WISE joins the ISSUE project

Major international events in 2015 have led to a new sustainable development (SD) agenda for the next 15 years. At all levels, from global to local, and in all sectors, from business to government, from NGOs to education, thousands of initiatives have been launched to support the different SD goals defined by basic UN documents, such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Agenda defined 17 goals of SD to achieve by 2030. The United Nations Global Compact transformed general objectives described by other UN documents into 10 principles, which is a United Nations initiative to encourage businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies. Higher educational institutions (HEIs) realised that they have the specific role to empower faculty, administrators, staff and students to be effective change agents and drivers of a more sustainable global society.

The main objective of ISSUE (Innovative Solutions for Sustainability in Education) project, which started in November 2018, is to develop various education tools based on principles and goals of sustainable development and adapt them for higher educational institutions. Sustainability, in any organisation, should be embedded through knowledge, engagement, collaboration and innovation. HEIs should ensure that their governance, faculty, staff and students not only understand sustainability, but also have the capacity to act sustainably and promote sustainable practices. Project partners will develop content and tools with modern pedagogical approaches, adapted to the different target groups of a university, on various SD issues.

The work packages of the project will include:

• Manual on integrated reporting for the HE sector
• Exploratory study of SD-focused curriculum development, including best practice examples and teaching case studies
• Sustainability toolbox development for HEIs (21-day challenge training program, Future sustainability managers training program, Green Office Strategy toolkit and guidelines, Escape room exercise focusing on SDG topics)

To disseminate the project results among various stakeholders, several regional events will be organised in the next years.

Project partners:

• Budapest Business School – University of Applied Sciences, Hungary
• Leeds Beckett University, UK
• IEDC-Bled School of Management, Postgraduate Studies, Slovenia
• Cologne Business School, Germany
• Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland
• INFODEF – Institute for the promotion of Development and Training, Spain
• Business Council for Sustainable Development in Hungary, Hungary
• CEEMAN – The International Association for Management Development in Dynamic Societies, Slovenia

The first transnational partner meeting took place in Madrid, Spain on 10-11 December 2018 to discuss activities for the first several months of the project. The second meeting, as well as a training event for staff that will work on the first two deliverables, will be held in Bled, Slovenia in May 2019.

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