Tools for sustainable education. Merging disciplines & simplifying complexity

Abstract

For education and for lasting societal impact, the challenge is bridging what we know (theory) into what we can do (practice). In the college of business, marketing as a discipline has the same problem. Marketing’s reach has influence on very important societal dimensions: human health/dignity and environmental considerations to name a few. However, the way we practice sustainable marketing is fragmented and missing an interdisciplinary viewpoint. This acts as a barrier for theoretical development, for educating students, and for coherent, sustainable action. This workshop suggests that sense-making models and frameworks can simplify the complexity of sustainability questions in any discipline and at the same time provide an interdisciplinary view. Using the notion of a canvas, the Sustainable Marketing Canvas is shown as an example of how marketing and sustainability factors are merged to create a decision-making tool. After briefly introducing the development of the Sustainable Marketing Canvas, participants from different disciplines will be encouraged, in the form of an interactive design-thinking workshop, to create sense-making or decision-making tools for their students. At the end of the design sprints, each group will present their tool and pitch the tool’s usefulness to the group. The plenum will give feedback to each group as to the strengths and weaknesses of the presented tools. The goal is not to develop tools that can be used right away. Instead, the goal is to expand participants perception of how sustainability topics can be fused into their disciplines.