Business Education And Sustainability: Insights From Cambridge

Is business education part of the problem or part of the solution when it comes to sustainability? On one hand, traditional business school curricula often prioritize profit maximization and competition, shaping students’ mindsets in ways that perpetuate unsustainable business practices. On the other hand, integrating sustainability into business education offers a unique opportunity to cultivate leaders committed to balancing economic success with social and environmental responsibility.

I reflected on this question when in recent conversation with Allison Wheeler-Héau, Interim Director of Cambridge Judge Business School Executive Education Limited (JBSEEL), and Matthew Walkley, Head of B2B Marketing about JBSEEL’s recent B Corp certification. JBSEEL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the University of Cambridge Judge Business School, offers a wide range of programs to both individuals and organizations. These programs span traditional business topics like Leadership, AI, Innovation, and Strategy and are increasingly focusing on sustainable and regenerative business practices.

Wheeler-Héau and Walkley (who led the B Corp process) share insights on why JBSEEL chose to become a B Corp, the lessons learned during the certification process, and how this commitment will shape their future endeavors.

I came away from the conversation convinced that while business schools deserve a lot of blame for the state of today’s world, they also can play an important role in educating diverse leaders – many of whom may have not considered sustainability previously – of the importance of business in addressing some of today’s most urgent environmental and societal challenges.

Christopher Marquis: My first question is why did Cambridge Judge’ Business School Executive Education (JBSEEL) want to become a B Corp?

Allison Wheeler-Héau: Really, becoming a B Corp was a natural step for JBSEEL as the essence of the movement aligns with our mission, which is to transform leaders who positively transform the world. It helped that it also aligns with the University of Cambridge and Cambridge Judge Business School missions, which meant in those early consideration phases we were confident it was something that would chime with our stakeholders.

We are an organisation with a clear purpose beyond profit and I think everyone realises how much that means to us. Our core focus is to take the amazing research that comes out of the University of Cambridge and the Business School and deliver it to leaders who can help make society more equitable, environmentally sustainable and eventually regenerative. We realised that by becoming a B Corp we could formalise our commitment to making a positive impact on society and the environment and redefine our view of success and impact.

Matthew Walkley: I think it also really resonates with our colleagues. When we were first discussing pursuing certification, we presented the idea in one of our monthly townhalls and there was a real sense of optimism and understanding of why this would work for JBSEEL. For B Corp certification to mean something we believe it has to be something an entire organisation wants to be a part of.

Marquis: How about the process of going through the assessment, did you learn anything about the organization? Did anything change through the process?

Walkley: I think we learnt two major things from the process, one was how JBSEEL, while being proud to be a part of the University ecosystem, needs to disaggregate some of our reporting and procedures and stand on our own feet. This was something the BIA required, as you certify as a Limited Company (which the JBS Executive Education Limited is) but it just so happened to have this positive side effect.

I really feel like the process gave us a sense of identity and allowed us to further our thinking on what it means to be an executive education provider within the Cambridge ecosystem and how we can utilize our position to help move the dial on the crisis’s facing the world.

This of course sounds a bit grandiose but we do sit in a privileged position between the world class solutions created by Cambridge faculty and the wider world. If we can bridge those ideas into organisations and help them implement programs to make their organizations and the world better, I believe we can make a real difference in paving the way for a Just Transition and eventually redefine what business perceives as value.

The second lesson was the idea that while our Certification would be carried out by a dedicated team, working on a specific project, i.e the BIA, becoming a B Corp in reality means sharing this message through the entire organisation as well as through Cambridge Judge and through the University, so everyone can understand what it means to us. This sounds like quite obvious stakeholder engagement, but we want JBSEEL staff to understand that they are being given the scope to make better, more sustainable decisions and will be supported in doing so.

Marquis: How about moving forward, will B Corp certification change JBSEEL’s work in the future?

Wheeler-Héau: Over the next few months we will be looking at a wide variety of initiatives based on the BIA that will allow us to enhance our programmes as well as increase our engagement with our stakeholder community and employees. We are working hard to focus on how we can work on our own footprint, and map the sustainability of our programmes, for ourselves as well as clients and delegates. This isn’t as easy as it sounds, but this understanding will be key to eventually making change.

Part of this includes virtual delivery so not all participants will need to travel to Cambridge. We are also exploring innovative new programme delivery methods, including holograms, AI integration and augmented reality, to allow us to offer Cambridge insights to a global audience, without the associated travel footprint.

Walkley: We are also going to be exploring working with our colleagues from Cambridge Zero, an organization within the University of Cambridge that seeks maximise the Universiti contribution towards a zero carbon world, to help us review our curriculum, which should help us spot areas where we can improve our responsible business messaging and impact. Sustainable / regenerative business cannot be seen as a side topic anymore, and needs to be part of everything we deliver.

The impact of our programmes is really a key part of how we see JBSEEL being able to make a difference to the business landscape, so this will become a project in itself, utilising our psychometrics centre as well as longitudinal impact tracking, to understand both behavioral change as well as tracking different key indicators at an organizational and individual level, like reduction in carbon footprint, DEI metrics and increased stakeholder engagement. It will also see us actively research and develop new and relevant programmes at the forefront of our agenda and it will be great to engage with the B Corp network to discuss their thoughts and ideas.

Finally, we are really lucky to have days during which we can work with local charities, but over time we want to work out how we can increase that engagement making it wider, and provide Cambridge insights and knowledge to underserved communities, starting locally and one day turning this into a global initiative.

Marquis: Are there any special programs or offers for B Corps?

Wheeler-Héau: We are delighted to be able to offer a 10% discount to any B Corps on our Open programmes, of which we have a tremendous range, from ESG / Sustainability right through the core business concepts of Organisational Management, Leadership, Innovation and AI to Finance and Strategy.

We have a dedicated suite of programmes that we feel are very relevant to B Corps, centred around ESG and Sustainability, covering social enterprise, ESG leadership and DEI. These programmes are purpose built to help people make as much impact on their organisations as possible, giving delegates the tools they need to make real change.

We are hoping to create a community of like-minded individuals that focus on their individual and organisational environmental and social impact. Our programmes draw in faculty from across the University of Cambridge ecosystem, as well as practitioners, enabling us to showcase the latest research, as well as help our delegates understand how to implement change once they return to their organisations.