2025 PRME Education Award

I convene a core module on Nottingham University Business School’s (NUBS’) MBA Programme entitled: Sustainable Decisions and Organisations (SDO). SDO is an immersive sustainable business simulation which provides students with first-hand experience of the challenges and benefits of creating effective sustainability strategies for business, as well as the ever-present stakeholder - in particular (social) media - scrutiny that holds them to account for this.

Taking an experiential learning approach, the one-week block module is designed around a bespoke case study of a fictitious UK clothing retail company. Students are divided into groups and required to engage in ‘live’ role-playing exercises as the new Sustainability Team for the company.

Each Sustainability Team is tasked with navigating the extensive environmental and social impacts of the fashion industry, completing a materiality assessment of the associated business risks and opportunities, and developing a competitive sustainability strategy in response. These strategies need to integrate all core business functions, align with prioritised Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), include responsibility and accountability measures for sustainability commitments (PRME Principe 2), and demonstrate how ‘shared value’ can feasibly be created for the company, their stakeholders and environment.

Students are then required to present, and gain approval from, the company ‘Board’ for their sustainability strategies on the final day of the module. This Board is comprised of renowned, senior representatives from the corporate responsibility and responsible investment community who provide expert critique and feedback on the robustness and viability of the students’ strategies.

What sets SDO apart from other sustainable business simulations, however, is its unique media component. In addition to the development of sustainability strategies, student teams are also required to engage in a simulated sustainability/social responsibility crisis management scenario affecting the case study company; covering topics such as greenwashing, environmental pollution, human rights abuses in supply chains or racist advertisements.

This demands students to develop a press release and summary social media posts under time pressure, and to participate in a press conference with professional journalists on the last day of the module. Three high-calibre journalists grill students on the credibility, integrity and strength of their crisis response, providing them with an authentic, intense, but rewarding, responsible management learning experience. To prepare for this, students are provided with media training in advance of the module.

The engagement of seasoned business representatives and media stakeholders in SDO helps simulate the ‘reality’ of sustainable and responsible management and leadership in practice for students, and enhances their overall experiential learning experience (PRME Principles 3 & 5).

The entire module therefore advances SDG 4 ‘Quality Education’, while its simulated activities are primarily aligned with SDG 8 ‘Decent Work and Economic Growth’, SDG 12 ‘Responsible Consumption and Production’ (incorporating SDG 13 ‘Climate Action’), as well as SDG 17 ‘Partnerships for the Goals’. Relatedly, the module also applies the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) SDG Learning Objectives to develop student’s sustainability competencies. The ultimate objective of all of this is to foster the responsible decision-makers and business leaders of tomorrow.

One of the main aims of the SDO simulation is to develop students’ knowledge of the complex realities of sustainability strategy development in an engaging, ‘hands-on’ fashion, and to equip them with the skills required to develop cohesive and effective sustainability strategies for business.

In doing so, it deliberately adopts an integrative approach to sustainability strategy development, requiring students to demonstrate how they can feasibly execute these strategies in an integrated manner with the operational, IT, human resources, marketing and financial functions of the company. This is in order to nurture students’ knowledge and skills of how credible and successful sustainability strategies can be achieved. That is, if sustainable business strategies are to be successfully realised, sustainability cannot be viewed in isolation from, but rather as cohesively embedded into, all core business activities.

The obligation to then present, justify and defend their strategies in front of the case company Board, is specifically designed to allow students to demonstrate their emergent sustainability management, responsible leadership and engagement skills.

Furthermore, the simulated media crisis for the case company is strategically designed to mirror the high-stakes scenarios and pressurised timeframes associated with real-world corporate crises, as well as the challenges of managing (media) stakeholders in the process, in order to equip students with the responsible crisis management skill set to address the same in practice. This is done in a highly meaningful, fun, engaging, interactive and iterative way, which directly aligns with the pedagogical goals of the PRME Impactful Five (i5) project.

The core aim of this innovative crisis management training and skills development is to give students the opportunity to unpack and understand what it means to be a ‘responsible’ business leader during a sustainability/CSR crisis. It is impressed upon students that business leaders need to react to crises, via their corporate communications and (social) media interactions, in an honest and empathic manner with effected parties; by displaying a willingness to accept responsibility for damage done (where appropriate) and outlining a credible and affirmative crisis management plan of action to meet all relevant stakeholder accountability needs (PRME Principe 2).

Further, the professional media training students receive from one of the SDO panel journalists prior to the module, is tailored to not only prepare students for the SDO media simulation, but also to help advance their general professional development skills in corporate communication, and media and broader stakeholder engagement, to inform their future careers.

Hence, both the simulated board and media conferences provide students with a safe environment to ‘test’ their nascent sustainable and responsible (crisis) management, leadership, engagement and communication skills, and to subsequently be graded, receive feedback and learn from their mistakes, before applying their newly acquired skills post-graduation. These private conferences between each student group and board and media panels – as well as a board and media feedback session for all students at the end of the module – are also video recorded to provide students with additional reflection and learning opportunities to help hone their sustainable and responsible business acumen.

The SDO simulation model on sustainability strategy formation and responsible crisis management, may be useful to other educators who are interested in developing a sustainable and responsible management simulation for the first time, or looking for innovative ways to expand or advance certain aspects of existing simulations they run; such as through the media crisis scenario.

The module is also adaptable to other global contexts beyond the UK, as is evident in its delivery in Nottingham University Business Schools’ (NUBS’) International MBA Programmes in their Malaysia and Singapore campuses. Here, regional business, social, cultural and environmental contexts are incorporated into the SDO case studies and simulation exercises to make them more applicable for local student learning and skills development.

Both UK and internationally-based SDO students alike have found the SDO simulation to be a very challenging, but unique and rewarding learning experience, which has pushed the boundaries of their knowledge, understanding and preparation for sustainable and responsible management and leadership in practice. It has also directly contributed to the NUBS MBA Programme’s ranking as 18th in the world, and 4th in the UK, in the Corporate Knights Top 40 Better World MBA Rankings in 2024.

Overall, the SDO module, as an immersive sustainable business simulation, offers an engaging, student-centred approach to sustainable and responsible management education and skills development. In doing so, it helps to advance students’ general business and management acumen, by providing them with the integrative knowledge and skills required to become a holistic, responsible business leader.