BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
“Students need to understand that current forms of economic activity are either unsustainable or will be subject to a wider raft of ethical, social and environmental constraints”
“Where should business schools sit here? Of course, being seen to be provocateurs or activists is very uncomfortable. In fact, many people would say it's absolutely not what business schools should do, but I would question that now. “What sort of ethics do we need to deal with? Do you want to build a world where you know our children are, collectively, going to grow up in a boiling planet with fewer species and less opportunity? “If we want to really engage with sustainability in business schools, we have to not just study and talk about this, we also have to integrate these thoughts like DNA into the heart of our activities and be prepared to challenge some of our most sacred thoughts.” Ensuring students are “awake to what's happening” Milpark Business School’s Usher also questioned whether current approaches were sufficient, arguing that business schools must “walk the talk” on sustainability in their operations and that their faculty members should do the same. “Business schools have a very important role to play in promoting awareness and finding innovative ways to enable their students to embrace specific aspects of sustainability. It is threaded throughout the curricula of our schools in South Africa, but I wonder if we are doing enough.” She then outlined Milpark’s current teaching approach in this regard. “We have a module on business ethics and corporate governance and a module specifically on social responsibility and environmental management. All of our postgraduate and MBA students do these foundational modules and they underpin all the ones that come after that. “We want to ensure that students have a theoretical understanding and are able to analyse corporate social responsibility issues. They also need to be able to understand that current forms of economic activity are either unsustainable or, at least, will be subject to a wider raft of ethical, social and environmental constraints in the future. They need to be forward‑looking and they need to be awake to what's happening in their communities and localities. “The most important element in this [social responsibility and environmental management] module is that students need to identify a charity within their community that is willing to work with them. Students learn what is happening and what is required from the charities and then find ways of assisting them to ensure that they are sustainable, that they can receive funding and that they can continue to have an impact within their local community… We've seen students who have graduated and still go back to the charity.” In a similar vein, Rennes School of Business’ Hammami talked of his school’s work to incentivise collaborating on projects with local communities. “We have put a system in place to reward
people who work on solving local problems. [In particular] we incentivise those who work with local entrepreneurs to create case studies that talk about their successes and failures. We then incorporate these case studies into the classroom to teach our students about real companies from the region,” he noted.
A literacy test Two of the commentators also described their use of a
sustainability literacy test, known as the Sulitest, something that is a featured initiative of the UN Partnerships for SDGs. It offers tools aimed at engaging learning and raising awareness on sustainability challenges and solutions. Awni noted that the American University in Cairo School of Business picked up the test from its early involvement in the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME). The school now ensures that all students take the test before graduation, although he insisted that the “focus of the test is on education, not assessment.” Of its use at Milpark, Usher remarked that the test’s value lies in helping “students self-assess what they know about economic, social and environmental sustainability and the challenges that are facing the world”. She then added: “The Sulitest also says it’s the responsibility of all our business leaders to consider sustainable development in their practices; not only because our planet and society are calling for responsible and restorative action, but also because sustainability knowledge is increasingly a requirement for employers, investors and other business stakeholders.” Widening access Another area of sustainable development that business schools are particularly well placed to address relates to SDG number four, that of providing inclusive and equitable quality education to all. On this topic, Henley Business School Africa’s Foster-Pedley spoke of business schools’ responsibility vis-a-vis addressing inequality in the country and Africa as a whole. Referring to the Gini coefficient [a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income or wealth inequality within a nation or a social group] he said: “South Africa has the most unequal distribution of resources and finance in the world and it's been getting worse. I know that most of the countries in Africa are not doing particularly well in this respect either. The majority of people don't have access to education or resources.” Foster-Pedley then underlined the importance of widening access to education. “Education doesn't create intelligence; it amplifies, challenges and builds it. The thought that [all] people are not inherently intelligent is a legacy of colonialism and racism, so we have to do something about this.” The Henley Business School Africa dean also affirmed how addressing the legacy of colonialism sits at the heart of his
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