Toolkit for the Interdisciplinary Infusion of the SDGs into Classrooms

Business

The following resources are related to the world of Business and will provide instructors with materials to support, introduce and infuse the SDGs into their lessons.

The SDGs-in-the-Classroom Toolkit is proud to collaborate with the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary to provide academic material for Business instructors and students eager to infuse the SDGs into teaching and learning.

Houston Peschl MBA, Senior Instructor Haskayne School of Business: Sustainability,  Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 2022 D2L Innovation Award in Teaching and Learning, Taylor Institute Teaching Academy Member, 2023 Parex Innovation Fellow and Ian Sug, MBA graduate at Haskayne School of Business, have curated academic content specific to the SDGs and the Business discipline. Below, instructors and students will find case studies, formal reports, lesson plans, short readings and videos.

Accounting

Entrepreneurship and Innovation

  • The Creative Enterprise Programme (CEP) is a collaborative venture between the British Council and Nesta, designed to support the growing global creative economy. The core of CEP is a three-day workshop providing enterprise training for creative entrepreneurs, aiming to ensure equal access for all to quality technical, vocational, and tertiary education.
  • The Women in Coffee Project aims to create a platform for women who are leaders as coffee producers, importers, and exporters to offer their perspectives in this complex industry. It encourages independence and income for women coffee farmers in Kenya. Despite doing 70 percent of the work growing coffee, many women are not given rights to what they grow. Women in Coffee demonstrates this by empowering women through sustainable jobs and a continually growing industry. 
  • The Marquis Project in Tanzania exemplifies local and international poverty reduction initiatives. This project aims to assist child-headed households and marginalized young women and girls by facilitating their participation in the local market economy. The program helps people learn how to become entrepreneurs and increase their income to support themselves and their families. The project is a catalyst to increase local capacity through micro-enterprise, agro-production and vocational training, mentorship and micro-credit development.

Finance

  • Professor Muhammad Yunus established the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in 1983. He believed that credit is a fundamental human right. His objective was to help poor people escape poverty by providing loans on suitable terms and by teaching them a few sound financial principles so they could help themselves. 

Marketing

Operations and Supply Chain Management

Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources

Risk Management and Insurance

Strategy and Global Management

  • HOPE International Development Agency helps women in Southern India improve their livelihoods by enhancing the resources of local institutions, including self-help groups and community-managed resource centres. 
  • The Sustainable Development Goals Fund has an online database of sustainable development case studies with a selection of effective practices for achieving a sustainable world while advancing the 17 SDGs. 

  • Visit Alliance 87, an organization specifically focused on Target 8.7 and joining forces to provide educational resources, facts and graphics around ending forced labour, modern slavery, human trafficking and child labour around the world.

  • Read Advancing the SDGs at Canadian Universities.

  • Visit Alliance 2030, a national network committed to achieving the 17 goals especially in Canada by working at local and global levels. Their Economics page contains content related to a number of SDGs, including no poverty, decent work and economic growth, and industry, innovation and infrastructure.

  • B1G1 Business for Good has a Quick Guide  that helps people discover how businesses can start contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. 

  • Visit the Canadian Labour Congress. They help people to understand the issues facing workers in Canada including Indigenous and LGBTQ employees and employees of colour. They have economists, researchers and subject matter experts and produce in-depth analysis on issues such as working conditions, health and safety, wages and benefits, healthcare, pensions and retirement security. 
  • Visit Faculty for a Future and search the Seed Library It is a searchable database of open-access educational resources that can support educators and students by integrating sustainability into discipline-specific teaching and learning. Search by issue, discipline, resource type and characteristic.
  • Visit FairTrade Canada. They advocate for thriving farmer and worker communities to have more control over their futures. They stand in solidarity with producer organizations without compromise to their standards, prices, or vision to make trade work for everyone along the supply chain. Their impact is economic, social and environmental. 

  • Visit GapMinder to learn about Dollar Street. Imagine the world as a street ordered by income. The poorest live to the left and the richest to the right with everybody else living somewhere in between. Gapminder is an independent Swedish foundation with no political, religious or economic affiliations. They fight devastating misconceptions about global development with a fact-based worldview everyone can understand. They produce free teaching resources based on reliable statistics. They collaborate with universities, UN-based organizations, public agencies and non-governmental organizations.  

  • Find Geospatial data and timely data sets for countries around the world by SDG.

  • Visit If It Were My Home an interactive map that helps people understand life outside of their home country. Use the country comparison tool to compare living conditions via statistics in a home country to those of another.

  • The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries has a podcast series that looks at how actuaries can contribute to achieving the SDGs and to highlight the relevance of the SDGs to actuarial work along with real-life examples.

  • The OECD iLibrary is the online library of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development featuring books, papers, podcasts and statistics and is the knowledge base of OECD's analysis and data. 
  • Visit Reimagine Sustainability to find resources and articles to help you become a change agent and apply sustainability principles in your life as teacher or student through concept, mindset and action.
  • Visit the open educational resources created and curated by the SDG Academy Library. Business and Management content can be searched by language, SDG, series and subject.

