(List #105) Reporting Live from the 2024 PRME Global Forum - 16 Examples from the Eastern Hemisphere Session

Over the next 48 hours or so, I will be reporting back on the PRME 2024 Global Forum which is taking place virtually. I'll post a List every few sessions with some of the themes that are coming up and link to very specific initiatives being presented.

Conferences are always fascinating because while everyone has access to the same sessions, we all take something different from it. In the first few sessions, the themes that emerged were:

1. The need to focus on developing skills for sustainable change.
2. Collaborating with others to develop and share material.
3. The overwhelming number of amazing resources that are available to help faculty.
4. The need for more opportunities for students
5. A call for faculty to explore innovative teaching approaches that focus on collaborating and working together.

The need to focus on developing skills for sustainable change...

1.INNER DEVELOPMENT GOALS

The SDGs provide a comprehensive plan for a sustainable world. However, to reach these Global Goals, we need to increase our collective abilities to face and work effectively with complex challenges. The Inner Development Goals is an open-source initiative committed to fostering inner development towards a more sustainable future, focusing on the inner changes that are needed to reach the SDGs. The initiative was founded by several universities and organisations including IMD Business School of Management, Lund University, Stockholm Resilience. Centre and the Flourishing Network at Harvard University and provides a wealth of resources on the topic. https://innerdevelopmentgoals.org

 2.EXPLORING WORLDVIEWS

Worldviews refer to the ‘big stories’ through which humans make sense of their experience and world. As our worldviews define what we consider true, worthwhile and moral, they shape our lives and world to a great extent. The website offers a range of learning tools and trajectories designed in collaboration with multiple universities. Exercises are also introduced to engage students in exploring and reflecting on their own worldview and learning from others. www.worldviewjourneys.com (Presented by Annick de. Witt, Utrecht University)

 Collaborating with others to develop and share material...

3.SUSTAINABILITY PLATFORM

The Sustainability Platform of Hungarian Universities is a platform that brings together 16 different educational institutions in Hungary.  The primary goal of the platform is to share best practices in the field of education and sustainability and tools to help educators integrate the SDGs into all programmes. One example of this is an online elective course developed collaboratively by the members and accessible to students from all the member institutions that introduces the SDG goals. The course is delivered by experts from the different institutions. (Presented by Katalin Asvanyi, Corvinus University)

4.CLIMATE UNIVERSITY

Climate University provides free online courses for universities and everyone who wants to make the sustainability transition in the society real. The courses are made in multidisciplinary collaboration of several universities in Finland with the funding from the Ministry of Education and Culture, Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra and the participating universities. Courses cover a range of topics from biodiversity through to leadership for sustainable change. https://climateuniversity.fi

 5.BUSINESS SCHOOL CLIMATE LEADERSHIP

Business Schools for Climate Leadership is a research and thought leadership partnership aimed at equipping current and future business leaders with the tools and knowledge necessary to navigate the complex landscape of the climate crisis. The project brings together eight European business schools in a shared mission to generate, disseminate, and amplify evidence-based research. Launched at COP 26 in Glasgow in 2021, the website provides a useful toolkit for business schools looking to take action on the topic. https://www.bs4cl.org

 6.COLLABORATIVE ONLINE INTERNATIONAL LEARNING

Collaborative Online International Learning is a way that Coventry University interacts with other international universities and professional associations. COILL projects can be real time with students from other countries, working collaboratively on focused activities. They can also be asynchronously meaning students can work together at different times. One example of a COIL project was the SDG Hackathon where students from teams at Coventry, Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Parana (Brazil) and Ghana Technology University College collaborated to create solutions to SDG challenges. (Presented by Jaliyyah Bello, Coventry University)

The overwhelming number of amazing resources that are available for faculty...

7.THE SDG GAME

SDG Game is a multiplayer, in person, card based game that simulates taking the "real world" into the year 2030. Designed in Japan in 2016, this game can be used in corporate, educational or community settings and is designed to be played with anywhere from 5 to 50 players. It takes about 1 hour. Players use money and time to achieve their goals by the end of the game. Different players pick up cards that give them different goals and tools to help achieve those goals. www.2030sdggame.com

8.SDG AMBITION ACCELERATOR

The SDG Ambition Accelerator is a three-month programme organised by the UN Global Compact. The Accelerator takes companies through a series of steps where they start by analysing their value chain to understand where they are having the greatest impact on the Goals, both positive and negative and then explore whether it makes more sense to focus on maximizing positive or minimizing negative or a combination of both. The tool helps companies to focus in on a few targets where meaningful impact can be had and set goals to ensure this happens and integrating that goal into the strategy of the company. https://unglobalcompact.org/take-action/sdg-ambition (Presented by Steve Kenzie, Executive Director UN Global Compact Network UK)

