Is Your B-School Walking the Walk on Sustainability?

• Sustainability is now a big part of a student’s decision-making process. Accordingly, schools must show evidence of their green credentials.
• But it’s vital that students look beyond climate pledges and instead at measurable results related to the environment.
• Two sustainability experts share how students can do it.

“You would assume that most schools have a climate change strategy in place—but they don't.”

At a time when sustainability is more important to students than ever before, the words of Leigh Kamolins, from the QS Sustainability Ranking, may come as a surprise to some.

In the eyes of students, schools might make convincing efforts to appear sustainable—even if that’s not always the case. “Last year at our APEC Summit, I remember asking how many schools have a climate change strategy,” says Kamolins. “It was only about one-fifth of institutions.”

So how can you tell if schools are “walking the walk” when it comes to their environmental credentials? We spoke to two experts to find out.

1. Dig Deeper Into Sustainability Rankings

Higher education rankings have expanded in recent years, both in number and focus. Some rankings now allow prospective students to directly compare the green credentials of schools, like the QS Sustainability Ranking, currently in its second year. Kamolins, who helped compile the ranking, says it’s important to look beyond the headline figures.

“The way we’ve structured it is to enable students to drill into the things that are most important to them,” he explains. “Every ranking has a top level score—but to make the most use of it, you need to go down to the next level and look at those different subcategories.”

There are also factors affecting the rankings that are outside a school’s control.

For instance, he highlights that only a select few schools score highly across all categories. Some may rank lower on societal or governmental issues, but that doesn’t make their sustainability efforts any worse than top-ranked schools.

There are also factors affecting the rankings that are outside a school’s control. For example, its location. A school could have strong environmental credentials, but its efforts could be hindered by government regulation or countrywide attitudes toward sustainability. That’s no fault of the school, but it may mean the school’s green credentials aren’t as strong as a school located in a country with strong environmental policies.

Aside from the QS ranking, new rankings such as the Positive Impact Rating are also attempting to evaluate schools’ commitments to sustainability. Meanwhile, sustainability indicators continue to grow in importance in the Financial Times Global MBA Ranking—a sign of their increasing importance globally.

2. Focus on Climate Achievements Over Pledges

When you’re looking at a school’s climate pledges, it’s important to remember that they’re just targets. And while it’s true that simply making a pledge suggests that a school is thinking about its carbon footprint, you also want to look at achievements and results over pledges and targets.

“You want much more detail around specific projects, short-term targets, and performance measurements,” says Dr. Marc Lepere, who leads in ESG and sustainability at King’s Business School in London. “Are there real metrics between now and 2040? You want to look for evidence of delivery.”

Schools that can demonstrate actual results are much more likely to be walking the green walk.

However, Kamolins cautions that measuring the environmental output of schools is a “challenge.” “It requires a balance between what is and what isn’t possible to measure,” he says. “In the Sustainability Ranking we have a little bit about what schools are saying and what they’re committing to, but we have a lot more that looks at whether they’re actually walking the walk.”

So instead of looking at pledges, look at results: carbon emissions, the quality of a school’s environmental research, water use, food waste. Schools that can demonstrate actual results are much more likely to be walking the green walk.

3. Look at Green Campus Initiatives

Examining a school’s green credentials doesn’t have to mean trawling through ranking data or decoding climate pledges, however. Sometimes, you can get a sense of a school’s commitment to sustainability simply by walking around its campus.

“How are they on things like food waste, slow-flow taps, and lights going on and off automatically?” says Lepere. “Just these simple things will give you quite a good indication as to whether sustainability is a bolt-on or whether it’s baked in.”

If you’re planning on attending a school’s open day, keep an eye out for campus initiatives like these. While these actions alone won’t save the planet, they should give you a good indication of whether a school is serious about sustainability.

4. Read ESG Reports—But Know They’re Not Consistent

Many schools now publish ESG reports detailing their environmental pledges and actions. But you should approach them with a degree of skepticism.

For a start, they are entirely voluntary, and there are (currently) no regulations about how schools measure or report their data. This doesn’t mean that every school is gaming its emissions—but it does make it “very difficult to compare one with the other,” according to Lepere. “Unless there were rules around the reporting of sustainability data, I’d be very skeptical too,” he adds.

However, things look like they’re changing. In the U.K. and Europe more broadly, Lepere says ESG reports are going to become more regulated and take on a standardized form—much like audited financial accounts. He says the ultimate goal is for ESG reports to be “audit-ready,” which will make them easier for students to compare.

5. Judge Whether Sustainability Is Embedded Within a School

Some schools’ attitudes toward sustainability are evident in the content they teach. But don’t just look at whether there is an environmental module in your course. Lepere argues that if a school is truly committed to sustainability, it should be part of every topic within a program.

“For a lot of well-established business schools, sustainability is considered and taught as a module, as part of other existing courses,” he explains. “And I think that’s quite different to courses where sustainability is completely baked in, and the course has been designed to deliver sustainability.”

So instead of dedicated modules, sustainability should be woven into the entire curriculum. It should be part of marketing, finance, blockchain, economics, management, and so on. In fact, Lepere says it should be the “lens” through which your school sees business. Only then can you truly judge whether your school is walking the walk when it comes to sustainability.