Business schools and the SDGs

Business schools, like many other parts of higher education, are feeling the pressure to get their sustainability and impact efforts into shape, and quickly. The expediency of this need, in terms of broader society, were made unequivocally clear in August this year, when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its latest report which found unprecedented rates or global warming and irreversible damage.

Business schools can provide solutions to societal challenges. Business is one of the most powerful forces for change and can encourage and incentivise behaviours that benefit the community, the nation, and the world. As the importance of sustainability grows within business schools, however, it raises many fundamental challenges in how best they can address it. There are many overlapping ambitions that can, at times, be at odds with each other. Business schools must align their mission with one or more of those goals, meeting the needs of cross-sector stakeholders; not only the schools and their students, themselves, but also the localised and global academic communities they sit within, the community, and the industry they may relate to.

This can pose a unique challenge for business schools as they consider how best to incorporate the SDGs within their mission statements and academic offerings.?

When considering mission statements across schools, many are quite similar to each other, leading to concerns over uniqueness. Schools want to engage in the goals, but bring their distinctive perspective to the table, to help them stand out.

According to QS’ ongoing International Student Survey (ISS), there are many opportunities for business schools to carve out their own niche within the areas of sustainability and the SDGs. Less than three percent of respondents said they were unconcerned by whether a university’s corporate and social responsibility values aligned with theirs. Understanding what those values are presents an opening for uniqueness.

There are also a number of ways business schools are adapting their course work to address this challenge. One example is introducing hands-on projects where students can partner with a sponsoring organisation to apply what they have learned to solve complex problems on the issue of sustainability. In essence, moving classroom learning far beyond the theoretical, and into an adapted form of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) with further reaching implications; a practice that could be characterised as Sustainability Integrated Learning (SIL), or perhaps Sustainably Integrated Learning. The challenge, though, is understanding and implementing the integration of sustainability issues into all existing disciples such as business, finance, strategy, and marketing. At the same time, business schools are very eager to get started. They no longer want to just talk about the SDGs, they want to act.

In recent years, accreditation bodies, such as the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), incorporated Engagement and Societal Impact into their standards. The rationale they say is: “Business schools and business are a force for good in society. Through their activities, schools have the opportunity to make a difference to society and to address significant issues at a local, national, or international scale. “This standard builds on Standard 8, where the impact on society made by business schools’ intellectual contributions and thought leadership is covered, by requiring schools to outline the societal impact that their other school activities is having, and their aspirations and plans in this area for the future.”

Most recently, the Positive Impact Rating System, a “by students and for students” survey, is encouraging institutions to think less about salary outcomes and more about social impact. The rating, which is comprised of responses from 9,000 students from 46 business schools in 21 countries, provides insight into the breadth of concerns of students. Among some of its key findings in the 2021 report, students said they wanted business schools to provide practical sustainability competencies, and to engage further with non-profit organisations for courses, projects, and career options. Those schools that have already been undertaking this are well ahead of the curve. The report also found students suggesting an overhaul of the curriculum, arguing business schools should stop “teaching outdated theories and models of economics and business”, echoing the thoughts of academics and students in other fields, especially during this period of uncertainty. The rating also further highlights how students perceive their business school within the broader environmental impact. Of the six suggested things schools should stop doing, three sat outside the areas of teaching, learning, and research, and instead spoke to campus life. Students agreed their schools should stop using single use plastics, stop unsustainable food and catering services, and discontinue practices that continue to create waste. Students realise that the job of their school is not only to teach, but also to lead the way in developing better practices both on and off-campus.

The IPCC report and business schools

It’s important to note that climate change is its own separate entity within the SDGs. It is labelled as SDG 13: Climate Action. This separation within the goals highlights that there are a number of ways that the topic of sustainability can be considered. Additionally, outside of the SGDs, ideas and concepts such as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria are just two of the many ways to analyse the concept as it relates to business activities. The IPCC report is obviously a wake-up call to many different organisations including business schools, however, schools themselves play a dual role in both adhering to practices that support sustainability efforts as well as instilling in their students an understanding of those efforts post-graduation. The challenge of business schools is to translate Climate Action into what the business risks and implications are.

The 2021 paper, Business education meets planetary boundaries: how to teach energy and climate in business schools, written by Aurélien Acquier & Pierre Peyretou of ESCP Business School, asks the questions: What types of investment and change are needed to adapt corporations to this coming reality? Who bears the costs and how do we manage the risks and process of change? Acknowledging the challenges posed by the fundamental changes required, as well as the growing expectations of students around addressing the topic of energy and climate, the paper breaks down climate action into key organisational transformations: social, regulatory, sectoral, business, and individual. For this reason, it continues, organisational and business skills will be critical during this transition. The paper also argues the integration of sustainability within business school’s curricula is not by itself enough to prepare graduates to tackle the likely reforms that will take place. Acquier and Peyretou believe a second approach is required, focussing on what they highlight as “knowledge extension and renewal”. According to both authors, this additional approach to climate change within business schools is necessary to develop a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of sustainability, noting the true scale and scope of the challenges lies within the ever-changing nature and understanding of climate and biodiversity dynamics.

It is crucial that MBA students become positive impact leaders, as many of them have influence in business and with their peers. MBA programmes are the prime educational venue for current business leaders, and more schools each year are engaging in and contributing to the SDGs. The UN Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) has hundreds of signatories from business schools who commit to the PRME 6 principles which are purpose, values, method, research, partnership, and dialogue. These principles are comparable to the SDGs and although PRME has many business schools involved there are still some top ranked and influential business schools who are yet to sign up. Ultimately, there is more work to be done.

At their core, the role of business schools isn’t necessarily to help students understand why they should be saving the planet, although this is of course very important. Arguably, surveys of students indicate they are already aware of those reasons, as well. Instead, business schools’ role is significantly more nuanced and advanced. Their primary concern is to ensure that students understand how saving the planet connects to marketing, to operations, to HR. The ideas and data highlighted by the Positive Impact Rating System and QS surveys show a desire by students and educators to marry their discipline with sustainable practices. It is for students and staff to understand how the SDGs are relevant, how they are impacted by their work. The job of implementing the SDGs into business schools should not be left to specifics courses on the subject; the focus of business schools is business. Instead, students and staff should be given the tools to be able to engage and make it their own, regardless of their career focus