Haas’ Achievements in Responsible Management Education and Research Outlined in UN Report

Demonstrating its commitment to its mission of developing leaders who redefine how we do business, the Haas School has released its first progress report on the United Nations Principles on Responsible Management Education (UN PRME).

The goal of UN PRME is to inspire and champion responsible management education, research, and thought leadership globally.  

Haas was one of the first top-ranked business schools to sign on to UN PRME, in August 2012, and has just released its first report. Signatories commit to reporting publicly every two years on their progress against principles that include : being purposeful in developing students as future generators of sustainable value for business and society; engaging in research on the role of corporations in the creation of sustainable social, environmental, and economic value; and creating educational frameworks, materials, processes, and environments that enable effective learning experiences for responsible leadership.

“As PRME’s principles are very much aligned with our school’s culture and vision to develop pathbending leaders, we see the reporting process as helping Berkeley-Haas to drive continual innovation,” says Dean Rich Lyons.

The Haas School’s inaugural report covers activities and achievements during the 2012-2013 academic year in the Full-time Berkeley MBA Program and identifies future objectives for furthering its progress.

Some achievements detailed in the report include :

  • 25 electives in the fields of social impact or sustainability offered during the 2012-2013 academic year. Among them: Energy and Environmental Markets, Social Sector Solutions, Business and Natural Resources, Women in Business, Cleantech to Market, and Innovation in Health Care.
     
  • 348 students took at least one of those PRME-related electives. This figure includes approximately half of all full-time Haas MBA students as well as more than 100 who were attracted from a diverse array of other graduate schools across campus.
     
  • Launch of the new thought-provoking Berkeley-Haas Case Series to share business lessons from unconventional management strategies and disruptive trends.
     
  • Launch of the E2e Project, a joint venture of the Energy Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that expands the volume of dedicated research on the economics of energy efficiency.
     
  • Launch of the new Institute for Business and Social Impact, which elevates the importance of social impact at Haas by bringing together programs and activities in the areas of sustainability, health care, and nonprofit leadership.
     
  • 6 case and startup competitions hosted by Haas that encourage and reward socially responsible business plans and ideas, in addition to 3 academic conferences promoting scholarship and dialogue in energy and corporate sustainability.
     
  • Major expansion of the Haas Socially Responsible Investment Fund, in order to further student learning in the critical issue of socially responsible investing.

Future plans and objectives outlined in the report include offering a new  “Social Lean LaunchPad” entrepreneurship course in the 2014-2015 academic year and developing plans to launch a “Valuing Women in Business Initiative” to provide research and teaching on the challenges confronting women in business.

PRME was established in 2007 as a global call for responsible management education.  Since that time, 530 institutions of higher education from 80 counties around the world have signed the PRME initiative, including business schools, universities, and business associations.

The Haas School’s first UN PRME Progress Report was written by Christina Meinberg, associate director of the Center for Responsible Business; Fani Garagouni, assistant to Senior Assistant Dean Jo Mackness and CFO Suresh Bhat; and Nivani Govinder, MBA 14, based on interviews with about 15 members of Haas faculty and staff. Other contributors included Jo Mackness, Jay Stowsky, Laura Tyson, Kristiana Raube and Ute Frey.

Read the Haas School’s UN PRME Progress Report

Read a post about UN PRME on the Institute for Business and Social Impact Blog

Back