The LEGO Foundation aims to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow – a mission that it shares with the LEGO Group. The LEGO Foundation is dedicated to building a future where learning through play empowers children to become creative, engaged, lifelong learners. Its work is about redefining play and reimagining learning. In collaboration with thought leaders, influencers, educators and parents, the LEGO Foundation aims to equip, inspire and activate champions for play.

Sherwat Elwan Ibrahim

Associate Professor of Operations Management at The American University in Cairo (AUC) and Director of MBA and EMBA Programs at AUC School of Business

It's been a great honor serving as an advisory board member for PRME Impactful Five (i5). The i5 project represents a powerful initiative, driven by the ambition to cultivate a comprehensive skill set within business school education, designed to equip future leaders with the capabilities required to responsibly lead their organizations.

As we champion the Principles of Responsible Management Education and endeavor to spread PRME's positive impact across the world, it is imperative to recognize the role of pedagogy in execution.It's not every day that one has the opportunity to shape something as profound as i5. I've learned a lot from everyone, and it was great working with the wonderful i5 team. It is particularly rewarding to reflect on the steady milestones and what has been achieved so far. I have full confidence in the next phase of the i5 Project and eagerly look forward to closely following the developments.

Andrew Hoffman

Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise, University of Michigan

To me, the PRME (i5) program is the right program at the right time. We are facing enormous sustainability challenges in today’s world and business schools have a strong role to play in addressing them. Yet they are not stepping up to the plate. Though some schools are adding climate change to their curriculum, they are not grasping the full scope of the issue. Simply adding electives while the curriculum remains unchanged will be inadequate for the scale of the challenge. What is required is a fundamental transformation of business education, rethinking its structure, pedagogy and purpose. And this is where the i5 comes in, offering a needed and compelling blueprint for deeper, holistic pedagogical shifts in how we teach business and leadership. If we can gain greater acceptance for the changes it promotes, beginning with the PRME Signatory schools, we can bring a new kind of business education to the people that ultimately need it; today’s business school students who will be tomorrow’s business leaders. And the truth is, today’s business students are already ahead of us, asking new and important questions of business schools. Surveys show 60% of Gen-Z and Millennials are alarmed or concerned about climate change[i] and more than 70% of the Gen-Z business cohort want content that responds[ii]. I have been involved with PRME (i5) because I think they are offering the kind of solutions that the world and our students need.

[i] Ballew, M. et al. (2023) “Global Warming’s Six Americas across age, race/ethnicity, and gender,” Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/global-warmings-six-americas-age-race-ethnicity-gender/ (Accessed 21 September 2023).

[ii] Wylie, I. (2022) “What Generation Z wants from a business masters,” Financial Times, September 4.

Prof. Dr. Haifeng HUANG

Global Research Fellow of Woodrow Wilson Center in USA, Co-Chancellor of China Institute for Responsible Management Education and Sustainable Development, Board Member of the PRME Advisory Board (2020-2023) and Former Assistant Dean and Professor of Peking University HSBC Business School.

In the contemporary era, business school education is experiencing profound transformations, with a growing emphasis on fostering social responsibility and an understanding of the far-reaching implications of climate change on both economic and societal spheres. As such, PRME (i5) will play a vital role in revolutionizing the framework, methodologies, and objectives of business education. It is advisable to implement this novel teaching approach on a global scale, thereby equipping present-day business school students with the skills and knowledge necessary to become the green leaders of tomorrow. As an experienced educator with three decades of involvement in this field, I have had the privilege of participating in discussions pertaining to PRME (i5) and am confident that it will have a significant impact on business education worldwide. In the years to come, I aspire to continue contributing my expertise and expanding upon the innovative concepts of PRME (i5) in collaboration with various business schools throughout Asia, while also integrating them with local cultural and educational policies to cultivate a plethora of exceptional business leaders.

Sulitest

Sulitest's vision is to develop Sustainability Literacy worldwide and empower engaged and committed global citizens to make informed and responsible decisions and collectively build a sustainable future. To meet this need, Sulitest developed an ecosystem of tools that academia and companies can use to measure and improve Sustainability Literacy amongst their staff, students, faculty, and other stakeholders. Its mission is to expand sustainable knowledge, skills, and mindsets that motivate individuals to become deeply committed to building a sustainable future and making informed and effective decisions.

With the support of the Assessment Taskforce, Sulitest is responsible for leading The PRME (i5) Assessment Framework closely aligned with the Playbook with the expectation of developing a digital assessment tailored to the PRME (i5) program so that it specifically tests the development of PRME (i5) learning and pedagogical approaches among faculty outlined in the Playbook and holistic skill set development among students in their classrooms.

Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Project Zero (PZ)’s mission is to understand and nurture human potentials –such as learning, thinking, ethics, intelligence, and creativity –in all human beings. Today Project Zero is an intellectual wellspring, nourishing inquiry into the complexity of human potentials and exploring sustainable ways to support them across multiple and diverse cultural contexts. Anchored in the arts and humanities, and with a commitment to melding theory and practice, we continue to work toward more enlightened educational processes and systems that support learners, individually and in the community, to thrive in, reflect on, contribute to, and change the world in which they will live. PZ is responsible for leading the construction of the PRME (i5) Playbook with a goal to provide an authoritative guide based on rigorous research (e.g. research questions, design, appropriate methodologies, research ethics) that equips educators to test new pedagogical approaches for holistic skill set development among their students at leadership schools. The Playbook will reference characteristics of effective learning, such as considering research and scientific-based approaches that incorporate the five characteristics of playful learning (e.g. social, joyful, iterative, actively engaging, and collaborative experiences). The Playbook will be piloted by business school educators and scaled among further educators to nurture holistic skill set development in PRME’s network of 860+ business schools around the world.