Why study Sustainable Development Management

Why study Sustainable Development Management

Most government policies, today, are centred around achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by United Nations. This has led to increasing demand for personnel trained in SDG and to meet the demand, premier management institutions are offering postgraduate programmes in Sustainable Development Management (SDM) to train students to meet challenges created by degrading ecosystems.

IIM Lucknow's postgraduate programme in Sustainable Management places emphasis on the philosophy that businesses cannot be separated from society. As per the IIM-L website, 'the programme aims to develop management professionals with a holistic perspective on economic, social and environmental issues.' PGPSM's curriculum offers specialised courses on systems thinking, social entrepreneurship, externalities, lifecycle management, and stakeholder management.
"Such programmes are designed for those who wish to pursue a career in Management that takes into account both economics and science relevant to sustainable development projects," says V Sandeep, head, Department of Electrical Engineering, associate dean, International Relations, National Institute of Technology NIT) Andhra Pradesh. He adds that his courses/subjects connect with diverse fields. Students will get to undertake research-oriented project works on sustainable development goals in collaborations with NGOs.

Course components

"Major components of the curriculum are Globalisation and Sustainable Development, Economic Theories and Policies, Data Collection and Analysis, Impact Assessment and Evalua tion of Projects, Law and Compliance, Management Development Projects," says Sandeep, adding, "Graduates of SDM should address the most complex and disruptive environmental, natural resource and economic problems. Currently, many organisations and industries are including sustainable initiatives into their da to-day operations. There is a growing demand to pursue a broad range of careers for sustainability engineering sectors, as engineers,

COURSE professionals in a range of engineering and non-managers, scientists, lawyers, marketers, and policymakers," adds Sandeep. A lot of avenues are open for students of SDM. "They can work with sustainability departments tasked with identifying areas where was
uses of resources can be diminished Such departments work in concert with all
functional areas of management. The course
can ensure that Students can fulfil the expectations of the new-age organisation," says Nina Jacob, professor, OB & HRM, chairperson, VB Padode Centre for Sustainability, Jagdish Sheth School of Management (JAGSOM), Bengaluru.

Amrita University in Kerala offers a four-level programme in Sustainable Development.

"At level one, students will get rural exposure. At level two, they will be able to embrace cultural diversity leading to compassion, which will be brought in through problem identification from a multi-domain perspective, thematic inter-dependencies, and research enquiries. At level three, they will engage with multiple stakeholders, in multiple research experiences and will get the opportunity to put their theory in practice by prototyping sustainable designs. At level four, they will do real-time deployments, achieve life-long learning and become socially responsible," says Maneesha V Ramesh, dean, School for Sustainable Development, dean, International Programs, UNESCO Chair on Experiential Learning for Sustainable Innovation & Development. "Industry 5.0, which will be powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, satellite-based internet, innovation, and entrepreneurship, will see significant advancements in a relatively short period. Also, students' minds will be shaped towards creativity and entrepreneurship due to potential funding because of sustainability-based courses," adds Ramesh.

From - The Times of India

Published on -25 October 2021