3 Ways to Teach for Sustainability Impact

Here’s How Educators Can Help Students Drive Positive Social and Environmental Change

By Sharon F. Ehasz and Maya Fischhoff

Universities and business schools are seeing growing student interest in sustainability. In a recent global poll, 92% of students saw sustainability as a priority issue in higher education. Students want to pursue careers — and lives — aligned with their values.

Faculty who teach business sustainability are eager to help their students create change. In a recent webinar, business school educators and students described what effective teaching for impact might look like. These insights provide direction for teachers and students.

The discussion was organized by the Impact Scholar Community, which supports early career academics who want their work to impact practice.

Faculty and students from three universities led the conversation: Dr. Chris Laszlo of Case Western Reserve University, Dr. Steve Kennedy of Erasmus University, and Dr. Ruben Burga of the University of Guelph. Student speakers were Sharon Ehasz of Case Western, Lina Vollrath of Erasmus, and Keshini Digamber of Guelph.

What Is Teaching for ‘Sustainability Impact’?

Most educators, whatever their field, aim for impact in their teaching. Teachers want their students to understand the ideas they share and be able to apply them outside the classroom.

The same is true in business sustainability education. Impactful teaching needs to provide students with knowledge and skills, says Kennedy of Erasmus University. In his courses, Kennedy tries to provide both theoretical understanding of how systems work and practical tools and techniques for change.

But addressing sustainability challenges requires more than theoretical concepts and practical tools, according to Kennedy and other speakers. “It’s not just about technical skills and vocational mastery,” says Laszlo. That’s because being a sustainability changemaker poses some unique challenges.

Working on social and environmental issues can be discouraging. Progress is often slow on sustainability issues like climate change, poverty, and biodiversity loss. Students may become a lonely voice in companies — and communities — where these issues get relatively little attention.

Teaching for impact must prepare students for this experience. Speakers discussed ways to build students’ resilience and commitment to sustainability. These more psychological elements enable students’ capacity for change even in the face of discouragement.

Kennedy tries to help students understand systemic problems, like climate change, from different viewpoints. This sense of responsibility builds their “ambition and attitude to generate change,” he says. In Kennedy’s course, “Climate Change Strategy Role-Play,” students are able to try out different roles: industry association, NGO, government official.

Kennedy also considers the emotions that students will experience in a business sustainability course. “In the first weeks, we might want them to feel a bit of surprise, or shock, or even anger,” he says. But by the end of the course, he wants them to feel hope for the future and empowerment. His teaching supports this evolution by moving from generating understanding of root causes of challenges to innovating solutions that may address them.

Laszlo tries to strengthen students’ underlying commitment to sustainability. He focuses on who students are — not just what they know or do. Education thus becomes a process of personal transformation.

In a course called “Quantum Leadership,” Laszlo helps students build a range of connections — to a personal sense of purpose, others, nature, and spiritual ideals. “When people feel these deeper connections, they are more likely to exhibit pro-social and pro-environmental behaviors,” he says.

3 Ways to Teach for Sustainability Impact

Three common themes emerged from the presentations and discussion. These are strategies for teaching — and learning — for sustainability impact.

Create a Warm Classroom Environment

Classroom relationships help students develop capacity for change, Ehasz says, adding that students feel valued when the classroom emphasizes connection. They are then more open and self-aware of how they fit into broader sustainability topics and the broader system.

Using humour can also help students feel comfortable, Kennedy says. “Comedy is an effective way to form relationships in the classroom, especially when we’re talking about sustainability, because there’s a lot of doom and gloom.” Humour helps students feel safe and build hope and warmth. For example, in teaching climate change, teachers can use (with permission) the extensive cartoon movement, such as the excellent Peter Ommundsen.

Laszlo’s classes explicitly prioritize personal well-being. He aims to lower students’ stress and build their trust and wellbeing. His classes include direct intuitive experiences such as mindfulness, breathing, yoga, music, body scans, and walking in nature. The result: Students become better leaders and experience flourishing and happiness in their own lives, he says.

Respect Different Views

Sustainability can be controversial, and students often have differing views. There’s potential for conflict — but instructors and students reported positive interactions and mutual respect.

Early in his class, Kennedy tries to build understanding of varied views by explaining sustainability as a spectrum ranging from “very strong” to “very weak” sustainability. This sense of alternatives enables students to consider their own perspective and relate their views to others’.

Vollrath, who took Kennedy’s course, recalled that “there was always that room for dialogue, discussion, and debate. The instructors didn’t judge student views as right or wrong, Vollrath says, but helped guide them by “always providing the factual base.”

The online course taught by Burga and colleagues brought together students from Indonesia, Canada, and Spain. Students had different views; for example, some advocated carbon pricing and others electrification. But neither policy nor cultural differences prevented respectful conversation, says Burga. Students “recognized their different backgrounds and allowed others to talk.”

Professional work on sustainability will require students to engage with a range of perspectives, Vollrath says. The classroom can be an important space for practice.

Tackle Practical Problems, Practically

Learning about sustainability needs to be concrete and grounded, said session participants. That grounding can take many forms. Courses can and should provide:

• Transferable skills. Sustainability education tends to emphasize abstract concepts, Kennedy says. “We’ve been underplaying the skills aspect for a long time.” In each course, he aims to provide students with at least one skill: e.g. negotiation, systems analysis, or life cycle analysis.
• Engagement with practical problems. Sustainability issues affect us daily — but can seem oddly distant. Presenters advocated using case studies and role playing to show how issues play out and how students can affect them. Vollrath recalled an Erasmus course on the Dutch nitrogen crisis. Initially, the topic seemed obscure to her, but she and her fellow students became riveted, in part by hearing from diverse stakeholders, from farmers to NGOs.
• Interaction and experience. “Experiential learning” — action coupled with reflection — is a hallmark of good teaching. Similarly, most educators know that dialogue fosters learning. But creating such classroom experiences requires time and effort. It’s worth it, said the educators: “You’re going to get so much energy from it.”

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This article was originally published by the Network for Business Sustainability. B The Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.