Ashridge in a rapidly changing world develop sustain lop - PRME

Ashridge in a rapidly changing world
Developing leaders who
create value sustainably
develop lop
sustain sta
United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education
Sharing Information on Progress Report
2012
www.ashridge.org.uk
1

C ontents
About Ashridge and what we do
Developing leaders who create value
sustainably
Ashridge’s commitments for the 2012
UN Rio+20 Summit on Sustainable
Development
Research and thought leadership
Working with our clients
Ashridge House – a sustainable venue
How have we led change?
Selected publications
Selected conference presentations
and contributions to events
This report is Ashridge's second UN PRME Sharing Information on Progress Report, and
covers the period June 2010 to June 2012. Ashridge's fi rst UN PRME Sharing Information
on Progress Report was published in 2010 and its next will be published in 2014.
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17
26
30
32
As a business school and
educational charity, our
purpose is to help people and
organisations learn, develop
and change, for the benefit of
wider society, and to maintain
Ashridge House and Gardens
for the benefit of the nation.
We pride ourselves on
being world class partners in
organisational learning and
change for our clients wherever
they are in the world.
As our world changes, we
are innovating and adapting
across how we think about
our research, education and
organisation consulting, and
how we invest in and steward
Ashridge House and Gardens.
About Ashridge and
what we do
We help clients to learn, develop and change
through our executive education, consulting and
research expertise
We partner with you to understand and address
your challenges and opportunities
We work with 6,450 managers and 850
organisations every year in 60 countries
We are a leading provider of customised
executive education programmes
We are one of the few business schools in the
world to have its own organisation development
consulting practice
For individuals, we have a comprehensive
range of open executive education programmes
spanning general management and specific skills
We have a portfolio of degree programmes:
full-time and Executive MBAs; Masters in
management, coaching and sustainability; and a
Masters and Doctorate in organisational change
We have innovative web-based learning products
that support all our learning and development
We carry out research that makes a tangible
difference to management and business
We employ faculty who combine academic depth
with practical business experience – 25% are
from outside the UK and 95% have international
experience.
We help our clients make a difference in the
world. We helped develop and became one of
the first signatories to the United Nations Global
Compact Principles for Responsible Management
Education.
www.ashridge.org.uk
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2
Developing leaders who
create value sustainably
In Ashridge’s fi rst PRME Sharing Information on
Progress report in June 2010, I argued that the
point of business schools is to help individuals
and organisations perform better so that everyone
in society as a whole benefi ts. We like to think
of Ashridge as a social enterprise: we are a
commercially-minded educational charity, we survive
and thrive when our clients value the services we
provide, but we exist for more than that, we exist to
help our clients make a difference in the world.
And our world is changing fast, with lots of new
challenges like food security, nutrition, health, water
scarcity, biodiversity loss, and climate change,
to name a few. Business thrives by developing
innovative products and services that ultimately
help people improve their quality of life, and many
business leaders are now responding to these new
challenges by redefi ning success in terms of how
their core business helps people improve their quality
of life within the constraints of planetary boundaries.
Unilever, for example, was one of the group of
companies that founded Ashridge Business School
in 1959. Its current chief executive, Paul Polman has
argued that: “The great challenge of the 21st century
is to provide good standards of living for 7 billion
people without depleting the earth’s resources or
running up massive levels of public debt.” 1
And he has argued that the right response from
business looks something like this: “What we
firmly believe is that if we focus our company on
improving the lives of the world’s citizens and come
up with genuine sustainable solutions, we are more
in synch with consumers and society and ultimately
this will result in good shareholder returns… It is
an enormous learning curve as no one has been
trained for this.” 2
As a business school, we at Ashridge think our
response to this rapidly changing world means we
need to do the following:
• We need to use the trust people have in us to
bring diverse groups together to discuss and
make sense of both these new challenges, and
the new behaviours we’re seeing from companies
in response.
• Through our research we need to develop and
test new approaches to doing business, and then
update our core business theories around how to
think about business strategy, leadership, fi nance,
marketing and everything else.
• And through our roles as educators, consultants
and executive coaches, we need to rise
to Polman’s challenge and ensure today’s
and tomorrow’s leaders are supported to
lead effectively in these rapidly changing
circumstances.
In short, we need to recognise the fundamental
infl uence we have as a business school, and use it
the right way to help accelerate how business as a
whole responds to our rapidly changing world.
