Inspiring a Sustainability Mindset in Enterprise Education

The aim of our seminar is to present our EEUK funded project's main output, which is an innovative toolkit integrating the sustainable mindset principles within enterprise education (EE); its ultimate purpose is to fundamentally boost the curricula of universities (particularly enterprise education in business schools) with education for sustainable development theories (Moon et al., 2019; PRME, 2015; Rimanoczy, 2020; Rimanoczy & Ivanova, 2021; Tavan et al., 2018). Although sustainable development has long been taught in business schools, as part of the United Nations’ Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME), more work is needed to promote a sustainable future, by developing sustainability competencies among enterprise educators. The toolkit foundation stems from the "sustainable mindset principles" methodology developed by Dr Isobel Rimanoczy, which outlines 12 guiding principles across four key areas: ecological worldview, spiritual intelligence, emotional intelligence, and systems perspective. The toolkit provides enterprise educators with a comprehensive set of active learning strategies to embed these sustainable mindset principles into their teaching approaches. Delegates attending the seminar will be explored to the hands-on active learning tools involved in the toolkit's first release (due 31.07.2024), for cultivating eco-literacy, values alignment, emotional intelligence competencies, and systems thinking capabilities in students and staff alike. A core focus of the tools presented is experiential pedagogies that immerse learners in navigating the real-world complexities of sustainable decision-making. Simulated scenarios have students grapple with trade-offs between priories like investor returns, environmental protection, and community impact. Participatory tools like OPERA facilitate analyzing interconnected economic, social and environmental factors. However, the toolkit goes beyond just ecological perspectives. Reflective exercises guide students in articulating their personal "why" and examining their beliefs about ambitious sustainability goals. Creativity-sparking activities challenge them to design teaching plans inspired by mindset principles like cyclical thinking and self-awareness.