Moving towards greater sustainability: KLU scores high in international PIR survey
Conducted by Kühne Logistic University’s student sustainability club Green Dream, the PIR survey (Positive Impact Rating for Business Schools), which aims to help business schools foster positive societal impacts through education, comprises a series of questions asked to students on various themes including the culture of the school, learning methods, and student support. KLU was awarded a Level 3 Progressing School rating.
“This is the first year KLU’s taken part in the PIR, so the fact that we were rated level 3 is a very good result,” explains Green Dream president and Masters in Global Logistics and Supply Chain Management student Ronja Moritz. “There are a number of work-ons that came out of the survey, of course, but the university is moving in the right direction, implementing sustainable measures such as phasing out paper coffee cups and reducing the amount of merchandise handed out, as well as working to improve its societal impact by helping students become responsible leaders.”
Students’ perspective on sustainability and societal impact
The PIR survey was by developed a group of academics, students, and business school stakeholders from across the globe to measure the societal impact of business schools and provide individual feedback to these schools on ways to improve engagement and impact in the fields of responsibility and sustainability. What makes the survey unique is that it is not only conducted by students but focuses solely on what students themselves have to say about their institutions’ societal impact.
Moritz says that the survey was particularly well-received by both KLU students and faculty, not least because of its emphasis on the opinions of students, who are key stakeholders in shaping the future of business education.
“More than 110 KLU students completed the survey, which is great considering we’re a relatively small school, and lots of students were away doing internships or their study abroad semesters at the time,” she explains. “The professors were also very helpful, inviting us into their classes to talk to their students and explain what the survey was about and why it’s important.”
Positive outcomes for KLU’s student sustainability club “Green Dream”
“We were only formed in November,” says Moritz. “So, this was our first major project, we grew as a team and individuals a lot by running it. We’d like to improve our communication around recycling, because maybe it's not perfectly communicated from our side. We’ll also keep working with the KLU’s Green Office to improve the environmental impact of students and the university by running workshops and educating people about sustainable practices.”
Other business schools to have been awarded a PIR Level 3 Progressing School rating in 2024 include HEC Paris, ESADE Business School, Spain and the University at Buffalo School of Management, USA. Only six schools were rated Level 5 Pioneering Schools this year – four from India and one each from Peru and Costa Rica.
Positive Impact Rating for Business Schools (PIR)
The PIR - a Swiss association governing the rating and founded by endorsers WWF, Oxfam International and UN Global Compact Switzerland, which promotes responsible business practices – carried out its first survey in 2020, when 30 business schools were rated, with none achieving the highest rank of “Pioneering Schools”.
The 2024 edition of the survey garnered 15,222 student responses, while the societal impact of 77 business schools from 30 different countries were announced in the PIR’s Empowering Impact Excellence Report launched at the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (UN PRME) forum in June of this year.
