SUSTAINABILITY
For five years, a collaborative hub at Católica Porto Business School has sought to position sustainability as a core strategic capability, rather than a peripheral concern. Dean João Pinto draws on the school’s experience to demonstrate how institutions can build ecosystems that help move business and society beyond compliance and towards systemic change A s business schools rethink their role in a world marked by climate instability, social inequality and systemic economic risk, the question is no longer whether management education should engage with sustainability, but how deeply and how effectively it can do so. has too often been reduced to risk management, box‑ticking and incremental improvement, rather than becoming a vehicle for genuine transformation. From the outset, therefore, the hub adopted a different framing, positioning sustainability communication as a core governance mechanism rather than a peripheral reporting function. It did this by drawing on sustainability transitions theory, regenerative thinking and transformative learning. The aim was not simply to help organisations disclose impact, but also to help them rethink value creation, decision-making and long-term resilience within ecological and social boundaries. This perspective facilitates the development of a systems view of sustainable business, moving from models that revolve around shareholder value to those of shared value and those that uphold systems value,
In 2021, the Innovation for Sustainability and Regeneration Hub (INSURE.Hub) at Universidade Católica Portuguesa was created in response to precisely this challenge. It is led by Católica Porto Business School and the university’s Faculty of Biotechnology, in partnership with the sustainable transformation programme and initiative, Planetiers New Generation. As it approaches its fifth anniversary, INSURE.Hub offers a compelling case study of how a business school–anchored ecosystem can move beyond compliance-driven sustainability agendas and become a platform for systemic change. Conceived as an innovation space linking education, research communication and applied experimentation, the hub reflects an ambition that is increasingly shared across leading institutions: to act as a catalyst for
where business performance is inseparable from environmental integrity and societal wellbeing. This seemingly simple ambition requires a profound shift in mindset, language and practice. The INSURE.Hub was, therefore, designed as a space where such shifts could be explored, tested and scaled. Delivering on the school’s aims Five years on, INSURE.Hub’s impact is visible across a number of interlinked vectors, encompassing everything from educational offerings and applied research to engagement and advocacy activities, as detailed below. • Executive education and academic learning have been central from the beginning. Through immersive executive weeks and postgraduate programmes in sustainable and regenerative innovation, as well as tailored in-company or cluster-based training, in‑depth learning at the hub has reached more than 150 senior executives. In addition, more than 500 students have been reached through short and
positive impact in business and society. From ESG to regeneration
INSURE.Hub was established against a backdrop of growing dissatisfaction with narrowly defined environmental, social and governance (ESG) frameworks. While ESG has significantly improved transparency, reporting and accountability, there have been clear limitations. Above all, sustainability
Business Impact • ISSUE 1 • 2026
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