How Are Business Schools Engaging in the SDGs?

• Many business schools are uncertain about the best way to approach the United Nations’ 17 goals and 169 related targets.
• Administrators should involve everyone in the community with the school’s SDG efforts and integrate the SDGs into all aspects of campus life.
• Business schools can partner with other institutions on their SDG initiatives and make sure to share results with groups that can benefit.

 
In 2015, the United Nations launched the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which the organization described as “a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet.” The 17 goals and 169 related targets quickly became a common language that governments, NGOs, and the business sector could use when they discussed what sustainability means in practice and how to achieve it. The SDGs provided a common framework for all actors in society, including business schools, to use in their efforts to create societal impact.

Because I was curious about how business schools would respond to the SDGs’ call to action, I started tracking the efforts they described between 2015 and 2020.  Although I had expected a slow uptake, I hadn’t expected it to be quite as slow as it was. Too many schools didn’t even mention the SDGs during that period of time. Those that did often spoke of a general commitment to the goals and included the colorful SDG logos in their official materials, without providing much evidence of what that commitment meant in practice. Some schools proclaimed that, just by being educational institutions, they were already 100 percent engaged.

While a growing number of schools are devoting more resources to the SDGs, others find themselves uncertain about what they are supposed to be doing. As crucial as the SDGs are, they aren’t written in a language that is familiar to business schools, and there are no clear directives. Therefore, it is very much up to individual schools, professors, staff members, and students to figure out what the goals mean to them and their work.

Business schools are developing many different ways to approach the SDGs. Here are seven insights that can guide business schools as they seek to bring the sustainability goals into their courses and their cultures.

1. Treat the SDGs as Targets, Not Values.

In their reports, many institutions use language that suggests that the SDGs are not directly related to them—that when a school addresses the SDGs, it is making a contribution to society or engaging in a form of philanthropy.

The reality is that the SDGs directly impact and are directly impacted by the curricula that business schools teach and the research that faculty undertake, regardless of discipline. Therefore, schools should integrate the SDGs into their core activities.

“One way is to use the SDGs to develop practical projects with students and alumni that showcase how corporate ventures that deliver positive impact can also be profitable,” says Katell Le Goulven. She is executive director of the Hoffmann Institute at INSEAD, which has locations in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. At the institute, students take the SDG Bootcamp course, where they analyze, improve, and create business models that are more sustainable and profitable. Alumni are also invited to make a collective contribution through INSEAD’s SDG Community Impact Challenge, which gives individuals tools to reduce and offset their environmental footprints both personally and professionally.

2. Make the SDGs Everyone’s Business.

While many schools have a subset of students and staff who are already interested in the SDGs, it is important to reach everyone on campus. As a way to do this, EM Lyon Business School in France addresses a different SDG each year through its events, courses, conferences, and partnerships. From the first day students arrive on campus, they are given tools that will help them create solutions for that particular SDG-related challenge. For the 2021–22 academic year, the focus is on SDG 10, reducing inequality.

While many schools have a subset of students and staff who are already interested in the SDGs, it is important to reach everyone on campus.

It is also essential for schools to create opportunities for students to get involved. For example, at EM Strasbourg in France, when students propose ideas for how the institution could do more with the SDGs, the school provides them with internships to carry out their plans. According to Aureline Gamand, CSR project coordinator, “We get them actively involved in not just raising awareness, but also looking at the processes and systems in place and implementing new ideas.”

3. Make It a Part of the Language.

Every business school has its own culture, which dictates what it sees as important. Do school administrators talk about stakeholders and the SDGs in the same way they talk about shareholders and the bottom line? Are the SDGs part of everyone’s language, or are they discussed only by a small group?

Students and faculty are much more likely to engage with sustainability issues if the SDGs are institutionalized at the school and built into the way the community approaches new projects. For example, the Gothenburg Center for Sustainable Development at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden developed a free self-assessment tool to help academics describe the impacts of their work in relation to the goals.

4. Don’t Be Afraid to Dive Into the Targets.

Administrators also should look deeper within the 17 goals and consider the 169 targets, which are specific milestones within each SDG. For instance, SDG 4, which aims to ensure quality education for all, is subdivided into 10 embedded targets. These include ensuring that all girls and boys complete primary and secondary education; ensuring all women and men have access to vocational and tertiary education; and eliminating disparities in education for women, people with disabilities, indigenous peoples, and children in vulnerable situations.

While addressing 169 issues might seem overwhelming, the targets provide a lot more information than the goals themselves. This makes them useful tools in connecting the school’s work to the larger challenges.

Michele Roberts, academic director of the Australian Graduate School of Management and SDG faculty representative at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, explains it this way. “The SDGs can seem a bit lofty, and it’s not always clear how they relate to our work at business schools. We’ve found it really helpful to engage faculty on the SDG targets, not just the goals. In our MBA programs, we mapped the goals for every core course, and then asked faculty to fine-tune these targets.”

5. Connect the Work With Those Who Need It.

It’s encouraging that more business schools report that they are conducting increased research that relates to the SDGs—but they also need to let businesses and governmental agencies know about their scholarship. Several resources are available to help schools garner greater visibility for their faculty’s efforts.

One such resource, the South African SDG Hub, brings together key research classified by SDG in order to provide African policymakers with the most useful research on all the goals. The hub was launched by the University of Pretoria, which provides financial and nonfinancial support. The research is available to users at no cost.

More business schools are conducting increased research that relates to the SDGs, but they also need to let businesses and governmental agencies know about their scholarship.

According to Willem Fourie, the founder and coordinator of the hub, “Our work aims to bring experts from academia together with the presidency of South Africa to support evidence-informed policymaking for the SDGs.”

6. Don’t Do It Alone.

Many schools report that the most crucial goal is SDG 17, which aims to “strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.” And yet, few schools are involved in SDG-related partnerships themselves. This is a missed opportunity.

The good news is that a school doesn’t have to look far to find potential partnerships. In fact, many universities are finding that the SDGs have become “a framework for connecting people with shared interests across university silos, such as between academic disciplines and between staff and students,” says Tahl Kestin. She is the network manager for the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network for Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific, which is based at Monash University’s Sustainable Development Institute in Melbourne.

Kestin continues, “By connecting, sharing learnings and resources, and even joining forces with these other initiatives, business schools can benefit both their parent institutions and their own schools.”

Schools also can discover what their peer institutions are doing by consulting the SDG Dashboard established by Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The dashboard allows users to see what actions schools around the world have taken to address each of the goals and enables them to identify collaboration opportunities and benchmark their own efforts.

7. Be Courageous.

The SDGs give business schools the opportunity to consider what they do in different ways—and they also push schools to break down silos and rethink business as usual. Business schools must dive into the issues, test and adapt ideas, set ambitious goals, and learn as they go. If the SDGs are to be realized by 2030, which is the target date set by the U.N., business schools have not only an important role to play, but also a responsibility to fully commit.

For more on how business schools are embedding sustainability, follow Giselle’s List, a weekly curated list of ideas and resources.