Developing a Sustainability Guide for an Internationally Competitive Business School

Russia was one of the first countries to start working on the development of environmental education programs. Nevertheless, today it is on the periphery of global educational trends. According to Russian entrepreneurs, business schools in Russia today do not provide adequate education in the field of sustainable development. Russia needs to take measures towards the transition to sustainable development. The field of education is one of the prerequisites for achieving sustainable development. Nowadays, sustainable development is not only a matter of the environmental awareness, but also a holistic and broad perspective that shapes long-term values for people. Sustainability is the latest example of the profound changes which demand the transformation of the whole society. The challenge for universities is to define and promote a “sustainable” communication model that should encompass not only organization and management, but also the scientific sphere. In order to make the transition from the traditional education system to an environmentally oriented one, it is necessary to form a system that would ensure that sustainability. The successful transition of a university to a sustainable one and the implementation of the third mission can be carried out based on the practices of the world universities. On the basis of the analysis, the growing need in the development of strategy for introducing sustainable development into business schools can be fulfilled. The ultimate goal of this study is to develop recommendations and a sustainable guide for the transition of a business school to sustainability. To achieve the goal the following objectives are set: 1. Literature review on the positive impact of business schools to the society and environment; 2. To systematize the criteria and data for the schools obtaining world accreditations and ratings in the field of sustainable development; 3. To analyze the data of the empirical study "Green Business School: From Analysis of World Best Practices to Their Implementation in Russia"; 4. To develop recommendations for the transition of Graduate school to sustainable development. The methodology of this project includes theoretical methods (literature review, systematization of factors and analyzing the level of a business school in rating systems, their accreditations) and empirical methods (analysis of the data from “Green Business School: From Analysis of World Best Practices to Their Implementation in Russia” research; descriptive analysis of the survey, content analysis of expert interviews). With regard to this work own empirical research will be used. In order to analyze the current situation on the part of the internal stakeholders of the graduate school, a study “Green Business School: From Analysis of World Best Practices to Their Implementation in Russia” carried out in 2020 will be used. From this study, data obtained from staff survey, the sample of which is N = 42, student survey, the total sample of which is N = 350, as well as from expert interviews, which were conducted in December 2020 and January 2021 with both business school employees and business representatives, will be applied. In this work, the set goal is achieved: recommendations and a guide to sustainable development for the transition of the Graduate School of Business on the path of sustainability. The goal was achieved after all the objective had been completed.