That’s why we actively engage with our peers in
initiatives like the United Nations Global Compact
and the Principles for Responsible Management
Education. You can read more about our work over
the past two years in the pages that follow.
Kai Peters, Chief Executive
1 Unilever (2012) Message from our CEO. http://www.unilever.com/sustainable-living/ourapproach/messageceo/index.aspx
2 Quoted in Confi no, J. (2012) Unilever’s Paul Polman: challenging the corporate status quo. Guardian Sustainable Business.
www.ashridge.org.uk
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4
At the 2012 UN Rio+20 Summit on Sustainable
Development, Ashridge made the following four
public commitments:
Ashridge commits to...
1. ... mainstreaming sustainability as a core theme
running through all modules of its new MBA
programme to be launched 2012.
(Head of Qualifi cation Programmes)
2. ... embedding sustainability as a core theme
across three fl agship open enrolment executive
education programmes.
(Head of Open Programmes)
3. ... actively seek out opportunities to emphasise
the sustainability aspects of leadership, strategy
and change when designing tailored executive
education programmes.
(Head of Tailored Executive Education)
4. ... incorporate explicit attention to sustainability
and virtual working in all conversations with
consulting clients about our work with them.
(Head of Ashridge Consulting)
Ashridge’s commitments for
the 2012 UN Rio+20 Summit
on Sustainable Development
www.ashridge.org.uk
5

Vicki Culpin
Director of Research
We believe that as a business
school, we should use our role as a
place of thinking and ref lection to
bring diverse groups together to
discuss and make sense of emerging
challenges and responses. And we
believe that through our research
we need to develop and test new
approaches fit for a rapid ly
changing world, and then use these
new ideas to update the core
theories in key areas like strategy,
leadership and organisational
change. To make sure this knowledge
and learning is widely embedded
across our education and consulting
work, we need to get as many
members of our faculty engaged in
this kind of research as possible.
Research and
thought leadership
Proportion of Ashridge faculty that have
spoken or facilitated at an event, published
or in some other way developed intellectual
capital relating to sustainable development
at some point since 2007
40%
20%
0%
With our specialist research centre, the Ashridge
Centre for Business and Sustainability, acting as a
coordinating hub, over the past two years we have
convened events and led research projects focusing
on the implications of our rapidly changing world for
leadership, strategy, and organisational change and
executive learning.
• October 2010 – Ashridge organised a symposium
on Leading Organisations of Tomorrow in
partnership Heidrick&Struggles and Tomorrow’s
Company. A group of 16 Ashridge faculty and
consultants led a dialogue among over 100
Human Resources and Organisational Change
professionals, with speakers including Will Hutton
of The Work Foundation, Brian Hoskins of the UK
Climate Change Committee, David Cooperrider
of Case Western University, and Goran Carstedt
of The Natural Step and former President of IKEA
USA . Speakers from HSBC, IBM, Interface,
Ernst&Young, IMC Pan Asia Alliance, Lend Lease
and Sky all shared stories of innovation from their
own approaches to leadership development and
organisational change for sustainability.
• May 2011 – To mark the opening of Ashridge’s
new offi ce in zero-carbon Masdar City in Abu
Dhabi, Ashridge organised seminars for senior
leaders and human resources professionals on
Developing the Global Leader of Tomorrow at
the Business School of Tomorrow at the Masdar
Institute in Abu Dhabi and the British Embassy in
Dubai.
2009
20%
26%
LEADERSHIP IN A RAPIDLY CHANGING WORLD
How business leaders are reframing success
March 2012
28%
2010 2011
• June 2011 – Ashridge organised an academic
conference on What are we learning about
organisational change for sustainability?
Papers were presented from academics and
practitioners working around the world sharing
their research and experiences. Following the
conference, the best papers were published in
special issues of the Journal of Organisational
Change Management and the Journal of Public
Affairs, and a special issue of the Journal of
Management Development is forthcoming.
• November 2011 – Ashridge organised a workshop
on Sustainability as Usual to share and enrich
the emerging fi ndings from Ashridge’s crosssector
research to explore the strategies that
leading organisations are using to integrate
sustainability into their business practices.
Companies participating in the workshop included
Anglo American, the BBC, BT, HSBC, the IOU
Project, Natural England, Rabobank, Skanska,
Virgin Media and Vodafone.
