Embedding sustainability in the curriculum: Practising what we teach London South Bank University 12 th March 2013

Embedding sustainability in the curriculum: Practising what we teach

London South Bank University

12th March 2013

Sustainable marketing: embedding sustainability at the heart of business education

Higher Education Academy: “Enhancing” series:

Enhancing education for sustainable development in business, management, hospitality, leisure, sport, tourism.

Barry Emery Senior Lecturer: Marketing / Sustainability

Birmingham City University

Dealing with preconceptions

‘How cheap can I make this product?’ ‘How much can I sell it for?’

Dealing with realities

‘What are the positive and negative impacts of this product?’

‘Are the impacts beneficial and / or justifiable?’

First things first To introduce the concept of sustainability

through the triple bottom line framework

Self-assessment

To allow students to reflect on their own orientation towards sustainability

Personal impact

http://calculator.bioregional.com

http://calculator.bioregional.com/

http://calculator.bioregional.com/

Personal impact

http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/trendalyzer



Wicked problems

To demonstrate to students the complexity of sustainable business problems and solutions

Dilemma

A situation that requires a choice between options that are or seem equally unfavourable.

The ‘disposable’ nappy

An estimated 90% of parents use disposable nappies for one main reason: convenience.

How can the marketer neutralise the convenience barrier which prevents parents from adopting real nappies, the washable, re-usable, more sustainable alternative to the disposable nappy?

The ‘disposable’ nappy

Figures vary but an average baby will use about 6000 nappies until it is potty trained, reaching about 1 tonne in weight.

8 million nappies are thrown away per day in the UK, some 3 billion a year with 90% ending up in landfill sites, meaning tonnes of untreated sewage per year.

Birmingham, the UK’s second city accumulates about 22000 tonnes of waste in disposable nappies, costing the City Council over £750,000 in disposal.

A large part of disposable nappies are synthetic materials which do not biodegrade and are a waste of natural resources.

Competing product attributes

Sustainable Conventional

EthicalSocially responsibleEco-performance / friendlyCost-effectivenessRecyclable / recycledPollution-freeHealthySafe / harmlessFunctionalLong lasting / durable / reusable

PriceBrandAvailabilitySuperior performanceQualityConvenience of useImageStyleDesignDisposable









Students need to question conventional business practice by first questioning their own values, attitudes and beliefs regarding sustainability.

Students from all over the world quickly learn that developed and developing nations have played significantly different roles in how the world has developed and that these will need to change if sustainable development is to be achieved.

Students from developing nations often see themselves at the end of the supply chain that receives the fewest benefits (e.g. extraction of raw materials, cheap labour for mass production, product manufacture with high impacts in terms of ecological footprints) in comparison to developed nations in receipt of the finished goods. These students begin to question the wisdom of producing for others when they should set up sustainable businesses to develop as a nation and improve their own quality of life.

The use of dilemmas highlights to students the difficulties behind sustainability challenges in business.

Students learn that the effects of change affect all players and stakeholders and involve compromise and sacrifice.

Embracing change

Many thanks

Barry Emery

Senior Lecturer: Marketing / Sustainability

Birmingham City University

Documents

Embedding sustainability in the curriculum: Practising what we teach London South Bank University 12 th March 2013