The role of higher education in the rescue plan for SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals)

The Sulitest special side-event at the UN High-Level Political Forum, entitled " How Can Data and Indicators Support the Transformation of Pedagogy for the Global Goals?" welcomed the involvement of higher educational institutions dedicated to advancing towards sustainability, alongside representatives from accreditation and ranking bodies.

Sébastien BOURDIN of EM Normandie Business School, Jean-Michel Champagne of HEC Montréal, Florent Deisting of TBS Education, Duncan Ross of Times Higher Education, Andrew Jack of Financial Times, Lauriane Dietrichs of Positive Impact Rating for Business Schools, and representatives from Sulitest all contributed their perspectives on the significance of data and metrics in the progressive shift of higher education.

Initiating the discourse, Thomas Friang from Open Diplomacy set an engaging tone, while concluding remarks were presented by Ola Goransson from UN DESA. The entire session was adeptly steered by Kathleen Ng from McGill University.

As Kathleen NG rightly pointed out, 48% of SDGs are extremely far off track.  

As an example, we are already at 1.1 degrees Celsius of increased global temperatures (compared to pre-industrial levels), dangerously close to the critical threshold of 1.5.

“There's a huge capacity for the role of higher education in this rescue plan that we have all been talking about here at the HLPF (High Level Political Forum) and doubling down our efforts over the next seven years to achieve the SDGS by 2030. “

Alongside Sebastien Bourdin, Professor at EM Normandie, Florent Deisting the director of Societal Transition at TBS Education, and Jean-Michel Champagne, Sustainability Officer and Lecturer at HEC Montréal, Kathleen discussed the successes of each TASK (The Assessment of Sustainability Knowledge) Change Leader school, their pedagogical strategy, and what education for sustainability in higher education would look like to them come 2030.

‍

Vision 2030

Jean-Michel Champagne prefaced his vision by giving the context at his institution, HEC Montréal.

In his scenario set in 2030, 15,000 students will be passing through HEC Montréal, each getting quality education through their courses, training, and programs.  

“What I want to make sure in 2030 is that 100% of them will come out with more knowledge, more awareness, more understanding of the global impact of their actions, in whatever field they will end up working in.”

He went on to add that if we as a collective do not understand our shared sustainability goals, and if every single business, NGO, and government is not filled with professionals who understand them, we will not be able to achieve the SDGs.  

He underlined his own responsibility as a professor as one of ensuring his students have this knowledge come 2030.  

“In 2030, whenever I assess my students, I will be able to check [their sustainability knowledge level] when they come in, and upon graduation. Beyond that, I hope to assess whether I also delivered a sense of purpose to them.
‍
Moreover, whenever a business faces an issue and comes to HEC Montreal because we offer a lot of executive education, I want to ensure that whatever training and mentorship we give them is based on a purpose. Your actions, the profit that you make, your operations, and your KPIs results, are they responsible? Are they purposeful? Are they solving problems?
‍
This will be the end goal of all the actions we are taking presently at HEC Montreal.”

‍

But how do we monitor our journey towards that 2030 Vision?

Sébastien from EM Normandie cited the significant role of creating the right indicators of sustainability literacy in higher education.

He discussed the possibility of working with Alumni to create a metric such as the share of graduates working in SDG-related jobs. The idea of this indicator is to measure the success of guiding our students towards jobs that are useful to a sustainable society.

“The second type of measure would be the number of SDG-related courses offered in business schools. We have many courses; traditional ones like marketing, finance and so on. But why not create the courses differently, based on the related sustainable development goals? Finally, a robust indicator would be the partnerships between different institutions.”

To tackle these pedagogical issues, he suggested creating a “sustainability transformation track,” right from the first year. He further stressed that leveling up impact needed to go beyond organizing climate fresks and the like, to ensuring that companies and Business Schools speak a common sustainability language.

“Another important aspect is to facilitate the research regarding the SDGs, by making professors orient their research. We need to ensure that our professors are at the forefront of research in sustainability and that their research impacts our daily lives."

Florent Deisting, director of Societal Transition at TBS Education, after expressing his alignment with his colleagues, went on to add that he hopes that come 2030, his job would disappear, signifying a complete environmental and societal transition, so he could focus on a higher level of the strategy for the school.

He pointed out that those instrumental in creating positive impact are often inside companies, and 99% of the problems today are [unbeknownst to them], born inside a company. This entails preparing the future generations today. He further posited that by 2030, 75% of corporate employees will be in their [Business School] classrooms. It is thus their responsibility [as professors] to prepare this generation to create solutions.

“On the other hand, we must also increase our executive education offers, to be closer to companies and to help them understand that new knowledge and skills are required to respect the SDGs, and that business schools can help them to co-construct this. To drive this strategy, we can work with the alumni network as well as incubators as most Business Schools and Universities have one these days.” He added  

‍

The Action Plan

Bringing the committee of Change Leaders back from 2030 to 2023, Kathleen enquired what critical actions they are taking to ensure their visions for 2030 could be achieved.

