Business schools have long aimed to shape resilient leaders, but as climate change and associated crises accelerate, a new set of skills and values is now in critical demand. To instil these values, an organisation must first embody them. Institutions know the buzzwords, the frameworks, the strategies, but are they really ‘walking the talk’? Approaching this question, researchers at the University of Galway’s J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics developed a mapping tool to track how faculty members are integrating UN Sustainable Development Goals across their teaching, research and engagement activities. The result? Valuable insights and unexpected synergies.

Located on the regional edge on the west coast of Ireland, J.E. Cairnes School of Business & Economics is a globally engaged school for the public good. As a university, we recently retained our position as leaders in Ireland in sustainability in the World Impact Rankings 2023, and while our mission of being a school for the public good could be observed through the work of faculty, we were still missing an overview of the extent of that work. We could identify sustainably oriented excellence in research and teaching, yet it was unclear to what extent the majority of faculty integrated the concepts of responsible management and sustainability into their work.

Our response was to create the Sustainable Development Goals Mapping Project to discover in detail how faculty integrate the UN SDGs into their work. To begin mapping, we turned to the existing framework of the United Nations (UN) Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which consists of 17 Goals and 169 Targets which pledge to leave no one behind and aim to reach the segments of society that are falling furthest behind first (United Nations, 2015). Using this systematic approach, we explored the extent to which responsible management is embedded throughout university activity, not resting on the success of new sustainably orientated programmes.

The qualitative interview process that included the research, teaching, engagement and volunteering activities helped us to identify the unique work of each member of faculty, tagged by SDG targets. After the creation of over 80 profiles, a clearer map of responsible research and teaching came to the fore. This process, born out by our first foray into Sharing the Progress (Wersun et al., 2020) for PRME¹ reporting, found that while research-led teaching is the norm, and despite an increasing emphasis on interdisciplinary work, silos between disciplines persist.

As, expected SDG 8, SDG 4, SDG 9 and SDG 17 proved to be the most popular areas where staff felt that they made an impact. Highlights reported under SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth include impacts in the area of national policy by Professor Alan Aherne, in the area of Senior Civil Service Leadership Development by School Dean Professor Alma McCarthy, in Dr Áine Ní Léime’s work in the research-policy disconnect to tackle work inequalities in later life and in researching the lived experience of hospitality workers in Ireland by Dr Deirdre Curran.

The impacts extend to both the economic development of social enterprises in the work of Dr Johanna Clancy with local small businesses as well as the international impact of Professor Esther Tippmann and Professor Jonathan Levie in the Centre for Entrepreneurial Growth & Scaling (CEGS).

SDG goals wherein faculty most commonly described having an impact – SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth (74), SDG 4 Quality Education (65) and SDG 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (52) and SDG 17 Partnership for the Goals (49).

Faculty work that created direct or indirect impact could be observed across all 17 SDG goals and over 140 of the 169 Targets. Education for sustainable development and global citizenship was important in all disciplines, including the BComm undergraduate course, Innovation Creativity and Enterprise which focuses on social enterprise and specialised postgraduate programmes such as the MSc Global Environmental Economics and MSc Sustainability Leadership. Responsible technology was a crosscutting theme as demonstrated by the interdisciplinary Responsible Time and Tech in an Accelerated Digitised World (ROSETTA) fellowship programme. Interestingly, while the work of many supported SDG 17 Partnership for the goals, only one member of faculty described this as their key goal.

The mapping project process has given us an insight into areas of sustainability excellence, and which staff are working in that area, some of which are outlined below. Inspired by our geographic location, SDG 14 Life Below Water is directly addressed by SEMRU (Socio-Economic Marine Research Unit), where the Principal Investigator Professor Stephen Hynes leads on several large multi-disciplinary projects, including the Marine Institute-funded projects on Valuing and Understanding the Dynamics of Ireland’s Ocean Economy and Monitoring the Attitudes of Society Towards our Seas (MASTS) with Co-Principal Investigator on MASTS Dr Patricia McHugh. Professor Hynes has more than 150 peer-reviewed publications and according to the Overton² database, has an estimated 103 public policy documents in 13 countries – including reports such as Ireland’s Ocean Economy Report 2023.

An important area of impactful excellence is SDG 3 Good Health and Wellbeing where the Health Economics and Policy Analysis Centre (HEPAC) and Director Professor Patrick Gillespie develop, apply and teach methods for the economic analysis of health and healthcare. The research is mainly of an applied nature, with an emphasis on peer-reviewed academic output. CERIS member, Dr Edel Doherty has published extensively in both health and environmental economics. Another academic with a significant impact on health is Brendan Kennelly, a member of Voices4Care – a Public/Patient group of the All-Ireland Institute for Hospice and Palliative Care. Kennelly has advised the Health Research Board on a Mental Health Research Strategy and played a key role as a member of the steering group that developed a new National Palliative Care policy for Ireland.

The Centre for Economic Research on Inclusivity and Sustainability (CERIS) with Director Professor John Cullinan is a team of applied economists who conduct high-quality research to develop a more inclusive society and sustainable environment for all. They work in areas such as the hidden cost of disability and inclusive education.  Social gerontology and evidence-based innovation on ageing in place is an important area of focus for Professor Kieran Walsh. The impact of faculty member Dr Frank Conaty, a former Commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission focuses on performance management in the provision of public services through non-profit organisations, particularly in the area of disability services.

Reflecting our unique landscape in the West of Ireland with a focus on SDG 13 Climate Action, Professor Christine Domegan leads the EU-funded LIFE IP project Peatlands and People which will carry out significant peatlands restoration and rehabilitation in Ireland’s midlands, bringing together best practices in monitoring and analysing carbon storage in the peatlands. The research of Dr Thomas McDermott is focused on the intersection of environmental and development economics, in particular, the study of the economic and social impacts of extreme weather events such as floods, as well as how societies and economies adapt and respond to changing environmental risk.

Synergies

To help overcome information silos, we identify areas of excellence across disciplines where new conversations within the school can emerge, exploring interdisciplinary work across important areas such as ethics, responsible technology, climate action and sustainable consumption and production. We have found areas of common interest across disciplines. In Business Public Policy and Law, Dr Umair Ul Hassan’s EU-funded ENEPORTS – Decarbonisation and Digitalisation of Atlantic Ports look at ways of managing energy flows and decarbonisation through digitalisation and AI tools. We see overlaps with the work of economist Dr Thomas van Rensburg, who examines the economics of renewable energy and biodiversity. Colleagues in other areas such as Dr Sinéad Mitchell (Advanced Sustainable Manufacturing Materials) and Dr Féidhlim McGowan (behavioural insights for the design of active travel infrastructure) are making their mark on consumption and production policy in a variety of capacities.

Synergies across SDGs are not always guaranteed, and effective change requires collaboration, innovative solutions and an understanding of the inevitable trade-offs – particularly when it comes to responsible business. The SDG mapping process has proved an effective tool for our School to identify common ground across disciplines, facilitating new conversations and opportunities.  As our colleagues learn about the impact of other disciplines, our University’s designation as 2023–24 SDG Champion takes on a clearer collective meaning. We can only champion that which we can see and understand. As we continue to map sustainable development across the School, that understanding deepens, giving way to collective action.

References

1. United Nations 2015. “ Transforming Our World, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.” General Assembly Resolution A/RES/70/1   Retrieved 2nd Feb, 2024, from https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda.

2. Wersun, A., Klatt, J., Azmat, F., Suri, H., Hauser, C., Bogie, J., Meaney, M. and Ivanov, N. (2020). Blueprint for SDG integration into curriculum, research and partnerships. United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education: PRME.