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SDG 9 - Meeting: how to increase sustainability in a 100 years old company?

Introduction

Person with markers (By Kvalifik on unsplash.com)
Person with markers (By Kvalifik on unsplash.com)

No single company, NGO or government can drive the change necessary to tackle environmental, social and economic change that is necessary to deal with the many challenges nowadays​ (Henssen, 2019).

Even if a business seems to be doing very well because it has been existing for decades, that does not mean there is not any room for improvement. Companies constantly need to be on track when it comes to innovation, legislation and other factors.

This activity consists of a small real-life based business case. The students will analyse the business case with a critical mindset. At first sight, the company discussed can be considered sustainable: it has been existing for over a decade. But does this mean there is not any room for improvement regarding sustainability? They will have to determine the most important issues and make their own statement: are they pro renovation of the current plant in the city center or pro building a new one outside the city center?

After stating their own point of view, the students will organise a meeting. The main item on the agenda: should we convince our investors of modernizing our current plant, or should we convince them to construct a whole new factory?

This activity allows the participants to work on a real life business case while practising negotiation, future thinking and strategic thinking competencies.

Note: this business case is based on a real life business case. The names used are fictional in order to guarantee the company’s privacy.

Action Areas

  • Sustainable innovation

Learning Objectives

Cognitive learning objectives:

  • The learner understands the concepts of sustainable infrastructure and industrialisation and society’s needs for a systemic approach to their development.
  • The learner understands the local, national and global challenges and conflicts in achieving sustainability in infrastructure and industrialisation.
  • The learner can define the term resilience in the context of infrastructure and spatial planning, understanding key concepts such as modularity and diversity, and apply it to their local community and nationwide.
  • The learner knows the pitfalls of unsustainable industrialisation and in contrast know examples of resilient, inclusive, sustainable industrial development and the need for contingency planning.
  • The learner is aware of new opportunities and markets for sustainability innovation, resilient infrastructure and industrial development.

Socio-emotional learning objectives:

  • The learner is able to argue for sustainable, resilient and inclusive infrastructure in the local area.
  • The learner is able to understand that with changing resource availability (peak oil, peak everything) and other external shocks and stresses (e.g. natural hazards, conflicts) their own perspective and demands on infrastructure may need to shift radically regarding availability of renewable energy for ICT, transport options, sanitation options, etc.

Behavioural learning objectives:

  • The learner is able to innovate and develop sustainable enterprises to respond to their countries’ industrial needs.

Competences

  • Strategic competency
  • Critical thinking competency

Instructions

Step 1) Introduction (5 minutes)

Show the video that explains SDG 9 as a way of introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEOdMq2Gk54. 

Step 2) Read the business case BUSINESS CASE BXL Chocolates, individually (10 minutes)

Step 3) Determine what can be improved in order to increase sustainability (15 minutes)

Instructions:

  • Highlight all issues you can detect in the business case.
  • Are there limitations? Underline them in red.
  • Do you see any sustainable opportunities? Underline them in green.

Step 4) What is your opinion? (15 minutes)

  • Are you pro renovation or pro a new building in a different location?
    • Write down your point of view and formulate at least 5 arguments. This does not need to be a full text, bullet points are enough.

Step 5) Prepare the meeting (5 minutes)

  • Give instructions to convert the classroom into several “meeting islands” with room for 6 participants per meeting.
  • Divide the students into groups of 6.
  • Hand out the meeting role cards “Meeting roles activity 1 SDG 9" to the students so that they know which role they will have during the meeting.

Step 6) Introducing the meeting (5 minutes)

Explain the agenda and instructions to the students:

  • Item on the agenda: “Should we renovate our current factory or build a new one, taking into account all the information we currently have?”
  • Play the role you were assigned, no matter if you want to renovate or replace the factory. Connect the ideas you wrote down during the previous phases and match them to your role in the meeting. There is no right or wrong, what we want to do is think like a real company having a meeting, where different parties have their own important role.
  • The CEO leads the meeting.
  • Use the last 5 minutes to summarize all ideas and try to reach a consensus: will you renovate or rebuild? What are the most important insights you collected from this meeting?

