Meaningful knowledge partnerships and collaborations are the need of the hour for Indian business schools to participate in and drive the response to climate change
Early in 2022, eight business scholars of Europe’s biggest business schools penned an article in the Harvard Business Review, calling on business schools to do more to address the climate crisis. Business schools would need to collaborate with climate scientists, policymakers and other stakeholders. B-Schools' expertise in business transformation, measurement of performance and return, operations, marketing, organisational leadership, incentives, and governance position them uniquely to drive society’s response to the climate crisis. Setting up the Doerr School of Sustainability at Stanford in September 2022 is a shot in the arm for a concerted academic presence in the mitigation, adaptation and larger climate dialogue.
Also read: On the way to climate hell: Will COP27 negotiations enforce climate action commitments?
Just a few years back, California’s largest utility, PG&E was forced into bankruptcy, hit by liabilities arising out of known risks of its electricity equipment contributing to the wildfires that raged across the state. Lopping trees and putting cables underground may have increased costs and reduced dividends to shareholders, but these management practices may have also averted the first climate bankruptcy. While companies and countries saddled with legacy assets may focus initially on mitigation measures, developing countries ought to transition to cleaner energy and low-carbon development trajectories. This transition requires capital of the scale requiring developed countries to follow through on the Copenhagen commitments.
As business graduates of 2023 step (back) into their careers where the adaptation mindset needs to be built into the development pathway, existing programs need to be made resilient to climate change and additional risks need to be acknowledged. In addition to issues such as energy security, war, development and Covid-19, climate adaptation and crisis mitigation have become key skill sets. BCG’s Climate Jobs presents a range of career opportunities for which business graduates need to be well prepared. Not all of the climate challenges lend themselves easily to quantitative reasoning alone. After all, what about the hundreds of thousands who need to flee from a raging wildfire or flood? Climate justice demands that the decision-makers of today and tomorrow be able to join hands with society and grapple with these seemingly intractable issues as well.
Also read: Force firms to reveal their impact on nature: Major businesses write an open letter to world leaders
Compared to US and European business schools, India’s older business schools are ‘stand-alone’ entities. Therefore, meaningful knowledge partnerships and collaborations are the need of the hour for these business schools to participate in and drive the response to climate change. Activities like research collaborations, publications, and de-carbonisation projects may be attempted within the current institutional structure or through the formation of centres like IIMK’s Center for CLIMATE Studies (CCS). The climate crisis presents itself as a wicked problem which eludes purposeful framing and solution-finding. However, some aspects of the climate crisis are shifting from intractable to solvable.
The climate gauntlet was thrown down quite some time back. It is now time for Indian business schools to pick it up.
- Deepak Dhayanithy, Associate Professor, Strategic Management, IIM Kozhikode