Educating senior executives in a novel strategic paradigm: early experiences of the Sustainable Enterprise Academy

Abstract

This paper describes the introduction of ‘ustainability’ as a novel strategic paradigm to senior executive learning. Specifically, we describe the Sustainable Enterprise Academy, an executive education initiative founded by the Schulich School of Business at York University (Canada) with the active support of a number of academic collaborators, five corporations and several business and civil society organizations. The Academy is dedicated to business transformation through the application of a strategic sustainability paradigm, which assumes the desirability of business simultaneously creating economic, social and environmental value. The paper recounts the Academy's journey between 1999 and 2003, during which time five successful senior executive Business Leader Seminars were held – four in Canada and one in the US. Evaluation data from participants are presented and lessons learned described. The paper also explores future avenues of development for the Academy. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Strategy development in small and medium sized enterprises for sustainability and increased value creation

“…The development of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) [26], the Sustainable Enterprise Academy (SEA) [36], and other consulting organizations whose purpose is to train and inform business leaders on sustainable enterprise. The creation of sustainable stock indexes such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), which are designed to measure the economic performance of sustainable enterprises, enabling comparison to indexes which do not measure any aspect of sustainability.…”

The inclusion of sustainability in management education institutions

“…Figueiro and Raufflet’s (2015) second terminological barrier concerns sustainability–business nexus. Wu et al (2010) and Wheeler et al (2005) acknowledged that sustainability in management education requires focusing on social, environmental and economic concerns. The difficulty is that sustainability is not conceptualized as being part of the moneymaking processes of business (Boxer, 2008; Figueiro and Raufflet, 2015), which represents the fundamental barrier/challenge for MEIs and their traditional curricula (Figueiro and Raufflet, 2015; Wheeler et al , 2005).…”

“…Wu et al (2010) and Wheeler et al (2005) acknowledged that sustainability in management education requires focusing on social, environmental and economic concerns. The difficulty is that sustainability is not conceptualized as being part of the moneymaking processes of business (Boxer, 2008; Figueiro and Raufflet, 2015), which represents the fundamental barrier/challenge for MEIs and their traditional curricula (Figueiro and Raufflet, 2015; Wheeler et al , 2005). The third challenge includes the vagueness, complexity and confusion associated with the concept of “sustainability” and “sustainable development” for new approaches to education and institutional and curricular design (Lozano, 2010; Miller et al , 2011; Steiner and Posch, 2006).…”

Are we on track with sustainability literacy?

“…This, however, seems to be difficult if sustainability is regarded as an "add-on" to existing courses and curricula (also see Rasche et al, 2013). To achieve a comprehensive approach to reflexivity and critical thinking, sophisticated teaching methods beyond ex-cathedra teaching are necessary (e.g., Kearins and Springett, 2003;Mather et al, 2011;Melé, 2005;Springett, 2005;Wheeler et al, 2005). This might also include breaking This is a non-final and non-copy-edited version of the article accepted for publication in "Journal of Global responsibility ( 2014)".…”