Write down the instructions for the meeting on a white- or blackboard:

  • Have respect for each other: listen, don’t interrupt.
  • Give everyone their time to speak.
  • Stick to your role.

Step 7) The meeting (30 minutes)

  • Give the groups 30 minutes to hold their meeting. 
  • Listen to the conversations, but do not interrupt unless it is necessary (e.g. when the students are quiet for quite some time or when a conversation escalates). 
  • Announce the last 5 minutes of the meeting, so that the students can prepare their conclusion.

Step 8) Closing and reflection (20 minutes, class conversation)

What was the conclusion of each group?

  • Write down the most important insights of the groups on the white- or blackboard.

- CALL TO ACTION 1

Analyse your own workplace (1 hour, individually, homework)

If there is room to do so, this activity can be extended in the student’s curriculum by stimulating the “critical thinking”-competence. 

This may be done by giving students who are doing an internship the instruction to assess the overall sustainability of their workplace on an infrastructural level. Then they can make  a summary of points for improvement and write suggestions for the company. If the student feels comfortable sharing these suggestions with the workplace, he/she eventually might have an impact or at least activate the company/organisation to assess its sustainability level regarding infrastructure.

- CALL TO ACTION 2

Visit and interview a local, long-lived company (1 hour, in classgroup)

Contact companies, preferably in the neighbourhood of the school, that have been existing for as many years as possible. (A company like in the business case of 100 years old would be ideal, but this really depends on your area and the possibilities of companies who would like to cooperate.)

Explain the goal of the visit: your students have to gain insight in how long-living companies create resilience to face different types of challenges. The visit will take 40 minutes to 1 hour.

The students will have to prepare 5 questions regarding this topic that they want to ask during the visit. 

These can range from questions regarding how the company faced previous economic challenges to how employees experience working for a company that has been existing for a very long time, what are the greatest challenges in competing with “newer” companies, what are the greatest advantages of existing for such a long time,...

Make sure the students take notes during the interview to discuss the visit in class.

Discussion (15 minutes, in class, whole group)

Take some time after the visit to discuss in class how the students experienced the visit and which insights they gained.

 

Requirements

  • Printed business case for each student
  • Printed document “Meeting roles for activity 1 SDG 9”, cut into the 6 roles
  • Classroom that allows to organize meetings
  • White- or blackboard and marker
  • Notebook and pen for the company visit

Resources

Click each section below to see all resources available.

Documents

BUSINESS CASE BXL Chocolates

Meeting roles activity 1 SDG 9

Videos

SDG 9: INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE

 

Notes for Educators

Estimated Total Duration: 1 hour and 45 minutes + Call to Action

  • This is an “in class only”-activity. Group dynamic is important when conducting a meeting. Next to that, it is important not to share the business case with the students before the session, so that they really stick to their own opinion and don’t compare their personal statements before the meeting.
  • You can decide on the group members: the best ideas will come if you combine people with different personalities and give them a suitable role.
  • The absolute maximum of participants per meeting is 6. If there are less, you will decide on who gets which role.
  • Try to keep the students as motivated/enthusiast as possible for the visit: this is a unique opportunity to talk to people in the business world about an important topic. Encourage them to ask their questions.

 

Wnioski

Wybierając legalne kasyna w polsce 2025 dla Polaków online, gracze mogą być pewni, że ich prawa są chronione, a gry są prowadzone uczciwie. Legalne kasyna online zapewniają bezpieczeństwo danych osobowych i finansowych graczy dzięki odpowiednim licencjom. To gwarantuje, że każda gra jest monitorowana, a ewentualne problemy rozwiązywane są zgodnie z obowiązującymi przepisami. Gra w legalne kasyna online to nie tylko większa pewność wygranej, ale także wsparcie dla gospodarki, gdyż takie kasyna płacą podatki w Polsce, co przynosi korzyści całemu społeczeństwu.