9.SDG Playbook for SMEs

Small and Medium Enterprises consistently report difficulties with embedding the SDGs at the core of their business model. The UN Global Compact Network developed this step-by-step guide to help smaller companies unlock the competitive advantages associated with embracing the SDGs. It is used not just by companies, by faculty and students working with, and eventually for, SMEs. https://www.unglobalcompact.org.uk/sdg-playbook-for-smes/ (Presented by Steve Kenzie, Executive Director UN Global Compact Network UK)

10.AIB Global Poster Competition

The Sustainable International Business Poster Competition aims to address the world’s critical sustainability challenges by pooling resources of engaged international business scholarship in research and teaching to help organisations with international business activities to add (net positive) value to society.  Groups of students work together to create a poster presenting an investigative project answering the following research questions: "What transformation should an international business organisation adopt to take effective action on the SDGs?” All business schools are invited to participate.  https://www.aib-uki.org/poster-competition.html (Presented by Elizabeth Yi Wang, University of Leeds)

  The need for more opportunities for students...

11.STUDENT AMBASADORS

Rotterdam School of Management Erasmus University in the Netherlands recruits 17 students every year, one for each SDG, to take the lead in their own projects to act on the SDGs. These SDG Student Ambassadors foster awareness and understanding of the SDGs among the RSM community, encourage and support the integration of the SDGs into RSM's teaching, research and other activities as well as monitor and report on the progress of RMS's contribution to the SDGs.  https://www.rsm.nl/positive-change/engage/sdg-ambassadors/ (Presented by Rob van Tulder, Rotterdam School of Management)

12.COP STUDENT DELEGATES

Zayed University developed a partnership with the government to enable a student the opportunity to be a youth delegate to the COP. Sofia Gattini who was chosen, worked with the government to enable more similar opportunities for students in the future and encourages other universities to explore similar opportunities in their country. (Presented by Sofia Gattini, Student at Zayed University)

 13.PRME GLOBAL STUDENTS

PRME Global Students (PGS) is a global platform for fruitful and creative collaboration, collective reflection, and joyful interactions between and beyond student organisations in the realm of responsible management education and sustainable development. The initiative which is by students for students, includes opportunities relating to careers, resources for students, talks and projects focused on collective action. https://www.unprme.org/prme-global-students/?section=how-we-engage#how-we-engage (Presented by Lazar Tomasevic, Student, PGS Europe Representative)

 A call for faculty to explore innovative teaching approaches that focus on collaborating and working together...

14.USING THEATRE

At BIMTECH in India, students who started a theatre and debating club have influenced a significant change in the curriculum at the school. The focus is on developing human connectiveness, helping students to understand different mindsets. Students develop role plays and short theatre pieces based on SDG issues which are performed in the community as a way of engaging students with these important topics and raising awareness in the community. The initiative is now offered as an elective in partnership with UNGC. Some past students have even started similar theatre clubs in their own companies after graduating. (Presented by Saloni Sinha, Assistant Professor, BIMTECH)

-        Resource: Applied Theatre Teaching Model for Addressing Social Sustainability in Business Education: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-50168-5_14

 15.STEPPING OUTSIDE

Students are encouraged to step outside and engage outside the classroom and explore the outdoors as a way of connecting with the SDGs in a physical way but also connecting with each other through the issues. Guenola Nonet also shared her research on the benefits of outdoor learning. (Presented by Marina Schmitz, Lecturer/Researcher at IEDC-Bled School of Management)

 16.FUTURE ME

This website enables students to write a letter to their future self. They can then choose when it will be delivered back to them, in 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, 5 years or longer. Faculty use this as a tool, encouraging students to include sustainability challenges and their vision for a sustainable future and how they hope to be part of that. https://www.futureme.org. (Presented by Marina Schmitz, Lecturer/Researcher at IEDC-Bled School of Management)

A few quotes I jotted down to think about...

• "We don't have a very sustainable approach to sustainability" Jeremy Williams, Zayed University
•  " I have the power to change. I appreciate the opportunities I have been given" Elisabeth Frohlich, Chair PRME DACH Chapter (written on the board behind her).
• "Nothing short of a wholesale shift of mindsets is needed" UNDP 2020 Human Development Report

Thanks for reading.

Giselle

Note: I am not paid nor do I make any money writing these newsletters. I do so because I feel strongly that the more we share, the further we can go in embedding sustainability into management education. If you enjoyed this newsletter, please subscribe and share it with others.