• March 2012 – To launch new Ashridge research
on Leadership in a Rapidly Changing World,
Ashridge organised a breakfast dialogue for
senior leaders and human resources professionals
with Sir Stuart Rose former executive chairman
of Marks & Spencer, talking with Mark Foster,
Chairman of the International Business Leaders
Forum and former chief executive of Accenture,
and Matt Gitsham, Director of the Ashridge Centre
for Business and Sustainability.
• May 2012 – Ashridge organised a conference
on Gregory Bateson and An Ecology of
Mind: exploring how we think about change
in the 21st century. Organisational change
professionals joined Nora Bateson for a dialogue
around the ideas of her father Gregory Bateson,
which began with a screening of Nora’s fi lm about
her father An Ecology of Mind.
Major research projects led over the past two years
include:
• Leadership in a Rapidly Changing World CEO
Study (2012) on sustainability and leadership,
conducted in partnership with the International
Business Leaders Forum as a formal contribution
to the UN Rio+20 Summit on Sustainable
Development.
• Sustainability As Usual study (2012) on
sustainability and organisational change, based
on interviews with over 40 sustainability directors.
• Developing Leaders for a Rapidly Changing
World (2012) on sustainability, leadership and
executive learning, based on case studies of
innovation in leadership development at HSBC,
IBM, Interface, Ernst&Young, IMC Pan Asia
Alliance, Lend Lease and Sky.
• Virtual Leadership: Learning to Lead Differently
(2012) on the implications of virtual working for
leadership in a low carbon economy.
Numerous other studies, publications and events
on sustainability and leadership, strategy, change
and executive learning have been completed,
including books by Gill Coleman and Philip Sadler, a
research partnership with HSBC and the Earthwatch
Institute, and a research project in partnership with
Stellenbosch University on Responsible Leadership in
South African small and medium-sized enterprises.
6 www.ashridge.org.uk 7
1
Building leadership capability for a
rapidly changing world
What every business leader now needs
to know about developing
themselves and their people
in a changed world
Stories St of innovation in
leadership development from
IBM
Ernst & Young
IMC Group
Lend Lease
Interface
HSBC
SUSTAINABILITY AS USUAL
A change leader’s guide to
embedding sustainability

8
Playing our role as public intellectuals
Numerous Ashridge faculty have also embraced their
roles as public intellectuals to contribute extensively
to mainstream publications on questions of
sustainability for general and management audiences,
including Financial Times, Harvard Business Review,
The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Independent,
The Guardian, Management Today, HR Magazine
and BBC Radio, and also numerous conferences and
other events.
Doctoral research
A high proportion of the candidates pursuing
Ashridge’s doctoral programme for working
professionals are also putting questions of
sustainable development at the core of their research
inquiries, including for example, Paul Dickinson,
Executive Chairman of the Carbon Disclosure Project
and a student on the Ashridge doctoral programme.
Action Research
In 2010, Ashridge launched a new research centre,
the Ashridge Centre for Action Research, led by
Gill Coleman, which complements the work of the
Ashridge Centre for Business and Sustainability. The
Centre for Action Research supports people to use
action research as a bridge between thinking and
doing, between the world of ideas and the world
of messy, everyday action, and to help people to
act more thoughtfully, more effectively, and more in
service of values that matter.
www.ashridge.org.uk
9

We believe that as educators and
consultants we need to embed
this kind of new thinking across
the portfolio of educational,
consulting and coaching
activities that we engage in.
Margaret de Lattre
Head of Tailored Programmes
Proportion of tailored executive
education programmes and
organisation development
consulting projects that include a
focus on sustainable development
Proportion of open enrolment
executive education programmes
that include a focus on sustainable
development
Proportion of qualification
programmes that include a focus
on sustainable development
Working with
our clients
Building on our world-renowned specialist MSc in
Sustainability and Responsibility, we have made
important progress in mainstreaming sustainability
as a thread running throughout our portfolio of
qualifi cation, open and tailored executive education
programmes and consulting work, and important
work remains ongoing to continue this process.
