It feels as if 2012 has seen an explosion of the greater good within business and institutional practice. This year, more than 250 higher education institutions backed a Higher Education Initiative for Sustainable Development at Rio+20, the UN’s Sustainable Development Conference. Meanwhile, within the predominantly private international language teaching sector, there has been a rush to demonstrate corporate commitment – and a system of rating schools for their efforts unveiled by a major agency.
There is no doubt about it, sustainable and ethical business practice is now a hot topic in international education. A commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has seen internal and external projects and developments all nodding towards the role that the education sector should play in building a better world.
Based in Montreux, Switzerland and with 37 sales offices, ESL is a study abroad agency which sends thousands of students around the world to over 250 destinations each year. After working with external consultants to build its own CSR action plan, ESL unveiled a tool for others.
Krister Weidenhielm, head of products and purchase at the company, explains that the ESL “CSR self-assessment tool” enables the company’s partner language schools to rate their own efforts. And – importantly for ESL – a company’s CSR rating can be displayed for consumers as another decision-making factor, alongside location, price, etc.
Weidenhielm is a passionate advocate of CSR as a complete shift in company mindset
Weidenhielm is passionate that CSR can, and should, change the way a business functions as a whole. He says, “Slowly but surely, corporations have to decide how their organisation can offer more value to stakeholders. CSR guidelines unavoidably lead to sustainable development; a blueprint for creating added value.”
He is passionate that CSR can, and should, change the way a business functions as a whole
In the higher education world, efforts are also proliferating. Professor Rob Rabel, Pro-Vice Chancellor, International at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, is careful to point out that universities can’t fund charities – but they can encourage pro-sustainable activities that relate to education. His university facilitates projects via the Victoria International Leadership Programme (VILP). “We want projects to have a real impact, often in Asia,” he says.
In the UK, “The UK HE” charity was launched last year that aims to position UK HE as a responsible recruiter and ‘give back’ to the disadvantaged in the countries from which it recruits.
And Universitas Indonesia has developed a GreenMetric ranking – encouraging universities to participate in a world ranking of university sustainability. It has measured the sustainability of 178 universities operating in 42 countries.
But why are companies, universities and schools so interested? Many, like Weidenhielm, say the appeal of CSR is that it inspires innovation – as well as being intrinsically linked to marketing and the value-added proposition.
Taylor (left) and Lane Clark of CCEL, Canada, at the rooftop herb garden
CCEL, a Canadian English-language college, has dramatically altered the way it teaches its international clientele out of an aim to be more sustainable. In 2007, the company was shocked to be handed an award for recycling a large amount of paper. In response to the award, the management decided to cut the amount of paper the school used – by 100%. The target to cut paper consumption forced CCEL to take an entirely new approach to business.
“We’ve seen very clearly that a socially responsible model has strong benefits within the population”
“We’ve now pushed that down into our classrooms”, explains Zach Taylor, chief marketing officer at the school – which grows herbs on its roof garden that are used in the in-house cafe.
“We have eliminated textbooks from our classrooms by creating an online interactive web-based curriculum. We’re able to update it more frequently than a textbook – it’s always changing and evolving.”
Edulang is another company enjoying the success of innovative CSR-motivated ideas. Edulang’s popular ‘Pay What You Want’ online scheme offers learners worldwide to pay a minimum charge of one dollar for language materials, with 50% of any extra payment going to the charity Room to Read. “The viral effect is inherent in our programme”, says social media manager, Brad Patterson.
“Teachers from across the globe write to ask how they can help in our efforts”, says Brad Patterson. “We’ve seen very clearly that a socially responsible model has strong benefits within the population.” [more>>]
Companies within the sector judiciously support causes which complement their work. ICEF, the global networking company for agents and international educators, created an Education Fund this year, which offers donations to educational projects in countries already sending international students abroad.
“The Education Fund intends to create a meaningful relationship between the service we provide and the projects we support”, says ICEF’s marketing and communications manager Korinne Algie.
“This horizontal, reciprocal relationship has granted us a strengthened sense of community founded upon shared social responsibility.”
Another advantage of CSR strategies, says STS’s manager James Crimp, is staff satisfaction. The Sweden-based company, which organises education programmes globally, intends to donate to Plan International on a long-term basis, but it rarely publicises its charitable work.
“Staff need to know that they are working for a conscientious and responsible company,” Crimp explains. “That was our initial goal. What surprised us was the closeness you can have with a charity. Plan regularly visit us at our headquarters to give talks to the staff about the difference the donations are making.”
Jason Flaming shares Crimp’s view that CSR strengthens companies and schools at their core.
“In the words of author Simon Sinek, “all companies know what they do, most know how they do it, but very few really understand why they do what they do,” he says.
“Having a socially conscious strategy in place is a way to anchor our collective understanding of ‘why we do what we do’”
As a director of ILSC, Flaming works in New Delhi and helps run Learn to Earn, an educational sponsorship of underprivileged girls. “Having a socially conscious strategy in place is a way to anchor our collective understanding of ‘why we do what we do’, it gives us a reason to get up in the morning, and it helps to define who we want to be as we move forward in the industry.”
Jonas Haertle, PRME Secretariat, UN Global Compact Office and Pernille Kallehave, Aarhus University, Denmark (one of HESI signatories) at Danish Pavilion at Rio+20 exhibition area
The key to the popularity and success of new sustainable and ethical projects is the sector itself. Bogie Lapinski, of Canada’s ILAC school, underlines this: “How many of us have spoken to bright and articulate students who will never have a chance to study abroad? Yet often institutions do not have the flexibility or resources to think outside the box.”
But ILAC did have the resources, and its director Jonathan Kolber created a non-profit arm of ILAC, the ILAC Foundation. After reading a book by Palestinian campaigner Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, Kolber was moved, and began donating to the doctor’s charity Daughters for Life, as well as offering scholarships to female students from the Middle East.
“I’ve seen first-hand that for a lot of children the opportunity to go to school – let alone higher education – isn’t a reality”
CSR initiatives are often driven by personal goals. i-student group’s managing director Paul Loftus explains why he founded the educational charity Rhinocrocadillipig: “For the last 16 years since I’ve been in the international education industry I’ve done a lot of travelling.
“I’ve seen first-hand that for a lot of children the opportunity to go to school – let alone higher education – isn’t a reality.” Loftus utilises industry contacts in finding and funding charitable partners with educational aims.
In the case of The Bell Foundation, set up recently by The Bell Educational Trust, it was more the case that the endeavour reflects the Trust’s ethos of promoting social cohesion, integration and opportunity through language education. This is close to the aspirations of founder, Frank Bell, who set up the school chain after his Prisoner of War experiences.
So what is the future of CSR? Strategies and campaigns are becoming increasingly sophisticated, which may call for a radical rethink of the mainstream. The phrase ‘corporate social responsibility’ denotes charity; something incredibly important, but primarily outward looking.
Weidenhielm, of ESL, hopes businesses will up their game. “The economics of CSR are fundamental, but they are often overshadowed by environmental or social criteria”, he says. “CSR then remains in the status of a passive utopia, and this doesn’t match with a business mind-set.
“We use CSR in addressing business relations, with the goal of sharing values and ideas to be more successful and profitable; in other words, sustainable.”
