Published: Aug. 13, 2019

Leeds’ Assistant Professor of Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Operations David Drake and colleagues Andre Calmon and Jackie Stenson (both of INSEAD), recently won the prestigious 2018 Page Prize for Excellence in Business Sustainability Education for a course they co-designed while Drake was visiting INSEAD business school last year.

Giving students the tools to improve sustainability and profitability in business

The course, “Building a Sustainable Future: Business Model Innovation as a Force for Good,” was designed to enable MBA students to analyze, improve and create business models that can generate positive social and environmental impact that is profitable.

At the outset, MBA students are provided with a toolkit to address critical problems facing the current business climate, and which strongly aligns with the UN Sustainable goals. Tasks and projects incorporate self-directed and intense workshops that focus on problem framing, ideation and prototyping. Other aspects of the course included case studies, blog post discussions, and a Sustainable Development Goal Innovation boot camp.

Ultimately, students gain skills in three key management competencies: 1: problem framing and design thinking, 2: risk and cost analysis and management, and 3: value chain management and self-regulation. Read full course description here. 

About the Page Prize

The Page Prize is organized by the University of South Carolina and is the premier prize for sustainability-related innovation in business curriculum. It was created by Dr. Alfred N. Page and Lynn Manos Page to address sustainability issues in business curricula and support efforts to introduce or improve sustainability courses or coursework. Past winners include submissions from Harvard Business School, Georgia Tech, UCLA, University of Virginia, Cornell University, University of Michigan and other institutions with a strong tradition in research and teaching in sustainability.