10 www.ashridge.org.uk 11
20%
0%
40%
20%
0%
100%
50%
0%
6%
2009
2009
8%
23% 21%
88%
2009
12%
2010 2011
16%
2010 2011
70% 70%
2010 2011

12
Tailored Executive Education and Organisation
Consulting
Slowly but surely, ideas and themes around
sustainability and how to do business differently
in response to major societal forces are becoming
embedded across our tailored executive education
and organisation consulting. Sometimes driven by
the initiative of our faculty and client directors and
sometimes driven by the specifi cations of our clients,
questions of sustainability are increasingly featuring
in classroom learning and project-based learning for
clients based across different regions and industries.
A UK-headquartered Home Improvement Retailer
We have worked in partnership with this client
to develop and deliver a change leadership
programme for senior leaders. Sustainability is a
key feature of the organisation’s strategic plan.
We have included an opportunity for participants
to spend a day refl ecting on how they might
implement changes necessary to meet their
sustainability agenda, and to use the learning from
the whole programme to develop a change plan
they could use to enable this.
A Netherlands-headquartered Global Dairy
Cooperative
FrieslandCampina recognised in 2010 that, in order
for them to fulfi l their strategy going forward, a key
strategic priority was that of talent management.
We have been working with them to support the
organisation in developing a global, comprehensive
approach to developing and managing their young
talents and high potentials which will enable them
to bring about the organisational change that they
are seeking. We designed and are facilitating three
key strategic leadership development programmes
for FrieslandCampina that are offered on an ongoing
and global basis and take a blended learning
approach.
A key thread that runs throughout the programme
is sustainability. Participants engage with
farmers as key stakeholders by visiting their
farms and understanding the challenges that the
farmers face. In East Asia, participants have the
opportunity to engage with the local community
on societal projects and the business challenge
project-work that they undertake frequently
has sustainability at the core. All participants
are required to engage with the organisation’s
sustainability agenda and how this will impact on
their leadership going forward.
Ashridge is also increasingly working with clients
to partner to help meet their specifi c needs
for stakeholder-led strategy development and
executive education and organisation consulting for
sustainability.
A UK-based global renewable energy company
We worked with this client on a stakeholder-led
strategy engagement, helping the organisation
engage with external and internal stakeholders
to co-create and own a compelling vision for the
organisation and actions that fl owed from that. A
three stage process involved supporting a process
of stakeholder enquiry, facilitating a three day
event for 30 members of senior management,
and supporting the undertaking of a series of
resulting action research-based strategic projects.
Developing an appropriate response to forces
connected with sustainability was a thread that ran
throughout this work.
A multinational shipping company
We worked with this client to facilitate a boardlevel
intervention to support the leaders of
this multinational organisation make sense of
sustainability through experiential dialogue and
engagement. We facilitated a two day residential
retreat for board members and stakeholders
from different communities and organisations to
focus on what it meant for the business to create
sustainability in the long-term, with a particular
emphasis on the responsibilities faced by the
leaders and the organisation’s value chain. The
workshop was designed around the principles of
sensitizing, re-visioning, transforming, and wholeperson
learning.
A global knowledge-sharing network focused
on climate change backed by international
development agencies and departments.
We worked with this network to develop, with
a multi-stakeholder steering team, a three day
knowledge exchange and learning event for 120
organisations working globally across climate
science, policy, advocacy and business. We
facilitated the three day event to support the
participants to develop the formal and informal
processes, structures and policies to enable
better coordinated working together to co-develop
effective responses to climate change. The set of
the organising principles developed at this event
have gone on to inform similar climate and low
carbon focussed multi-stakeholder activities all
over the world.
For Rio+20, we commit to actively
seek out opportunities to emphasise
the sustainability aspects of
leadership, strategy and change
when designing tailored executive
education programmes, and we commit
to incorporate explicit attention to
sustainability and virtual working
in all conversations with consulting
clients about our work with them.
Margaret de Lattre, Head of Tailored Executive Education
and Phil Mix, Head of Ashridge Consulting
Hamish Scott
Head of Open Programmes
For Rio+20, we commit to embedding
sustainability as a core theme across
three f lagship open enrolment executive
education programmes by June 2013.
Open Executive Education Programmes
Ashridge’s Senior Executive Programme, its
fl agship programme for chief executives and
senior leaders, has included a session on
thinking strategically about changing societal
forces since 2008.
Ashridge’s Fast Track Advanced Management
Programme, its fl agship programme for middle
managers, has included a ‘live case’ project
focused on sustainability following its launch
in 2011. Live cases have included Seacourt
Waterless Printers, the Carbon Disclosure
Project, Prindiville Design and Automotive and
Forum for the Future.
