Ten students from Lancaster University Management School (LUMS) attended the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s annual meeting in Montreux last week to join the global debate about sustainability in business.
Lancaster’s students were the only undergraduate students in attendance, and got the opportunity to network with around 500 business leaders from across the world, host sessions and hear directly from industry leaders.
WBCSD is a global, CEO-led organisation which comprises of more than 200 leading businesses who work together to accelerate the move to a more sustainable world. Its annual conference brings together hundreds of executives and senior managers from the likes of Santander, Unilever and Apple who share important insight into innovative ways to tackle the challenges linked to sustainability in business.
Dr Alison Stowell from Lancaster University Management School helped arrange the student trip. She said: “Globally, LUMS is the only faculty to offer a module that involves a field trip to a WBCSD event, which offers students the opportunity to network with representatives of some of the most prestigious companies in the world and hear from global leaders about the very real challenges facing business today.
“This first-hand experience is a once in a lifetime thing, and I’m delighted that they were so enthused. Their passion for sustainability has grown as a result and I’ve no doubt it will have changed their perspective, both in terms of their personal lives and future careers.”
The student group comprised of Sharlene Gandhi, Yolina Stoyanova and Nam Le who are all studying for a BSc in Marketing and Management attended along with Michael Kinder and Tara Murphy who are studying for a BSc in Marketing and Design. Millie Bland (BSc Business Studies) and Dmytro Petryshche (BSc Accounting and Management) also attended, along with Sam Kimberley, Maria Zani and Francis Barton who are on the BSc Accounting and Finance course.
For some, attending the event was a life changing opportunity – with each considering their own lifestyles and consumption following the event.
For Sharlene Gandhi, the session on food reform for sustainability and health left a lasting impression. She said: “Food is such an integral part of our lives and in western societies; we take variety in supermarkets for granted. During WSBCD, food was considered in a holistic way, and its impact assessed further up the supply chain.
“This has really sparked my interest in how to change diets in both developed and developing economies so that we can better share our finite world resources.”
Each of the students were able to go to the event as they opted to study the newly designed “Management and Sustainability – World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s Student Bootcamp” module. The module is run by Dr Alison Stowell who recently received a Lancaster University Management School Dean’s award for Business Engagement, in recognition of her efforts to improve her students’ experience at Lancaster.
Nam Le said: “This module definitely offers the most unique experience in my four years at Lancaster. Sustainability issues are becoming ever more important to all aspects of business and academia, and I feel that the trip has been the most practical and relevant to my course.”
The trip was made possible thanks to Professor Rodney Irwin, the WBCSD Managing Director for Redefining Value and Education, together with Lancaster University’s Professor Gail Whiteman, Director of the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business, and Lancaster University’s Dr Alison Stowell, Lecturer in the Department of Organisation, Work and Technology.
