Auditing the University: Promoting Business Education …
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Providing a learning environment that supports and challenges learners’ thinking can enable students to become effective workers (Savery and Duffy 1995) and
support the development of generic and transferable employability skills (Crossthwaite et al. 2006). This environment should be active, experiential, participative and
collaborative to obtain the best student outcomes (Dewey 1916). Rieckmann (2011)
considers this environment should also have a problem orientation and link formal
and informal learning to facilitate development of key competencies that are needed
to deal with unsustainable development. Wiek et al. (2014) expand this perspective
and argue the LTA approach should include real-world settings so that students are
educated in relevant environments and able to develop workable solutions to promote
sustainable futures.
However, a broad range of functional barriers may affect the implementation of
sustainability curricula and prevent the adoption of innovative LTA approaches to
EfS (Lambrechts and Ceulemans 2013). Consequently, many researchers examining
the best ways to deliver EfS consider educators need to radically rethink management education to encourage students to think in new ways (Figuero and Raufflet
2015; UNESCO 2017). The author believes that without change, educators will not
meet the growing expectation that universities should contribute to a sustainable society through education, research and operations (Sterling et al. 2013; HEFCE 2013;
Higher Education Academy 2015; United Nations 2017), therefore audit-based learning has been adopted as an innovative LTA approach to business sustainability.
4 Audit-Based Learning
A sustainability audit is a methodical examination of organisational procedures and
practices determining or influencing environmental, social or economic impacts. It
is a voluntary, essential management procedure that allows an organisation to detect
problems before they affect operations (Hillary 2004), provide a benchmark from
where to measure subsequent change (Clark and Whitelegg 1998) and develop a
systematic approach to improving sustainability performance whilst improving economic performance (Viegas et al. 2013). Auditing is therefore an important employment skill for graduates to feed forward into their workplaces to contribute to sustainable futures.
The use of Environmental Management Systems and certification standards such
as ISO14001, EMAS or EcoCampus as a method of improving universities’ sustainability performance is well researched e.g. Disterheft et al. (2012); with environmental audits generally presented as extracurricular learning tools for students studying
in all faculties. However, there is some recognition of the opportunity to utilise a campus sustainability audit as a learning and teaching tool embedded within business
curricula (e.g. Alshuwaikhat and Abubakar 2008; Lambrects and Ceulemans 2013)
but less proposing a sustainability audit for an assessment (e.g. Bardati 2006). The
limited literature does agree, however, that audits can offer a valuable approach to EfS
307
Providing a learning environment that supports and challenges learners’ thinking can enable students to become effective workers (Savery and Duffy 1995) and
support the development of generic and transferable employability skills (Crossthwaite et al. 2006). This environment should be active, experiential, participative and
collaborative to obtain the best student outcomes (Dewey 1916). Rieckmann (2011)
considers this environment should also have a problem orientation and link formal
and informal learning to facilitate development of key competencies that are needed
to deal with unsustainable development. Wiek et al. (2014) expand this perspective
and argue the LTA approach should include real-world settings so that students are
educated in relevant environments and able to develop workable solutions to promote
sustainable futures.
However, a broad range of functional barriers may affect the implementation of
sustainability curricula and prevent the adoption of innovative LTA approaches to
EfS (Lambrechts and Ceulemans 2013). Consequently, many researchers examining
the best ways to deliver EfS consider educators need to radically rethink management education to encourage students to think in new ways (Figuero and Raufflet
2015; UNESCO 2017). The author believes that without change, educators will not
meet the growing expectation that universities should contribute to a sustainable society through education, research and operations (Sterling et al. 2013; HEFCE 2013;
Higher Education Academy 2015; United Nations 2017), therefore audit-based learning has been adopted as an innovative LTA approach to business sustainability.
4 Audit-Based Learning
A sustainability audit is a methodical examination of organisational procedures and
practices determining or influencing environmental, social or economic impacts. It
is a voluntary, essential management procedure that allows an organisation to detect
problems before they affect operations (Hillary 2004), provide a benchmark from
where to measure subsequent change (Clark and Whitelegg 1998) and develop a
systematic approach to improving sustainability performance whilst improving economic performance (Viegas et al. 2013). Auditing is therefore an important employment skill for graduates to feed forward into their workplaces to contribute to sustainable futures.
The use of Environmental Management Systems and certification standards such
as ISO14001, EMAS or EcoCampus as a method of improving universities’ sustainability performance is well researched e.g. Disterheft et al. (2012); with environmental audits generally presented as extracurricular learning tools for students studying
in all faculties. However, there is some recognition of the opportunity to utilise a campus sustainability audit as a learning and teaching tool embedded within business
curricula (e.g. Alshuwaikhat and Abubakar 2008; Lambrects and Ceulemans 2013)
but less proposing a sustainability audit for an assessment (e.g. Bardati 2006). The
limited literature does agree, however, that audits can offer a valuable approach to EfS