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Awardee(s)
Dr. Divya Sandeep Patel, University of Salford, United Kingdom
Dr. Ruth Hudson, University of Salford, United Kingdom
Dr. Anjana Basnet, University of Salford, United Kingdom
Hazel Squire, University of Salford, United Kingdom
How has your work advanced the SDGs and responsible management education?
Our work advances the SDGs by embedding accredited Carbon Literacy within our postgraduate business curriculum, making sustainability and responsible management an integral part of every student's learning experience.
Our strongest contribution is to SDG 4 (Quality Education). By integrating Carbon Literacy into existing modules across our postgraduate programmes, we have ensured that students engage with climate responsibility within their own disciplines. This helps students understand that sustainability is not a separate topic but an essential part of responsible business practice.
Our work also contributes to SDG 13 (Climate Action) by developing students' understanding of carbon emissions, organisational decarbonisation and climate responsibility, while encouraging them to apply their learning through personal and organisational Carbon Reduction Pledges. In doing so, we also support SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) by promoting responsible consumption, sustainable supply chains and carbon management, and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) through our collaboration with the University's Sustainability Team and the Carbon Literacy Project.
For us, responsible management education is about preparing graduates to make informed and ethical decisions that balance environmental, social and business priorities. Embedding Carbon Literacy across our curriculum has enabled us to equip future managers with the knowledge, skills and confidence to contribute to more sustainable organisations and societies throughout their careers.
How has your work promoted student skill development?
Our approach to Carbon Literacy has helped students develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to address climate challenges in both their personal and professional lives. We use experiential and creative pedagogies that encourage students to engage actively with sustainability and apply their learning in meaningful ways.
Using gamification through the "How Bad Are Bananas?" carbon footprint game encourages students to reflect on the carbon impact of everyday activities and makes abstract concepts more tangible. Creative exercises, such as drawing sustainable cities, encourage students to think holistically about transport, energy, housing, green spaces and communities while sharing perspectives from different cultural contexts. Students also work collaboratively to explore organisational carbon footprints by examining Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and considering how business decisions influence emissions across value chains.
These activities help students develop systems thinking, critical reflection, communication and collaboration while building the confidence to discuss sustainability and apply it in organisational settings. Through their Carbon Reduction Pledges, students are encouraged to reflect on the actions they can take as individuals and future managers, reinforcing the link between learning and responsible management practice.
How might this be a useful model for others?
Our experience has shown that Carbon Literacy can be embedded within existing business curricula without creating new modules or redesigning entire programmes. By integrating accredited Carbon Literacy into disciplinary modules and aligning it with programme learning outcomes, we have shown that climate competence can become part of students' core learning across different areas of business and management.
We have also found that combining curriculum integration with experiential and creative pedagogies makes a real difference to student engagement. Using gamification to help students reflect on the carbon impact of everyday activities, alongside creative exercises such as drawing sustainable cities, encourages students to think critically about sustainability and connect climate literacy with both their everyday lives and future professional practice.
The model is flexible and can be adapted to different disciplines and institutional contexts. It builds on an established accreditation framework, staff development and existing modules, making it accessible for other institutions seeking to strengthen responsible management education. Our experience suggests that climate literacy is most effective when it is integrated into the curriculum and connected to students' own disciplines.