Sustainability decisions are rarely simple. Economic pressures, environmental responsibilities, societal needs and institutional priorities are interconnected, and progress in one area can strengthen or undermine another.
EFMD Sustainability Synergies and Trade-offs in Management Education supports business schools in identifying, understanding and managing synergies and trade-offs across the economic, social, environmental and institutional dimensions of sustainability. It offers a structured way to consider these dimensions together and make sense of the choices that arise when good priorities compete.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a useful tool for this systemic thinking. They offer a shared language and a framework for examining how different goals and dimensions connect, reinforce one another or create tensions.
The programme begins by exploring the SDGs as an interconnected system and what systems thinking looks like in management education. The focus then moves to practice across the EFMD network. Through institutional cases and peer exchange, participants will explore how business schools approach synergies and trade-offs across operations, research, teaching and societal impact.
Participants will then apply this thinking to their own institution. Using a structured template and with support from a mentor, they will map their school’s strategic priorities across the four sustainability dimensions, identify important connections and tensions, and consider which trade-offs require attention.
The completed template provides a basis for conversations beyond the programme: helping participants engage colleagues, make priorities and choices more explicit, and identify concrete next steps.
This workshop is ideal for Associate Deans, Deans for Faculty and Research, Programme Directors, Accreditation Managers, and Sustainability Officers who are beginning to embed sustainability into their institutional culture. It is ideal for those seeking systematic approaches to managing various dimensions od sustainability in their institutions.
Participants will be able to:
After fulfilling the course criteria, participants will receive a digital badge*.
Criteria for receiving a badge:
