially touches every aspect of business.

The workplace is one of several domains where DESD has an impact. Every workplace should consider how daily work practices and relationships relate to sustainable development. There will need to be explicit commitments by employers and employees to positive practices that are included in workplace procedures and manuals, and employees should be encouraged to contribute to the development of policy. In the case of extractive and energy industries and those engaged with other natural resources (i.e. water, agriculture, biodiversity), constant idea generation and innovation must be encouraged for the whole workforce. Each employer must be committed to demonstrating sustainable development principles such as gender equity and environmental protection, both inside and outside the workplace. Such activity will further contribute to businesses becoming an employer of choice.

The Higher Education section of The Australian raised this matter on Wednesday June 29 2005 in an article on Sustainable Development in Business. The article noted that little or no attention is given to sustainable development in Australian business studies. Now business schools across the world are preparing to offer courses that cover a range of areas such as sustainable business definitions and frameworks, globalisation, role of business in society and community, corporate culture that supports innovation, and exploration of current best practices. The elective would include aspects of innovation, entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship, ethics and governance, and independent study and workplace projects. Through theory and case studies, many books and reports are showing that any size company in any industry can 'pick off the low hanging fruit' of easy cost savings to invest in adaptations and innovations for the long term.

An understanding of the basics of social and environmental sustainability is critical to successfully managing a company in today’s world. An Arthur D. Little survey of 481 companies, found that 95% of responding executives counted sustainability as important to their business future. A PriceWaterhouseCoopers survey found that 75% of Fortune 1000 companies state that they are, 'advancing sustainable practices in the workplace'.

Trends in International Business Schools towards Sustainable Development

At the end of 2001, the World Resources Institute and the Aspen Institute Initiative for Social Innovation through Business (ISIB) published the results of a survey of MBA courses around the world. The aim of the exercise was to identify business schools that had significantly incorporated ideas of sustainable business into their teaching syllabuses. A total of 122 centres, 58 of them in the USA, were assessed. A report summarising the findings, Beyond Grey Pinstripes, singles out eight 'cutting edge' business schools, including Harvard, Yale and York Universities with more centres identified in the report as 'showing significant activities'. In 2005 there were numerous examples of Business Schools around the world offering sustainable business teachings, including:

1. Presidio World College

An affiliate of Alliant International University, Presidio offers the first accredited MBA program in sustainable management and enrolled its inaugural class of MBA students. Presidio's program differs from other MBA programs anywhere in that it uses a whole-systems approach, weaving sustainability throughout such conventional business topics as economics, accounting, finance and strategy.

2. The University of North Carolina, Kenan-Flagler Business School

Kenan-Flagler launched its Sustainable Enterprise Initiative in 1998. All MBAs are exposed to key elements of sustainability in the core or required curriculum during their first year. During their second year, they may choose from over a dozen SE (Sustainable Enterprise) electives and numerous practicum and independent study opportunities.

3. York University, The Schulich School of Business, Toronto

The Schulick School is ranked among the top ten non-US schools in the world and is one of the top three schools in the world in terms of management for sustainability. The concept of sustainability underpins all Schulich's graduate management programs, beginning with the required core 'Skills for Leadership & Governance' course and the orientation activities surrounding the MBA Launch Week for incoming students. In addition, many of the core and elective courses in the graduate program contain material specifically dedicated or relevant to social impact and environmental management issues.

4. The Aquinas Sustainable Business Degree

This program fosters ecological and social intelligence in all business decisions and is the only undergraduate program of its kind in Michigan and possibly the United States.

5. Haas School of Business, Socially Responsible Business Initiative

This is an interdisciplinary program with the aim of preparing and inspiring graduates to lead in a new era of competitive, sustainable and enlightened global business and to apply practical skills in ways that enhance the common good.

6. Sustainable Enterprise Academy

Under the Haub Program in Business and Sustainability at the Schulich School of Business, York University, this academy provides Senior Executive Seminars on Corporate Sustainable Development, to help provide the vision, education and tools needed for executives to champion sustainable development in their companies and agencies.