  • View free and open Economics educational materials on the SDG Academy Library. 

  • TeachSDGs helps instructors to connect to the SDGs through resources such as videos, global projects, social media and teacher connections. 

Accounting Reports

  • Overview of the TCFD (Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures) (2022) by TFND. This report provides an overview of the emerging thought leadership on business disclosure and reporting related to climate change. Aligned to SDG 13: Climate Action.
  • International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) S1: General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information (2023) by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). This document is an inaugural international financial reporting standard on sustainability-related disclosures, which are designed to enable companies to communicate to investors about the sustainability-related risks and opportunities they face over the short, medium and long term. This standard incorporates the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Aligned to SDG 17: Partnerships to achieve the SDGS
  • International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) S2: Climate-related Disclosures (2023) by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). This document is an inaugural international financial reporting standard on climate-related disclosures. This standard incorporates the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and is to be used with IFRS S1. Aligned to SDG 13: Climate Action

Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Technology Management Reports

Finance Reports

  • Taxonomy Roadmap Report - a Canadian Green and Transition Financial Taxonomy Framework (2022) by the Sustainable Finance Action Council (SFAC). This report provides an overview of the Canadian green and transition finance taxonomy, which is endorsed by Canada's 25 largest financial institutions. Aligned to SDG 13: Climate Action.
  • 2022 G20 Sustainable Finance Report (2022) by the G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group (SFWG). This report provides an overview of the framework, current state, and progress on transition finance, which refers to financial services supporting the whole-of-economy transition, in the context of SDGs, toward lower and net zero emissions and climate resilience. Aligned to SDG 13: Climate Action

Marketing Reports

Operations and Supply Chain Management Reports

  • Sustainable Public Procurement: How to Wake the Sleeping Giant! Introducing the United Nations Environment Programme’s Approach (2021) by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). This report provides an overview of key success factors and best practices for implementing sustainable public procurement. While the report is for public procurement, it contains highly relevant information for the private sector companies. Aligned to All 17 SDGs.

Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources Reports

  • Transforming Enterprises through Diversity and Inclusion (2022) by the International Labour Organization (ILO). This report provides an overview of existing research and relevant case examples to show the critical role of D&I in the high performance of the workforce, businesses, economies and societies globally. Diversity and inclusion is at the heart of SDGs, which is developed based on the core principle of "leaving no one behind". Aligned to SDG 10: Reduced Inequality.

Risk Management and Insurance Reports

  • The Global Risks Report 2023 (2023) by World Economic Forum. This report provides an overview of key global risks, which are largely related to the SDGs, and future scenarios for the Year 2030. Aligned to All 17 SDGs.

Strategy and Global Management Reports

  • Read the Feminist International Assistance Policy report from Global Affairs Canada. It describes helping to eradicate poverty and vulnerability around the world with supports targeted to investments, partnerships, innovation and advocacy. 

  • Read the emerging practice guide by the Global Compact Network Canada. They made an open call to the Canadian private sector to submit examples of how its policies are working to advance the SDGs.

  • Read the Guide for Business Action by SDG Compass. It discusses how companies can align strategies as well as measure and manage contributions to the SDGs. 

  • The Global Compact Network Canada is a special initiative of the UN Secretary-General. It is a call to companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with Ten Principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption and deliver the Sustainable Development Goals. Visit their library resources.
  • Read the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index 2022 report supporting SDGs #5, #8, #16, the 20th edition of the CEI is a survey benchmarking tool on how corporations across the United States and beyond are adopting equitable workplace policies, practices and benefits for LGBTQ+ employees. By using the CEI criteria as a guide, businesses can help ensure that their existing policy and benefits infrastructure is inclusive of LGBTQ+ workers and their families.
  • Read MVO Platform's 2018 report on companies' contributions to the SDGs and the role the SDGs play in Dutch Foreign Trade and Development. 

  • Read PwC's report on the reporting challenge for 2018. It addresses the question 'How can CEOs build on the many opportunities offered by the UN Sustainable Development Goals'? 

  • Review the report from the University of Calgary Haskayne School of Business titled 'Education for Sustainable Development and Responsibility in Canadian Business Schools'. 

  • Read the survey from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). The WBCSD conducted a global survey to explore trends around how business is currently working to align activities to the SDGs. The responses include 250 companies from 43 countries and 4 continents.

Economics

  • Read this lesson plan for infusing SDG #12 called 'Take, Make, Waste: A Sustainable Economic Paradigm'. It relates to economics, social studies, and entrepreneurship.

  • Read the lesson from The World's Largest Lesson called 'Challenging Common Conceptions: Seeing the Bigger Picture.' It is related to SDGs #9, #11 and #12 and is from the Ellen Macarthur Foundation. 

  • Read this introductory lesson plan to introduce the SDGs to your students, stress their socio-economic importance and enable discussions on the efforts taken by governmental and non-governmental agencies of their nations towards achieving these goals. 

