Call to Service: Teaching Sustainability at Business Schools

Business schools have a critical role to play in helping students to see why and how they must reign in GHGs and scrutinize business activities with sustainability in mind. Ideally business people should come out of business school with a sense of their emerging societal and environmental responsibilities.

In a February 9, 2012, message, Business School Lausanne (BSL) Dean-Katrin Muff makes the point that we need a radically new vision of business schools that can best be described as a "call to service: To educate citizens to act responsibly for the world."

Here is a review of the major definitions in Dean Katrin Muff's conception of how business schools can communicate the call of service to their students:

The Corporate Sector can Save the World

The Business community may offer the best hope of saving the world from the ravages of environmental decay. In the context of the difficult economic times we are experiencing corporate initiatives may be our best hope for slowing the progression towards worsening environmental calamity. As reported in The Guardian, Peter Bakker corporate, the president of the World Business Council for Sustainable Business (WBCSD), "believes that the corporate sector currently offers the best opportunity for saving the world."In the wake of the disappointing outcome at Rio+20, Bakker is on a "mission to encourage business to implement change at scale." He believes that the short term fate of the world hinges on "the coalitions of the willing," comprised of local efforts, and responsible cities and countries.