Do well and do good

AGSM’s environmental, social and governance ethos is built to support the bottom line. “We are not saying that companies need to forego their profits and their growth and just start behaving better,” says Associate Professor Michele Roberts, AGSM academic director. “When you do things more responsibly, you secure the future of your organisation.” Ethos in action

For the past three years, AGSM has been working to embed the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across all its programs. In a structure that Roberts believes is unique within Australia, every core course available through the UNSW Business School now integrates ethics, sustainability and corporate responsibility aligned to the SDGs.

Every AGSM MBA begins with a compulsory Responsible Management Foundations module. “It’s an introduction to the science and the evidence – and the strong business case – so that students truly understand how critical sustainable development is,” says Roberts. “They see the urgent need to do more to do better.”

There’s a focus on proven success stories. Throughout the course, students meet, either via video stories or in-person lectures, alumni who are putting the SDGs into action in their own businesses. “It’s important that it’s not overwhelming – we want to inspire excitement around making a more sustainable world full of opportunity, where all people are thriving.”

It’s this type of practical inspiration that drives action. “Some students who arrived with limited interest in sustainability have become completely engaged,” says Roberts. “We’ve seen students move into roles that allow them to leverage their new understanding of how they can have an impact.”

Partnerships for the future

AGSM teaches students the importance of true collaboration for success in a rapidly evolving business landscape. “Partnerships are one of the Sustainable Development Goals, and you can only achieve the SDGs when you work in partnerships,” says Roberts. The Ethics Centre is a key partner in the delivery of the AGSM MBA and the organisation’s longstanding executive director, Simon Longstaff, has written a substantial portion of the new curriculum. “We also partnered with Giselle Weybrecht, author of The Sustainable MBA,” says Roberts. “Giselle and Simon have helped us develop a lot of our content, in-class activities and assessments.” Weybrecht was a special advisor to the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education and Longstaff is an adjunct professor with AGSM.

The power of short courses

Beyond the MBA, the school offers a full suite of executive education courses, from graduate certificate programs nested into the MBA program (which can also be taken individually) to short courses that can run for a single hour or across one or several days. “We’re building the same sustainability curriculum into all our short courses, too,” says Roberts.

With hierarchical leadership structures a thing of the past, many organisations are turning to AGSM to create tailored courses for their entire workforce.

Roberts says companies of any size can benefit. “We can upskill the whole workforce to develop a more sustainable mindset. We have moved into an era where you need every leader in every function to understand the implications for sustainability in their daily decisions. We need to give them the knowledge to ensure they’re making the best choices.”

“We want to inspire excitement around making a more sustainable world full of opportunity, where all people are thriving.”