PRME

In January 2020, the School was selected to serve as a Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) Champion institution for 2020-2022.

PRME is a United Nations-supported initiative founded in 2007 as a platform to raise the profile of sustainability in business and management schools around the world, and to equip today’s business students with the understanding and ability to deliver change tomorrow.

Working through Six Principles, PRME engages schools to ensure they provide future leaders with the skills needed to balance economic and sustainability targets, while drawing attention to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and aligning academic institutions with the work of the UN Global Compact.

The mission of the PRME Champions group is to contribute to thought and action leadership on responsible management education in the context of the United Nations sustainable development agenda. In so doing, PRME Champions commit to:

• Work collaboratively to achieve higher levels of performance in transforming business and management education in five key areas: curricula, research, educational frameworks, sustainability-based partnerships, and thought leadership.
• Serve the broader PRME community through active engagement with existing PRME Chapters, PRME Working Groups, Global Compact LEAD, and other global opportunities, as well as to support broader and deeper implementation of sustainability principles in the institutional context of the PRME initiative.
• Contribute to broader UN goals and issues, particularly helping to realize the Sustainable Development Goals.

According to PRME, Champions are selected based on a track record of sustainability implementation, commitment to the initiative, as well as their leadership through Working Groups, Chapters, Regional Meetings, and various other venues of engagement.

What does our PRME commitment mean in practice?

As an institution of higher education involved in the development of current and future managers, we declare our willingness to progress in the implementation, within our institution, of the following Principles, starting with those that are more relevant to our capacities and mission. We will report on progress to all our stakeholders and exchange effective practices related to these principles with other academic institutions:

• Principle 1 | Purpose: We will develop the capabilities of students to be future generators of sustainable value for business and society at large and to work for an inclusive and sustainable global economy.
• Principle 2 | Values: We will incorporate into our academic activities, curricula, and organisational practices the values of global social responsibility as portrayed in international initiatives such as the United Nations Global Compact.
• Principle 3 | Method: We will create educational frameworks, materials, processes and environments that enable effective learning experiences for responsible leadership.
• Principle 4 | Research: We will engage in conceptual and empirical research that advances our understanding about the role, dynamics, and impact of corporations in the creation of sustainable social, environmental and economic value.
• Principle 5 | Partnership: We will interact with managers of business corporations to extend our knowledge of their challenges in meeting social and environmental responsibilities and to explore jointly effective approaches to meeting these challenges.
• Principle 6 | Dialogue: We will facilitate and support debate among educators, students, business, government, consumers, media, civil society organisations and other interested groups and stakeholders on critical issues related to global social responsibility and sustainability.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals: Preparing for a Decade of Action

In addition to our work on PRME, Queen’s Business School is also committed to promoting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through our teaching, research and engagement activities. The 17 interconnected SDGs provide a framework to achieve a better future for all by addressing poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice.

In January 2020, the UN announced a ‘Decade of Action’ to deliver the Global Goals. According to the UN, ‘The Decade of Action calls for accelerating sustainable solutions to all the world’s biggest challenges - ranging from poverty and gender to climate change, inequality and closing the finance gap’.

The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, stated that this needs to occur at three levels:

• Global action, to secure greater leadership, more resources, and smarter solutions for the SDGs;
• Local action, embedding the needed transitions into the polices, budgets, institutions and regulatory frameworks of governments, cities, and local authorities; and
• People action, including by youth, civil society, the media, the private sector, unions, academia, and other stakeholders, to generate an unstoppable movement pushing for the required transformations.

We are determined to play our part by, for example, increasing the focus on the SDGs within our teaching and supporting research aligned to the goals.