Use in the Classroom

• Describe the Purpose/Problem Definition
  • General Overview: Sustainability is a wide-ranging policy phenomenon in the global public/private discourse and is frequently related to three dimensions e.g., environmental, economic, and social. On the other hand, a sustainable business, or a green business, is an enterprise that puts negligible adverse impact or potentially a positive effect on the global or local environment, community, society, or economy. When starting a new business, it is important to pay close attention to sustainability as well, even if it does not concern a social business. SBS is a great tool to get a clear overview and goals to contribute to the environmental and social wellbeing.
  • Classroom Activity: Prepare a short presentation with an introduction of the SBS. The information and an example can be used from the content provided above. HE teachers need to ensure their students understand the aims and the features of the SBS well.
• Implement the Tool (Gathering your Actions)
  • General Overview: Now the students are quite familiar with the overall information on the SBS, thus HE teachers can practice with them by making fictional ones. For this, HE teachers will need instructions provided below, pieces of paper and pens.
  • Classroom Activity: First of all, let the students decide on which enterprise they would like to “start” for this activity and the nature of the strategically relevant environmental and social aspects regarding this business. After comes the process of constructing an SBS. First of all, formulating the SBS has to meet a number of basic requirements:
    • The process must lead to value-based management of social and environmental aspects.
    • Environmental and social aspects must be integrated with the overall management system in a company.
    • SBS must not be generic, but business-unit specific.
    • Social and environmental aspects of a business must be integrated according to their strategic relevance.
    After considering these requirements, the formulation of a SBS can be done by these three major steps:
    • The strategic business unit has to be chosen.
    • Identification of the social and environmental aspects. Determining the relevance of social and environmental aspects for the chosen business unit’s strategy.
• Collect Data after Tool Implementation
  • General Overview: From an organisational viewpoint, once the management implements SBS practices, they can consider evaluating each department’s positioning, resulting in collecting data (either via survey, focus groups, or interviews) to understand the outcomes of implementing SBS.
  • Classroom Activity: Once all the groups in the classroom have presented their findings related to their chosen organisation, the teacher can collate the main points presented by each group, either by creating a self-constructed questionnaire or merely extract main points from their presentation of the tool.
• Analyse the Data and Reflect on the Outcome
  • General Overview: Once data is collected, management will need to re-evaluate the overall organisational environment i.e., reflecting on and understanding the implications of impact of SBS tool on environmental (planet/sustainability/eco-friendly products), social (safe working environment and well-being), and economic (cost savings) dimension
  • Classroom Activity: After collating main points from the group presentations, it is up to the teacher to either provide feedback to each group after they have presented, or let all the groups to present, collate the mains points and then provide to each group in the end. In either way, the teacher will need to provide feedback on how the students performed in the activity. In this last part of the activity, the teacher and students can have a debate. Depending on the number of groups developed in the first stage, the teacher can choose to put some groups on one side to discuss on the positives of SBS, whereas other groups can debate on the negatives. Each group can try to sway the opposing side to their point of view. The whole purpose of this group-based activity is to help understand and realise the overall value of SBS, reasons why organisations choose to implement SBS practices, and it is implemented by organisational management.