Jean Michel prefaced by sharing his realization that students, whatever their age, learning journey, or program they applied for, were often concerned about their environmental impact.  

HEC Montréal's plan

“In 2023, we launched the Transition Journey, where once students decide they want to study at HEC Montreal, I can tell them what their environmental impact is and how they can reduce it, even before registering. Once they do register, I am going to challenge them by inviting them to take TASK (The Assessment of Sustainability Knowledge) to give them (and us as educators) a good first evaluation, which will be repeated subsequently throughout their learning journey. “

Speaking of carrying professors along on this journey, he stated that a change in mindset was instrumental.

“In the past, we simply went through the syllabus looking at who was doing what. However, in 2023, there has been a shift in responsibility. Whenever professors drop a syllabus and plan a class, they must do a self-declaration of intent. Do they intend to teach CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)? Do they intend to make a course sustainability-specific or sustainability-inclusive? Whatever you teach, you can make it sustainable, there is a way to do it; by choosing the case studies, the lectures, the exams, and even the way you teach!” He went on to add

Jean-Michel cited the addition of a crucial question to alumni surveys, central to evaluating the impact of this action plan. Indeed, aside from the traditional questions bordering on salaries, job positions and the like, he opted to ask them what percentage of their daily work necessitated the knowledge and skills related to sustainable development or CSR corporate social responsibility.

“My first result told me that 60% of my alumni consider CSR and sustainable development to be an integral part of their workload, one year after they graduated. When compared to the data before graduation, 95% of them thought they needed this knowledge to pursue a career, but only 40% estimated they had gotten enough of this knowledge at the end of our curriculum. This is truly the last piece of the puzzle, what is your knowledge level?”

In the next couple of weeks, Jean-Michel and the team at HEC Montréal are focusing on setting the right metrics, to make the most of the gathered data, thus empowering them to monitor and adjust their pedagogical transformation.

“[With TASK], I can measure my impact, and if I measure it, and realize that I'm not having the impact I’m wishing for, I can adjust and find what is working and what is not working.” He concluded

‍

Discussing TBS Education’s pedagogical strategy

Florent stated that as of last year, his institution adopted the status of “Business For Good” and introduced four main, statutory objectives.  

The first is research, they aim to dedicate more than 40% of academic research to CSR and sustainable development.

Secondly, 20% of the curriculum for full time students and executive education focuses specifically on CSR and sustainable development and their positive impact, not just their integration.

“For example, today in 2023, we have 12% of the curriculum dedicated exclusively to it [CSR and sustainable development], the future objective being 20%, with the [remaining] 75% of the curriculum integrating CSR and sustainable development [in one way or another].“ He pointed out

The third objective is all about the social framework; reinforcing their scholarship policy and promoting inclusion and gender equality within the student cohort.  

The fourth and final objective is surrounding partnerships.  

“When we have to supply something, now, we introduce specific clauses about sustainability with this structure, in order to fulfill this fourth objective.”

All TBS Education students must take part in the Rentrée Climat program. With the Fresque du Climat, the 1st Act workshop (Ticket For Change) and the Sulitest awareness test. At the end of the Master's program, we measure the impact of our models by introducing the TASK by Sulitest. During the year, students in the Master's program can also follow the Climate Action Program, which enables them to acquire hybrid skills on climate issues.

He equally mentioned the annual ANEDD sustainable student fair, organized by TBS Education, stating:

“Yesterday, we held the last session of this event. In summary, it is centred around two distinct kinds of conferences and a workshop. The goal of this event was to foster student engagement, and we ended up receiving the International Green Gown Award thanks to it, as one of the key components of sustainability and CSR is really [engaging future generations].”

‍

EM Normandie case study

We highlighted EM Normandie’s action plan in a separate blog, so click here to learn more about the work led by Sebastien Bourdin.

‍

Conclusion

The journey is long, and there is still a lot to do to be on track to achieving the SDGs come 2030.

Thankfully, there is hope. HEC Montreal, EM Normandie, and TBS Education are but 3 out of our 32 Change Leader institutions dedicated to taking concrete action towards mainstreaming sustainability knowledge in higher education.

Thanks to our holistic model for sustainability knowledge, these institutions are going beyond climate action to focusing on essential aspects of sustainable development such as: Gender Equality, CSR, Justice, and equity, to mention a few. This encompassing approach is an immensely powerful lever of opportunity for the rescue plan regarding the UN SDGs.

We are honored to be surrounded by bold institutions and professionals passionate about driving forward the movement to mainstream sustainability literacy.  

We are grateful to Sébastien BOURDIN, Jean-Michel Champagne, and Florent Deisting for sharing their vision and action plans with us at the UN HLPF earlier this July, and to Kat, for her moderation. Together, we are building a sustainable future for all!