NBS logo

Sustainability Centres Community Workshop 2023

Around the world, business school sustainability centres advance sustainability research, teaching, and outreach. In June 2023, they gathered at the Sustainability Centres Community Workshop. 

About the Workshop

Business school sustainability centres are an essential part of meeting today’s sustainability challenges. The NBS Sustainability Centres Community exists to connect and support these centres in their work. It’s a network of almost 200 centres, at universities on every continent but Antarctica. 

Every two years, these centres come together to discuss the challenges and opportunities of directing a sustainability centre. The 2023 Workshop was co-hosted by the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative and held in partnership with the United Nations Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME). It was part of Responsible Management Education Week, which brought together business school leaders, faculty, students, businesses and sustainable development organizations.

The theme was “Connecting for Impact.” Workshop participants built synergies and used systems thinking to advance sustainability, within and outside business schools.

Sustainability Centres Workshop Outputs

The event explored aspects of responsible management education including pedagogy, climate, leadership, and digital transformation. Systems thinking was a theme throughout.

Below are key events for the SCC, with links to recordings, summaries, and other outputs.

Systems Change for Sustainability: Connecting and Collaborating for Grand Challenges

Participants applied systems thinking to sustainability projects in a full-day workshop. The goal: Changing a system in 3 months.

Mission: Save Our Home Planet

Music can support the emotional challenge of sustainability work. Songs and reflections from NBS Community Manager Abby Litchfield.

How to Run a Business School Sustainability Centre: Knowledge Exchange

Centre leaders shared strategies for addressing 6 priority areas, from finding funding to scaling impact.

Courageous Conversations: How to Address Tough and Controversial Issues

A breakout session offered peer support in handling controversy.

How to Change Business Schools and the World

Advancing sustainability in the world can require business schools to change the way they operate. The answer may be diverse solutions.

Photos of Connection: The 2023 Sustainability Centres Community Workshop

Pictures and reflections from a week of hope and connection.

Plenary sessions from earlier in Responsible Management Education week are available on the PRME YouTube channel, and the full agenda is here.

Sustainability requires us to work and think as a system. Through the activities of Responsible Management Education Week, centres and organizations found new ways to achieve this goal.

Join the Sustainability Centres Community

If your centre is not a member of the SCC, please join this community. It’s free, and we can do much more by learning from each other and building community than by working separately. 

You can find out about the 2021 2018, and 2016  SCC Workshops by clicking the relevant links. 

Further Details:

Sponsors and Hosts

The MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative is the official host of the 2023 SCC Workshop. The mission of the Sustainability Initiative is to provide the best education, apply academic rigor to real world problems, and empower leaders everywhere to act, professionally and personally, so that humans and nature can thrive for generations to come. The Initiative works through the joint efforts of MIT students, faculty, alumni, researchers, and partners in business, government, NGOs, and hybrid organizations.

Thank you to the Erb Institute at the University of Michigan for sponsoring travel bursaries for centres facing financial barriers.

About PRME and the 2023 Responsible Management Education Week

Under the main theme “Connecting For Impact Worldwide,” PRME, an initiative of the UN Global Compact, called people from all corners of the world to join their global community for a Responsible Management Education Week, on 12 – 16 June 2023, in New York (USA), to advance responsible management education and its impact worldwide. The 11th Edition of PRME Global Forum was part of this week, hosted by Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business, in an action-oriented space to connect and build avenues for impactful collaboration.

More about PRME: Website | Linkedin | Twitter |  Youtube 

Share this post:

Comments

Share on activity feed

Powered by WP LinkPress

Add a Comment

This site uses User Verification plugin to reduce spam. See how your comment data is processed.

Join the Conversation

Author

Related Articles

Partner with NBS to grow our impact

Skip to content