London South Bank University (LSBU) is one of London's largest and oldest universities. Since 1892 we have been providing students with vocationally-relevant, accredited and professionally recognised education. As a cosmopolitan university, with over 25,000 students, we draw students from over 130 countries. We received the highest possible rating for the quality of our education, from the independent Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), and are proud of all our achievements in delivering excellent student outcomes. We have an important, enduring and consistent mission to create student opportunity for future success. We have much to be proud of and aspire to be the best in our field. We intend to make this happen by implementing our vision: ”to be the most admired UK university for creating professional opportunity. We intend to be a source of pride to our students, our staff and the communities we serve”.

LSBU is a founder member of the COPERNICUS Alliance and a signatory to the UN Global Compact’s Principles of Responsible Management Education. Building on the foundations of the MSc in Education for Sustainability which we began in 1994, sustainability and education for sustainability are important and inclusive themes with a strong presence in the teaching and research activities at LSBU. Specifically within the Faculty of Business, sustainability themes are given specific attention in our BA Business Administration, BA Business Management, BA Accounting & Finance, MBA, MSc International Business and DBA programmes. Examples of modules where sustainability features particularly are Business Risk Management, Knowledge, Globalisation & Development and Sustainable Development & Global Citizenship. Across the curriculum, sustainability is embedded in topics such as corporate social responsibility (CSR), socially responsible investment and sustainable employability.

The Centre for Efficient and Renewable Energy in Buildings (CEREB) demonstration and research facility at LSBU is now fully operational. Visits to the facility are included in MBA, MSc International Business and many Faculty of Business undergraduate programmes. With substantial funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the London Development Agency (LDA), this on-campus facility sits within the £1.5 billion Elephant and Castle regeneration zone and forms part of a London Energy Action Zone.

A number of Faculty of Business academics contributed to the highly successful cross-faculty conference on Embedding Sustainability within the Curriculum. This one-day event, hosted by LSBU, was organised jointly with the London Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development of the United Nations University’s Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS).

The Faculty of Business completed a comprehensive curriculum review exercise in 2011. As a result, we have introduced sustainability themes in our major programmes. Moreover, the Faculty’s Learning and Teaching Committee has a standing agenda item on education for sustainable development.

We introduce students on our MBA and MSc International Business programmes and, where appropriate, many of our undergraduate programmes, to the UN Global Compact, the UN Millennium Development Goals, the Principles for Responsible Investment, UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development , PRME and the MBA Oath. These contribute to inquiry and reflection within learning sessions and are integral to an increasing emphasis on putting students first, enabling them to be at the centre of their learning through constructivist and inquiry-based approaches.

At the detailed level of intended learning outcomes, we emphasise transferable (sustainable) employability and enterprise skills.

Moreover, we are supporting an increasing number of MBA and MSc student research projects and dissertations in areas relating to sustainability.

This project will be managed within the Department of Business Studies at LSBU. The staff and relevant resourcing, including related financial management, will be undertaken within the operational aspects of the department. Within the department there are specialist resources in technical translation, web-based learning and VLE development and implementation.

Role of LSBU in the project:

• Contribute to the mapping exercise in the UK.
• Assist in the development of an online platform of resources as well as get familiarised and review the online tool.
• Contribute to the bi-annual newsletters.
• Provide feedback to the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) framework.
• Contribute to the dissemination and exploitation of the project outputs, outcomes and future network activities.
• Participate and actively contribute to the discussions generated in regional and annual meetings, seminars and conference.

Operational and financial management:

• The project team will coordinate the above administrative and academic project activities.
• Financial administration will be handled by the project team who will liaise internally with the institution’s finance department.