The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) require engagement in business schools for the future skilling of graduates. How might students evidence their learning and knowledge of links between business and sustainability to prospective employers? To enable the engagement of students to develop critical appreciation and application with the SDGs is a complex task, but showcasing this to prospective employers is also important. Keele Business School has taken up the challenge of helping students capture and evidence their interactions with the SDGs and sustainability more broadly, during their time at university, through the development of the Keele Business School SDG Digital Passport.

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In the contemporary higher education landscape and the wider world of work sustainability appears to have secured its place as a prominent, yet wicked topic primed for debate and intervention. Sustainability, and in particular the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), requires engagement within and across business school disciplines for future skilling.

The 17 SDGs represent a common roadmap for change, covering a broad range of sustainability-related areas such as good health and well-being (SDG 3), affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), and climate action (SDG 13). Several of the SDGs also appear as specifically primed for connection with business management education. For instance, SDGs such as decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9), sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11), and responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), could be considered as closely linked to expected curriculum content within contemporary business schools.

However, it is important to note that the SDGs must be viewed as highly interconnected, with progress in one SDG area having the potential for either positive or negative repercussions for other SDGs. Indeed, a balance between economic, societal, and environmental concerns and considerations appears to be a key issue, as suggested by the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Such contentions represent complexities for business schools in efforts to instil within their students a holistic understanding of sustainability via the curriculum.

Challenges and Opportunities for Business Schools

Business schools, therefore, have the challenge of developing a curriculum that prioritises not only organisational profit but also encompasses social and planetary good as key elements entwined with economic viability. This challenge stems from concerns arising from multiple stakeholders, but in large part hails from the organisational and societal need for graduates with a more holistic understanding of the connections and interplay between business and sustainability.

Whilst concerns regarding whether corporate sustainability efforts are genuine or tokenistic may dominate curricula content focused on corporate social responsibility, ethics, and the like, it remains clear that many organisations do see the benefit of graduates with a more holistic understanding. For instance, SDGs such as gender equality (SDG 5) or climate action (SDG 13) may not initially appear as central concerns for many profit-seeking organisations. However, a more holistic view might argue that consideration of the landscape in which organisations operate both now and in the future is key for sustained economic viability, whilst a more inclusive approach to gender balance within the workforce has the potential to unlock new organisational dynamics and ideas. As Morsing (2022) contends, both today’s employers and students are keen to move away from corporate-centric models of learning, towards purpose- or societal-driven forms, in which society and the planet are key beneficiaries rather than just organisations.

Such requests present a host of challenges and opportunities for business schools. For instance, how do educators ensure that students can see the connections between sustainability and business school content, particularly if that content is by disciplinary necessity profit-centric? How might students evidence their learning and knowledge of the links between business and sustainability to prospective employers? How might business schools meet civic responsibilities in facilitating the entry of forward-thinking and sustainability-aware graduates into the world of work?

SDG and Business Management Curriculum Alignment

A study conducted by Weybrecht (2021) highlights the engagement of SDGs in business schools across the world but discusses the inconsistencies in approach and participation. The research is based on the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) reports and suggests that for SDG engagement, consideration should be given to: connection to the SDG, duration of the initiative, reach, participation, and whether it is mandatory. Rimanoczy (2021) suggests that for a successful understanding and implementation of sustainable education four aspects need to be inculcated: ecological worldview, systems thinking, emotional intelligence, and spiritual intelligence. On a similar note, Moratis and Melissen (2022) in their study present three perspectives for incorporating SDGs into the curriculum. These perspectives are – Perspective 1: The SDGs incorporate trade-offs, tensions, and paradoxes; Perspective 2: Realising the SGDs implies engaging in systemic activism; Perspective 3: Embracing the SDGs comes with emotional effect.

Integrating knowledge and participation of the SDGs and sustainability into business school curricula, will have three key immediate beneficiaries, in addition to the longer-term stakeholders of the planet and wider society more broadly.

• Students: Engagement with, and understanding of the SDGs and their implication for organisations will provide students with the capability to tackle societal grand challenges, in addition to providing a point of differentiation within highly competitive graduate job markets.
• Organisations: As Morsing (2022) notes, many organisations are keen to promote societal and planetary causes, rather than to seek profit alone. Situated within fluid business environments, access to sustainability literate graduates, is, therefore, an important facet in meeting the business challenges and opportunities of the future.
• Business schools and universities: Developing sustainability literate graduates provides valuable societal impact for current and future world challenges. This also helps universities and business schools to meet their civic and sustainability responsibilities and ambitions.

The Sustainable Development Goals Passport – Keele Business School SDG Digital Passport

Keele Business School which sits within the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Keele University, UK, is a purpose-driven school and has a deep commitment to industry engagement, sustainability, and societal impact. The school curriculum is designed to include employability skills and experiential learning. The school is a PRME Champion and works towards engaging students with the UN SDGs¹.

To enable the engagement of students with the SDGs is a complex task if it needs to go beyond just the introduction and understanding of the SDG and approach critical appreciation and application. Although the school embarked on mapping the curriculum and research to the SDGs, the challenge was about capturing how students might evidence their interactions with the SDGs and sustainability more broadly, during their time at university. This led to the development of the Keele Business School SDG Digital Passport.

The ambitions of Keele Business School’s SDG Digital Passport are twofold:

Firstly, the SDG Passport provides students with a digital space in which they might track their knowledge and understanding of, and confidence with each of the 17 SDGs. This progress is tracked through self-reflection and evaluation, illuminating where students may wish to further their learning and knowledge.

Secondly, the SDG Passport provides students with a space in which they may upload evidence of their knowledge of, or engagement with each of the 17 goals. The style and type of evidence to be uploaded is at the discretion of the students themselves, with assignments, notes, reflections, and more, being viewed as appropriate. The purpose of this digital passport is to develop a portfolio of evidence to showcase engagement with the SDG and presenting this as an employability advantage with prospective employers. The knowledge and understanding of sustainability, the engagement with SDGs, having a system view of the world through the SDGs, their trade-offs, and the impact of climate change on the future of work and humanity is a skill that no employer would want to miss out on. From an academic perspective, the SDG Digital Passport also provides Keele Business School with an indicator of possible gaps in the levels of confidence and skill for students to engage with the SDGs, as well as identifying areas within the curriculum to develop the SDG engagement experience for the students. We have introduced the passport to all our undergraduate and postgraduate students.

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References

Moratis, L. and F. Melissen (2022) Bolstering responsible management education through the sustainable development goals: Three perspectives. Management Learning, 2022, Vol. 53(2) pp.212 –222

Morsing, M. (2022) ‘Principles for Responsible Management Education: Towards Transforming Leadership Education’, in Morsing, M. (2022) Responsible Management Education: The PRME Global Movement. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. Pp.3-12.

Rimanoczy, I. (2021) The Sustainability Mindset Principles: A guide to developing a mindset for a better world. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

Weybrecht, G. (2021) How management education is engaging students in the sustainable development goals. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education Vol. 22(6) pp.1302-1315