5 April 2011 - “If we want to save the world, we have to reinvent business education.” This is the recommendation of an Engaged Business Leaders’ Forum held on Friday 1 April, an invitation-only event attended by 17 distinguished guests. The group of senior executives of leading companies, environmental organisations and foundations, included H.R.H. Princess Irene of the Netherlands, chair of the Lippe-Biesterfeld Natuurcollege and H.R.H. Prince Carlos de Bourbon de Parme, director of the Institute for Sustainable Innovation and Development (INSID).

Recommendations and suggestions from the forum included:

• Co-learning – simultaneously designed courses for business students, supervisory board members, executives and external stakeholders. Education for the individual is out-dated.
• Develop a fundamental shift in business mind-set through a focus on systems thinking, experiential learning and encourage a passion for sustainability.
• Multi-disciplinary – bring in other disciplines of thought, including the natural sciences, and provide students with meaningful experiences in nature
• Have students engage in real issues through ‘living cases’ and the exploration of actual supply chains.
• RSM has to ‘walk its talk’ with a green campus.

The theme of the Forum was ‘How to Educate Managers for a Sustainable Planet’, and was part of the celebrations surrounding the Inaugural Lecture of Prof.dr. Gail Whiteman, who accepted the special Ecorys NEI Chair in Sustainability and Climate Change. The private event was hosted by Prof. dr. George Yip, Dean of Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM), and Marten van den Bossche, Chairman of Ecorys NL.
The genesis for the event emerged in recognition of a paradox facing business and business education. On the one hand, sustainability is no longer a fringe topic and corporations routinely invest in eco-efficiency measures. On the other hand, data from ecology indicates a worsening, and in some cases, alarming state of affairs.  Why this disconnect? Participants concluded that part of the problem is that business education remains focused on the profit-seeking firm and not on the Earth system, despite a desire to ‘green’ the business curriculum. 

RSM, as a leading business school in Europe, intends to tackle these challenges. Gail Whiteman: “Most companies are now actively engaged in greening their operations and reducing their carbon footprints.  But this is not enough.  We need to train future business managers to think outside the box, and to develop more holistic values about nature, society and economics.”. 

Professor Whiteman leads the RSM Centre for Corporate Eco-Transformation, which aims to help companies to make the transformation to a more sustainable system of low-carbon production and consumption. This Chair is sponsored by Ecorys and the Netherlands Economic Institute (NEI).  The issue of sustainability is one of the core values that identifies RSM and is integrated into the School’s teaching, research, and facilities management. RSM was the first undergraduate business school in the Netherlands and Europe to have a required course on climate change within its curriculum. Its internationally acclimated MBA is independently ranked by the Aspen Institute as the most sustainable MBA degree in Europe, and #7 in the world. 

For more information on RSM or on this release, please contact Marianne Schouten, Media & Public Relations Manager for RSM, on +31 10 408 2877 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  of Robert Eijkelestam, Head Marketing & Communications for Ecorys in the Netherlands, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or +31 10 453 88 57.