Engaging and Empowering Business Management Students to Support the Mitigation of Climate Change Through Sustainability Auditing

Abstract

In spite of growth in specialist courses and modules, and integration of some sustainability content into business management curricula, engaging business management students in sustainable business practices continues to lag behind needs of graduates in the workplace; most students do not understand the role businesses can play in supporting the mitigation of climate change and alleviation of impacts. As the learning environment is an important determinant of behaviour, new means and methods of learning, teaching and assessment are required to enhance education for sustainability for business management students to improve their knowledge of climate change mitigation, adaption and impact reduction and empower future graduate employees to change businesses from within. In response, an innovative learning, teaching and assessment approach has been designed for a 3rd year undergraduate module to equip business management students with sustainability knowledge and tools to develop and communicate climate change mitigation activities through the completion of a Global Reporting Initiative sustainability audit of a bespoke case study company. This conceptual paper presents the means and methods employed in this innovative module. It describes the theoretical and practical contexts of the module, its experiential learning, teaching and assessment means and methods designed for active, collaborative learning and outlines the opportunities and challenges experienced in designing the module. It will help members of the sustainability community seeking to build new means and methods of generative education for sustainability through active, experiential learning. It builds on existing pedagogic discourse on innovative means and methods for learning, teaching and assessment of opportunities for sustainable business futures and climate change mitigation and contributes to research into participatory approaches to education for sustainability.