PRME Working Group on Climate Change and Environment

This PRME Working Group was configured at the Global Forum 2015 in New York. The focus is on SDG 13 ’Climate Action’ but several other SDGs are also addressed, one example being SDG 6 ‘Clean Water and Sanitation’. The aim of this Working Group goes beyond that of assisting business schools, it also aims to act as a resource for all organizations who wish to embed climate change and environmental education into their teaching and training. The PRME Working Group on Climate Change and Environment has three main objectives:

1. Policy/Strategies: This section provides business schools and universities with policy templates on how climate change and other environmental issues can be integrated into operational policies/strategies but also into learning and teaching policies/strategies.
2. Teaching: Sharing of good ideas, best practice and innovative training methods on how to integrate climate change and other sustainability issues into management education and training within universities and beyond. A special focus is on how to encourage students to work towards sustainable solutions.
3. Cooperation: Explores the dialogue between business schools and private/public sector organizations especially through Global Compact in order to work together on solutions to climate change and other environmental challenges. The vision is that companies put up ‘wicked ‘ problems and the best brains across the world will contribute to solving them.

Please go to our website https://www.unprmeclimate.org/ to find more information - for example about the Carbon Literacy Training we offer - and to sign up to our working group.

How to Join

If you are interested in joining the working group, please complete this registration form.

Policies and Strategies

In this section, a few templates on how climate change and other environmental issues can be addressed in relevant policies and strategies within the university are listed. There are quite a few resources that can be found across the internet; however this section provides an easy-to-access toolbox, which can be used by PRME members as they align not only with the PRME Principles, but the organizational practice in a business school. The resources are organized according to regions by providing, for example, templates from the EAUC in the UK. The Working Group encourages colleagues to send policy and strategy templates from their countries, to be shared on this website with other colleagues. As a starting point, please find templates for:

a) Carbon Policy for a business school/university

b) Environmental Policy for a business school/university

c) Environmental strategy for a business school/university

d) Learning and teaching strategy including climate change education and other SDGs

Please contact Dr Muhammad Mazhar, Sustainability Coordinator at Nottingham Business School/Nottingham Trent University, UK for information on how to specifically join this subgroup, and/or whether you would be interested in webinars or events that centre around a particular topic.

Form more information on Climate Change and Environment-related Policies from PRME Signatories, see here (updated November 2017)

Teaching

The Working Group strives to provide examples of best practice, innovative teaching ideas and suitable projects etc. for integrating climate (change) and environment-focussed topics into management education. Please find relevant resources in the newly-created learning and teaching repository. You can browse the repository by subject/discipline area such as accounting, marketing etc. Additionally, you can find resources related to each of the relevant Sustainable Development Goals. The repository aims to provide a broad selection including academic articles, games and community projects that allow for integration into the curriculum. The first material has been put together by the Green Academy Team from the Nottingham Trent University in the UK; however contributions and additional material from people who work in the field are strongly encouraged. In the long term, the Working Group hopes that Academics will take ownership of one of the topics. (For example, an interested party could summarise different teaching material for accounting, and therefore become the Academic Coordinator for Accounting in the repository, with your name appearing as the contact person). For further information on becoming the Academic Coordinator for a particular discipline, please contact the Co-chairs for the Working Group (contact details can be found below).

Additionally, the group readily welcomes discipline-specific training material contributions from those with a corporate background. For more information on further engagement opportunities, and the opportunity to take a more active role in developing the content for a particular discipline, please contact the Co-chairs of the Working Group.

The group organises regular workshops and events across different countries. The next one will be during the Global Forum 2017 in New York. For this event, they openly invite participation in the competition, with more details on this, and the competition itself coming soon.

Collaboration Opportunities- Business schools/universites and the public/private sector

The Working Group aims to encourage partnerships between business schools/universities and the private or public sector. Some examples of engagement opportunities are listed below. Of course, there are mere suggestions, and partnerships of this nature can in fact take on many forms:

1. Companies to offer an essay competition around a ‘wicked’ problem for Masters students at PRME signatories, with an incentive provided by the organisation for students who produce the best work.
2. Organisations could work with regionally appropriate signatories to set up projects, where students develop a plan that would aid the host organisation increase their carbon efficiency.
3. Organisations could provide a business school/ university with a relevant challenge that they’re facing (for example, “How can we change the behaviour of our employees/customers to incorporate…”). The students would be assessed by their tutors, with the best solutions to be presented to the organization.

WHO WE ARE

This PRME Working Group was configured at the Global Forum 2015 in New York. The focus is on SDG 13 ’Climate Action’ but several other SDGs are also addressed, one example being SDG 6 ‘Clean Water and Sanitation’. The aim of this Working Group goes beyond that of assisting business schools, it also aims to act as a resource for all organisations who wish to embed climate change and environmental education into their teaching and training. ​

The working group brings together academics and practitioners from over 20 different countries who have committed to taking action to promote climate change education and action. If you wish to join us please sign up here. ​

The working group is co-chaired by Professor Petra Molthan-Hill of Nottingham Trent University and Dr Alex Hope of Northumbria University.

The working group is supported by a steering committee comprised of colleagues internationally:

Zoya Zaitseva, QS World Merit zoya@qs.com

For more information about the working group's activities please contact Co-Chairs:

Petra Molthan-Hill, Nottingham Trent University, petra.molthan-hill@ntu.ac.uk

Alex Hope, Northumbria University, alex.hope@northumbria.ac.uk