Cleveland, United States of America

(Cleveland, 17 October 2014) – Participants at the 2014 Third Global Forum for Business as an Agent of World Benefit workshop on "Management Education and Action for Advancing Sustainable Development" today issued a Call for Action for management education, research and engagement to advance the proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

With the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set to expire in 2015 a new global development agenda process is currently underway. The private sector will be a critical role to help achieve the 17 SDGs.

With this as the backdrop, President of George Mason University Ángel Cabrera facilitated discussion on how business schools and higher education can take a leading role to advance the new global development agenda. The following call to business schools and higher education institutions, especially Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) signatories, emerged from the workshop (view the Call for Action):

• Align education, research and engagement agendas with key global development issues as articulated in the Sustainable Development Goals framework;
• Embed new content and transformative learning approaches, including experiential learning, throughout the curriculum in order to develop the competencies necessary for business to tackle major sustainable development goals;
• Engage in new forms of action research around major sustainable development issues and create new solutions to help business play a more effective role in multiple local contexts;
• Play an active role as public opinion leaders, advisors, solution providers and facilitators to help business become an effective agent of sustainable development;
• Act as impartial facilitators for and between business, government, and civil society.

The Flourish and Prosper: The Third Global Forum for Business as an Agent of World Benefit was held at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management, with PRME and the UN Global Compact as official partners. The Global Forum brought together more than 650 business executives, scholars, policymakers and entrepreneurs to discuss creative business practices on topics such as education, water, energy, health and well-being, and the economy.

The first Global Forum for Business as an Agent of World Benefit in 2006 helped to inspire PRME, which has grown into a global initiative to bring business schools into the fold of corporate sustainability.

“That effort at the UN has grown and there are more than 500 different business schools from around the world that are a part of PRME. That’s an outstanding example,” said Roger Saillant, executive director of The Fowler Center for Sustainable Value at the Weatherhead School.

Contact

Jonas Haertle
Head, PRME Secretariat, UN Global Compact
haertle@unglobalcompact.org
www.unprme.org