Producing and Consuming Sustainability in Business Education

Sustainable production and consumption are often associated with systems and products surrounding firms and industries. What is often neglected is the production and consumption of sustainability mindsets—the sustainability literacy and education of people behind these endeavours and the alignment of the competencies demanded with the ones being taught. Thus, this chapter aims to focus on that overlooked piece of the puzzle—the production and consumption of sustainability literacy, particularly in business education. Recent trends have shown that business schools across the globe are transforming their strategy by widening their societal engagement and integrating sustainability into their curriculum. Either as a separate course or integrated with other courses or as an independent programme, sustainability has become one of the topics that has been getting the attention of programme managers, teaching teams, and students alike. It remains blurry though what these courses aim to achieve, and how aligned are the sustainability-related competencies being taught to the ones demanded by the market. In this chapter, we analyse the potential and pitfalls of the production and consumption of sustainability courses, as we review existing studies and analyse four specific approaches undertaken by business schools—an elective course, an integrated course, a degree programme, and leading sustainability transformation by example. We aim to provide useful insights into the design and development of sustainability literacy in business schools.