General Business

  • Review the Hungry for Food Security – The East African Experience lesson. It introduces students to the issue of food insecurity with an emphasis on East Africa. It has statistics, examples and case studies. Students will also learn the factors impacting food insecurity. They will be provided with an overview of some grassroots approaches to enhancing food security in rural African communities. 
  • Visit the Wakelet SDG page for lesson plans, links, videos, student challenges, activities, infographics and tasks for all of the 17 SDGs.

Marketing

Accounting

  • Overselling Sustainability Reporting (2021) by Kenneth P. Pucker. This article outlines the problems with both sustainability reporting and sustainable investing. The author discusses nonstandard metrics, insufficient auditing, unreliable ESG ratings, etc. But real progress, he says, requires not just better measurement and reporting practices but also changes in regulations, investment incentives, and mindsets. Aligned to All 17 SDGs.
  • Accounting for Climate Change (2021) by Robert S. Kaplan and Karthik Ramanna. This article identifies the problems with the GHG Protocol, which a majority of Fortune 500 companies rely on to report on their GHG emissions, and proposes the E-liability accounting system, a method where emissions are measured using a combination of chemistry and engineering, and principles of cost accounting are applied to assign the emissions to individual outputs. Aligned to SDG 13: Climate Action.
  • We Need Universal ESG Accounting Standards (2022) by Robert G. Eccles and Bhakti Mirchandani. This article provides background on why and how the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) initiative came about to establish the universal ESG accounting standards. Aligned to All 17 SDGs.

Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Technology Management

  • How to Make Generative AI Greener (2023) by Ajay Kumar and Tom Davenport. This article highlights the environmental cost (carbon footprint) associated with emerging technologies, namely Generative AI, and provides an overview of steps that companies can take to manage these technologies to be greener. Aligned to SDG 13: Climate Action.
  • Startups Need an ESG Strategy (2022) by Bruce Simpson and Cait Brumme. This article highlights why and how startups should devise a careful environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategy. Aligned to All 17 SDGs.

Finance

  • A More Impactful Strategy for Sustainable Investing (2023) by Emilio Marti, Martin Fuchs, Mark DesJardine, Rieneke Slager, and Jean-Pascal Gond. This article, based on a comprehensive review of 3,500+ research papers, presents five tactics that sustainable investors can use to increase their impact. Aligned to All 17 SDGs.
  • Sustainable Finance Primer Series (n.d.) by Institute for Sustainable Finance. This series of articles, developed by the Institute for Sustainable Finance at the Smith School of Business of Queen's University, provides an overview of key sustainable finance concepts. Aligned to All 17 SDGs.

Marketing

  • Consumers’ Sustainability Demands Are Rising (2023) by Ashley Reichheld, John Peto, and Cory Ritthaler. This article highlights three factors driving a significant shift in consumption patterns where consumers will consider sustainability as a baseline requirement for purchase. Aligned to All 17 SDGs.
  • The Elusive Green Consumer (2019) by Katherine White, David J. Hardisty, and Rishad Habib. This article presents five actions for nudging consumers toward sustainable purchasing and behaviour to address the “intention-action gap,” where few consumers who report positive attitudes toward eco-friendly products and services follow through with their wallets. Aligned to All 17 SDGs.

Operations and Supply Chain Management

  • A More Sustainable Supply Chain (2020) by Verónica H. Villena and Dennis A. Gioia. This article summarizes a study that revealed the violation of sustainability standards in lower tiers of the supply chain of multinational corporations (MNCs) that are pledging to sustainable practices. The authors offer a framework of approaches companies can take to address this problem. Aligned to All 17 SDGs.

Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources

  • The Board’s Role in Sustainability (2020) by Robert G. Eccles, Mary Johnstone-Louis, Colin Mayer, and Judith C. Stroehle. This article, based on the authors' research work on injecting purpose into corporate governance, presents a new framework (called "SCORE") for getting directors behind ESG efforts. Aligned to All 17 SDGs.
  • We Can’t Fight Climate Change Without Fighting for Gender Equity (2022) by Jamie L. Gloor, Eugenia Bajet Mestre, Corinne Post, and Winfried Ruigrok. This article outlines why, in order to fight climate change, organizational leaders must understand the interconnectedness between gender equity and environmental sustainability. In this context, the article provides six strategies for addressing environmental challenges through an intersectional approach to sustainability. Aligned to SDG 5: Gender Equality.

Risk Management and Insurance

Strategy and Global Management

  • How Sustainability Efforts Fall Apart (2022) by Elisa Farri, Paolo Cervini, and Gabriele Rosani. This article highlights four categories of "hidden enemies" that block the scaling of sustainability in organizations and offers solutions to combat them. Aligned to All 17 SDGs.
  • Moving the Needle on Sustainability (2022) by Goutam Challagalla and Frédéric Dalsace. This article provides a framework for companies to create sus­tainability strategies considering markets and customer engagement. Aligned to All 17 SDGs.
  • Social-Impact Efforts That Create Real Value (2020) by George Serafeim. This article provides five recommendations for businesses to go beyond just issuing sustainability reports and engaging in standard ESG practices to integrate ESG efforts into strategy and operations. Aligned to All 17 SDGs.

Finance