Uniting Business LIVE - Global Impact Forum

23 September 2020

Alongside the United Nations 75^th Annual General Assembly week, the UN Global Compact virtually convened high-level representatives from business, government, the UN and civil society for the three-forum event Uniting Business LIVE, consisting of the Private Sector Forum, the Global Impact Forum, and the SDG Business Forum. Uniting Business LIVE took place from 21 to 23 September and focused on “uniting business for a better world” in the spirit of “building back better.” Yesterday, at the Global Impact Forum, PRME hosted two key panels - a Session Panel on Sustainable Finance in Education and a Main Stage Panel on the Impact-Based University.

The first panel invited finance scholars to discuss the status of sustainable finance in the classroom today, noting how far both research and pedagogy have come in the last five years. Dave Chen (Kellogg School of Management), Costanza Consolandi (University of Siena), and Basma Majerbi (Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria) joined moderator Andreas Rasche (Copenhagen Business School) on stage to discuss the urgent need among finance professionals and in the financial sector for skills to address ESG issues. The panel focused on how SDG-related business and management education plays a crucial role in transforming the financial sector to support global achievement of the SDGs. It also explored what SDG skills, tools and mindsets are needed to support a greener and more equitable society, and how business schools respond best to developing such skills.

The second panel took to the main stage to offer diverse geographical perspectives on the notion of an impact-based university and to challenge the traditional measurement of this definition. Andrew Jack (Financial Times), Tim Mescon (AACSB International), Sanjeev Khagram (Thunderbird School of Global Management, ASU), Enase Okonedo (Lagos Business School), and Wilfred Mijnhardt (Rotterdam School of Management) actively discussed the urgent need for management scholars and business schools to achieve greater impact that is of relevance in addressing grand societal challenges. This session was led and moderated by Urs Jager (INCAE Business School).