A full curriculum review is in progress to embed
ideas and themes around sustainability and
how to do business differently as a thread
running through the whole curriculum for three
fl agship open programmes: the Senior Executive
Programme, the Advanced Management
Programme and the Management Development
Programme.
The fi gures for the proportion of open enrolment
programmes that include a focus on sustainable
development have declined in the short
term due to a restructuring of the portfolio of
programmes in 2010 where some programmes
that had historically featured the subject were
discontinued. We expect the proportion to grow
in the future as a result of the work described
above continuing.
www.ashridge.org.uk
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14
Qualification Programmes
The Ashridge MBA
Following a periodic review and major curriculum
redesign, Ashridge incorporated a compulsory two
week module on sustainable business in its Full Time
MBA in 2005.
Building on this pioneering step, in September 2012,
again following a periodic review, Ashridge will
launch a new MBA curriculum. Substantial curriculum
development has been undertaken to embed
sustainability as a core cross-cutting theme running
through all modules of this new MBA programme,
complemented by a compulsory module dedicated to
leading systems innovation to embed sustainability.
The Ashridge Masters in Organisational Change
Following a periodic review in 2011, the Ashridge
Masters in Organisational Change embedded ideas
and themes around sustainability throughout its
curriculum. The question “What is the impact of my
work in the world?” now runs throughout the entire
programme. One of the eight residential workshops
is held at the world-renowned Schumacher College,
where contextual and ecological perspectives are
explored in detail.
For Rio+20, we commit to
mainstreaming sustainability as
a core theme running through
all modules of our new MBA
programme to be launched 2012.
Narendra Laljani
Dean of Graduate Studies
The Ashridge MSc in Sustainability and
Responsibility
Originally developed by Dame Anita Roddick and
Dr Gill Coleman at the New Academy of Business
and Bath University, this world-renowned MSc
programme found a new home at Ashridge Business
School in 2009. Founded on the philosophy of action
research, and with a pedagogy based on refl ective
inquiry, it creates genuinely transformational learning
and has empowered a large alumni of skilled and
committed change agents for sustainability.
Overall, the fi gures for the proportion of qualifi cation
programmes that include a focus on sustainable
development suggest that a decline has taken place.
Actually, the reality is that sustainability continues
to feature on the same programmes as before, and
the quality and depth of this focus has improved
considerably. The reason for the change in the fi gures
is that two new programmes have been added to the
portfolio which are specialist programmes where a
focus on sustainability is not so clearly appropriate.
The new programmes are the Ashridge Postgraduate
Certifi cate in Organisational Development, and
the Ashridge Masters in Leadership (Quality
Improvement), which has been developed specifi cally
for leaders in the UK National Health Service.
Virtual Ashridge
Ashridge’s online learning on demand service, Virtual
Ashridge, prides itself on continually developing its
extensive online learning materials on sustainability.
www.ashridge.org.uk
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16
We achieved ISO14001 accreditation for Ashridge
Business School in 2011, and while our overall
carbon footprint went up in 2011, important progress
has been made against a number of targets we set
ourselves.
Our performance improved in two key external
benchmarks we measure ourselves by, the
International Association of Conference Centers
(IACC) Code of Sustainability and the CAESER UK
Public Procurement Index. Our performance in the
IACC Code improved from 58% to 78% between
2010 and 2011. It declined slightly in 2012 as new
criteria were added to the code – we are currently
developing plans to address these new criteria. Our
performance in the CAESER UK Public Procurement
Index improved from 47% to 98%.
Ashridge House –
a sustainable venue
International Association of Conference Centers
(IACC) Code of Sustainability
CAESER UK Public Procurement Index:
Environmental Performance
Andy Plumbly
Ashridge Chief Operating Offi cer
Our vision for Ashridge House is
to provide a living, vibrant space
for people to meet, work, learn, be
productive, relax and celebrate. We
invest to simultaneously conserve
our cultural heritage, be fit for
the future, and play our part in
helping wider society adapt to a
changing world. We have a target
to cut our carbon emissions by 34%
by 2020 and 80% by 2050, and
other specific goals around water,
waste, biodiversity and sustainable
sourcing.
