Innovative Teaching and learning: Environmental Issues, Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility

With climate change widely accepted by business and society alike as an existential crisis that is looming large, it becomes imperative for management students to delve deeper into sustainability matters that at XIME, there is a course dedicated just for this.

To single out this course from typical classroom-based learning, faculty have designed this course to look into practical matters by getting students going out of the campus and understanding the real-world challenges. This is an addition to the XSeed club activities that focus on environmental issues and the partnership association with OISCA, with whom XIME jointly hosts an international sustainability conference.

To foster critical thinking and problem-solving skills through collaborative means is the underlying approach at XIME in its curriculum. The pedagogy mix is diverse however bringing in learning through experience remains a challenge due to the tight timelines in each trimester that gives faculty very little space to experiment.

For the environmental course undertaken in the academic year 2018-19, students were grouped and assigned projects with a 6week timeframe to explore, engage and embed practical realities into their learnings and insights. The students were given varied projects.

Projects ranged as follows

1.        Engage with NGO, Corporate or Govt. body to study an environmental impact – positive or negative.

2.      Construct a commercial proposal for a waste plant

3.      Construct a commercial proposal for a water management system

4.     Construct a commercial proposal for a renewable energy system

5.      Examine air pollution impact in Delhi and create a proposal to mitigate the pollution impact in Kerala.

6.      Undertake an environmental audit of a facility and identify gaps through a certification process.

7.      Engage with Panchayat / Municipality on the waste proposal and tree planting

8.     Engage with companies on corporate responsibility and sustainability reports

Meeting vendors, certification agencies, government institutions and CSR departments of enterprises etc. accelerated the learning process that deepened the impact. This experiential learning opened minds to climate change realities and helped their transformation as responsible citizens.

For more details on this course please write to deansoffice@xime.org.

Editorial Board

XIME Kochi