PRME/CBS International Conference

On 23-24 November Copenhagen Business School hosted the “PRME/CBS International Conference on Responsible Management Education: Sustainable Leadership in the era of Climate Change”. Contributing to the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP15) on 7-18 December 2009 a tangible outcome of the conference is The Copenhagen Conference Declaration: A Call to Action for Management Education that sets out three focus areas for the role of business schools in relation to climate change:

1. Integrate Climate-related Topics into Management Education
2. Research the Role of Business in a Low Carbon Economy
3. Lead by Example

The conference structure was very interactive and through engaging panel debates and involving workshops the conference discussed how business schools can help solve the climate crisis through new educational approaches, sustainable leadership, innovative research models and new forms of partnerships. The various sessions resulted in the following headlines and outcomes:

A) Business Demands for Climate Change Competencies (4 competencies were identified)
1. Understanding of the political process
2. Understanding broader societal perspectives – long term perspectives
3. Creativity, interdiciplinarity, imagination and innovation
4. Personal leadership: communication, engagement, trust, tangibility, integrity

B) The Role of Business Schools in Solving the Climate Challenge and New Approaches to Curriculum Change (4 Best Practices of Curriculum Change were identified)
1. Flexible, imaginative formats, co-created with e.g. students
2. Climate change teaching should be integrated into core curriculum
3. President/top management’s commitment
4. Learning by doing - creating new business cases

C) Student Demand for Climate Change in the Business School Curricula (4 Student Wishes/demands for Curriculum Change were identified)
1. Integrate and reward extracurricular student driven activities, not necessarily credits
2. Engaging inward (business school administration and faculty) and outward (strategic business partnerships) seeing initiatives as a part of a larger vision for society
3.Active students should act as ambassadors in promoting climate change curriculum
4.Sustainability needs to be integrated into mainstream curriculum

D) During four parallel research tracks the 4 Most Important Research Topics on climate change were identified
1. Development of holistic approaches to determine life cycle analysis for emerging new climate friendly technologies
2. Identifying the institutional ”acupuncture points” to lever for policy and institutional infrastructure change
3. Identifying the intersection of stakeholder skills interests and values and the institutional infrastructure necessary to promote collaborative networks and synergies that can overcome the complexities of climate issues
4. Business models for systemic changes (e.g. open innovation, technology platforms, cooperative models and frameworks, strategy under uncertainty, socio-economic dynamics)

The input from the conference will be used by the “PRME Working Group on Climate and Curriculum Change” that was formally launched during the conference to produce a Practical Guide to Climate and Curriculum Change to be presented in Summer 2010. Please find presentations and other outcome documents from the conference at the conference website: http://cbs.dk/forskning/konferencer/prme2009/menu/program

We will continue this important work through the PRME working group hosting for example webinars. Check the Sustainable Leadership in the era of Climate Change working group page on the PRME website for updates on this topic

Process of The Copenhagen Conference Declaration
A draft version of “The Copenhagen Conference Declaration: A Call to Action for Management Education” was prepared prior to the conference by the Assistant Professor Andreas Rasche (Warwick Business School) and the Conference Advisory Board. All conference participants received a copy of the Declaration in their conference folders. Participants were invited to give feedback and comments to the Declaration throughout the conference through input to the members of the Declaration Task Force or via the interactive feedback system provided by ConsensusOnline.

The members of the Declaration Task Force met on day 2 of the conference to discuss the incoming comments and make changes to the Declaration accordingly. The final Declaration was handed out to all participants prior to the final session of the conference. As stated in the Declaration it is a living document that leaves room for ongoing updates according to the evolution of the climate change issues and the PRME community.

Picture: Professor and Head of CBS Climate Strategies for Business Peter Mollgaard (CBS), PRME Coordinator Jonas Eder-Hansen (CBS) Director of CSR Jean-Christoph Carteron (Euromed), Head of UN PRME Secretariat, Manuel Escudero (UN) and Professor Tony Buono (Bentley College).

Time: 23.11 9.00 - 24.11 17.00

Location: Copenhagen Business School

The conference was sponsored by Deloitte