From recycling to regeneration: lessons WITH exemplary green enterprise

Abstract

The paper reports the progress on the launch of a project designed to empower a multi-disciplinary faculty of students and teachers to identify and implement practical actions towards improving environmental sustainability in their multiple contexts. Specifically, the project is focussed on drawing lessons FOR and WITH SMEs who have the ambition to achieve a zero or positive (regenerative) environmental impact as a by-product (or product) of their operations.

The rationale for the project is that many efforts to pursue environmental sustainability (such as recycling) are insufficient to address the true environmental challenges that face societies. Furthermore, many students are neither familiar with the dimensions of the environmental challenges nor feel capable of making a useful contribution to addressing the issues.

The focus on SMEs is pertinent since evidence suggests that relatively more larger companies have begun to integrate concerns for environmental sustainability more comprehensively into their strategic development, for instance through adopting Integrated Reporting frameworks. These initiatives by larger companies will eventually impact on SMEs as the larger companies compel participants in their supply and value chains to adopt comparable environmental practices.

The paper concludes by challenging educators to adopt Education for Sustainability in a manner that enables every graduate to think and act as a sustainable practitioner in their employment, their household, their communities, and their professional discipline.