Making Sustainability Personal: An Experiential Semester-Long Project to Enhance Students’ Understanding of Sustainability

Abstract

Students often naively assume that pursuing sustainability is necessarily costly and difficult. However, proponents of “weak” or “business-centered” sustainability argue that well-crafted sustainability initiatives may simultaneously reduce carbon footprint and enhance financial performance. This article describes a semester-long project that helps students move from their naive perspective to a more nuanced understanding of the opportunities present in sustainability. They examine and choose among alternatives that reduce both their carbon footprint and expenses; then they implement their chosen alternative. The project transforms their understanding of sustainability as they realize their choices can reduce both their footprint and their expenses. They draw parallels to the firm level, realizing that firms can also use sustainability to simultaneously reduce carbon impact and enhance firm value.