Erasmus University Rotterdam

RSM Erasmus University develops an appreciation of social and environmental stewardship amongst its students throughout the MBA Programme. The School sees stewardship and the awareness of individual responsibility as key in creating sustainable businesses that go beyond being environmentally or socially neutral to being agents for positive change.

In addressing the issue of sustainability we recognize both its importance as a motivating idea and the concomitant ambiguity in its current usage. This makes us examine the issue more sharply and encourage our students to be more pro-active in this burgeoning field of study and discourse. RSM Erasmus University invests considerable resources into research activities that support its desire to contribute to society and to business. One of its seven academic departments is the Department of Business Society Management and it is a member of associations like EABIS (European Association for Business in Society). Specific research projects supported within and across departments of the School include the thirty-five million Euro Sustainable Transport and Mobility initiative lead by Professor van Nunen and the ten million Euro initiative on Sustainable Transition concerning societal transformation that is lead by Professor Rotmans. Professor Koedijk is a recipient of the Moscowitz Award on green investments and he is short-listed for the fifteen million Swedish Krone Mistral Award. Dr Wempe serves as the director of MVO � an initiative financed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs that aims to become the knowledge centre for sustainable business in the Netherlands.

Research undertaken by the School underpins its objective to create a "sustainable supply chain" of graduates who contribute fresh perspectives, broadened viewpoints and ultimately, better and more conscious business decisions in the interests of their immediate stakeholders and, as importantly, with a fuller awareness of broader social and environmental consequences and benefits. We do this by creating an MBA program environment in which questioning and critique thrives. Students develop an understanding that those with narrow functional perspectives of business and its role in society will find it difficult to contribute to the transformation required for sustainable development. In contrast, those with broad experiences and critical perspectives of different groups and sectors of society will be leaders in this transformation. Students develop a recognition that they need to continuously revise their assumptions and practices if they wish to contribute to their businesses and their environment and if they are to realize their capacity to unlock creativity in others.