Senior Business School leaders recognise the impact climate change will have on business and their personal lives but share an optimism that passionate students and the wider business community will find solutions, according to the research behind AMBA & BGA’s International Climate Change Report, in association with Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics.
The results of the survey provide a snapshot into the views and beliefs of some of the most senior-level members of the Business School professional community, on the topic of climate change, during a time when many countries were in a period of lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
This research, which draws on the views of 597 senior leaders at Business Schools across the world, finds that nearly nine out of 10 of those surveyed (88%) believe that their Business School has at least some responsibility to tackle climate change.
Key findings
- Seven in 10 Business School leaders (69%) agree that the planet’s climate is changing and think human activity is the main driver of this.
- A similar proportion (71%) believe that the impact of climate change on their lives will be negative.
- Two thirds (65%) of Business School decision makers think their own School is ‘excellent’, ‘very good’, or ‘fairly good’ at playing their role in preventing further climate change.
- More than half (56%) rated their students as ‘excellent’, ‘very good’ or ‘fairly good’ in terms of their efforts to address climate change.
- When Business School leaders were asked to rate their programmes out of 10 in terms of how effectively they thought their teaching was in covering the role that managers should play in contributing to climate change prevention successfully, the mean score across leaders was 5.9.
- 46% of Business Schools leaders believe Business Schools need significant funding to support research into the relationship between business management and climate change prevention in order to maximise Business Schools’ impact in averting climate change.
- Business School leaders are very positive about the role of business in addressing climate change: nearly nine out of 10 respondents (87%) agree that business is capable of finding the solutions to tackle climate change; with two fifths (40%) in strong agreement that this is the case.
- Business School leaders are split in terms of how they have changed their behaviour in the past six months to lessen their impact on the environment; with 51% having either changed their behaviour ‘a great deal’ or ‘a fair amount’; and 48% not having changed their behaviour ‘very much’ or ‘at all’.
- When comparing optimism about the planet in the next 10 years between Business School leaders, current students, and graduates, current students are the most optimistic with 65% saying they are either ‘very optimistic’ or ‘fairly optimistic’ and Business School leaders were the most pessimistic with nearly half (47%) stating they are ‘not very optimistic’ or ‘not at all optimistic’.