7. London Business School

This school recently created a portfolio of five relevant courses, ranging from one that will deal with carbon-emissions management to another on social entrepreneurship. Reflecting Europe's longstanding interest in environmental issues, LBS has been requiring MBA and executive MBA students to take business ethics and corporate social responsibility classes for the last tenyears.

8. Nottingham University School of Business

This school offers an MBA in Corporate Social Responsibility. The MBA in Corporate Social Responsibilityis a unique program that combines advanced teaching and learning in management with advanced thinking in corporate social responsibility.

9. Sustainability for MBA Learners

This distance learning course on sustainability focuses on the triple-bottom line of 21st century business: economic efficiency, ecological conservation and social equity. It begins by identifying learners' concerns about environmental and sustainability issues and the role of business in developing solutions.

10. University of Bath (UK), School of Management

This school offers a part-time masters in responsibility and business practice, and has been designed to explore the complex relationship between business decisions and their impact on communities, economies, the environment and on the workplace itself.

11. George Washington University, School of Business and Public Management

This school has played an active part in the emerging movement of businesses and business schools that are paying increasing attention to environmental and social issues in business. It has helped to design specialised fields in Environmental Policy and Management, Nonprofit Organisation Management, and Strategic Management and Public Policy.

12. The University of Michigan, Business School

This school is committed to educating MBA students in the areas of environmental and social responsibility. The MBA core curriculum provides students with a solid understanding of key constructs that underline each functional area of business, yet several of these courses go above and beyond, exploring issues of environmental and social responsibility within the context of the specific discipline.

13. Stanford University, Graduate School of Business

This school has significantly expanded its Center for Social Innovation (CSI), providing a critical mass of support to sustain research, course development and activities around corporate responsibility, ethics and social sector issues. It offers elective courses including corporate social responsibility, environmental sustainability, international development, and social and environmental entrepreneurship.

14. Yale University, Yale School of Management

The mission of the Yale School of Management is to educate leaders for business and society. Historically, the most popular joint program is the joint MBA/Master's of Environmental Management.

Sustainability Courses in Australian Business Schools

To effect the cultural change needed to ensure tomorrow's business leaders know the principles of sustainability, MBA courses and business schools need to be engaged in education for sustainability. A recent project undertaken by the Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability based at Macquarie University examined the current level of education about sustainability in Australian MBA courses.

The study identified leaders such as the University of Technology, Sydney, which is set to commence a specialised sub-major in ‘Sustainability and Governance’ and having high student demand for its existing subject ‘Managing for Sustainability’. A new fully-integrated executive MBA program explicitly addressing sustainability and business is being developed at the University of Queensland. And at James Cook University’s School of Business electives in areas of ‘Business, Environment and Sustainability’, and ‘Managing Sustainable International and Regional Industry' are offered.

Thirty-seven Business Schools were analysed for the purposes of the study. The following points identify what exists within these Business Schools in terms of education about sustainability in MBAs and professional short courses:

- 19 of the Business Schools reviewed did not include sustainability in core or elective subjects of their MBA programs.

- 13 of the Business Schools were rated within the category of ‘acceptable standard’ generally due to the incorporation of elective subjects that address sustainability within MBA programs.

- 3 of the Business Schools’ MBA programs were rated within the category of ‘good practice’ where core and elective subjects, which include sustainability, are offered.

- No Australian Business Schools reviewed were considered currently to be in the category of ‘leading edge’ for the delivery of an MBA course that is specialised in relation to sustainability (or where a considerable number of core and elective courses are offered).

- Short professional courses on offer at Australian Business Schools do not explicitly address sustainability.

 

A Model of Assets and Capital

TNEP has studied various models of capital and have been working with our consulting associate, Sustainable Business Practices, to develop a model of assets and capital in order to structure education material for business schools, as shown below.

The model has been developed to communicate how performance in the various aspects of the company can contribute to the Value and Worth of the Company.

The model draws on work such as the ‘Seven forms of Capital’ from the work of Michael Fairbanks, On the Frontier Group, and the 'Five Forms of Capital' from the work of Jonathan Porritt in his new book, Capitalism As if the World Matters.