100%
50%
0%
100%
50%
0%
58%
2010
47%
2010
78% 77%
2011 2012
98%
2011
www.ashridge.org.uk
17

Energy
We have already implemented many measures to
reduce our carbon footprint at Ashridge House.
This is beginning to show in a gradual decline in our
Scope 1 and 2 emissions, which have reduced by
15% since 2006.
Measures implemented in the past two years include:
phased introduction of thermostatic radiator valves,
Dyson hand-dryers, low-energy lighting, water chilled
air conditioning and enhanced insulation. This has
been complemented by copier, printer and server
rationalisation, automatic power-down of staff PCs,
technology to make working at home easier, a new
swimming pool cover, smarter driver training, lower
emission transport vehicles, a new emissions policy
for purchasing sales cars and steps to encourage
behaviour change around energy use and commuting
by means other than car. We are also encouraging
greater use of video-conferencing technology and
other means of virtual learning.
Ashridge switched to a 100% renewable electricity
supply contract in 2011.
Heating oil and electricity are the two largest sources
of Ashridge’s Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Since
2006, heating oil use has declined by 38% overall.
Electricity use increased by 34% between 2006 and
2009, but declined by 3% between 2010 and 2011.
Scope 1 CO2e Emissions from Heating oil
tonnes of CO2e
Scope 2 CO2e Emissions from Electricity
tonnes of CO2e
2000
1500
1000
500
0
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
1907
2006
1009
2006
1381
1394
1190
2009 2010 2011
1357
1367 1324
2009 2010 2011
However, when we include Scope 3 emissions to
look at our overall carbon footprint, it is still rising – it
has increased 4% overall since 2006. Our Carbon
Management Plan to 2020 includes investment in
a range of further energy effi ciency and renewable
energy measures, including continued installation
of thermostatic radiator valves, Dyson hand-dryers,
low-energy lighting, water chilled air conditioning, and
enhanced insulation.
After a comprehensive review of alternative low
carbon heating technologies that could act as
substitutes to Ashridge’s current high carbon oil-
based heating system, biomass has been identifi ed
as the preferred technology to replace heating oil for
our campus, which would reduce carbon emissions
from heating by over 90%, and we anticipate will
be central to meeting our 2020 and 2050 carbon
targets. A proposal to move to biomass heating was
taken to Ashridge’s Board of Governors in 2011.
The Governors decided not to proceed at that time
due to uncertainty around government subsidies for
renewable heat, and asked to review a proposal again
in 2015 in the hope that there would then be greater
clarity regarding stability of subsidies.
18 www.ashridge.org.uk 19
tonnes of CO2e
10000
9000
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
Heating oil
Electricity
Food and drink
Air Travel
2006
Ashridge Carbon Footprint: Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions
Waste
2009 2010 2011 2020 2050
Target
Staff commuting
Paper and printing
Cooking gas
Other business travel
(train, expensed miles,
taxi)
Ashridge vehicles
Fugitive emissions –
air conditioning
Water
Other Suppy chain

20
Waste
Since 2010 we have worked hard on our waste and
recycling infrastructure, changing contractors to
work with a partner who can better help us meet our
needs. This infrastructure has enabled us to make a
step change in the amount of waste we recycle – by
the end of 2011, only four percent of our waste was
going to landfi ll.
Because of the change of contractor, some parts of
the data on our historical waste are missing. However,
the chart below illustrates that we have achieved a
94% reduction in the total weight of waste going to
landfi ll between 2009 and 2011.
tonnes
Water
In 2011 we installed water-saving shower heads in
Ashridge’s guest bedrooms, to add to the watersaving
measures Ashridge already pursues around
collecting rainwater for garden irrigation. Further
progress in reducing water use has been limited
to date as we have focused on other targets, but
remains a long term goal.
litres – 000s
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
40
30
20
10
0
29.8
2006
187
31.8 30.4
37.6
10.8
2009 2011
28.4 28.5
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Paper Sourcing
Our goal is to substantially reduce the amount of
paper we use at Ashridge. We have also set some
strict criteria about the kind of paper we will use.
We have reduced overall paper consumption by 34%
between 2008 and 2011.
In 2009, we used no recycled paper. In 2011, 80%
of all paper used was certifi ed FSC 100% recycled
content, and a further 19% was certifi ed FSC mixed
source.
kilograms
35000
30000
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
PEFC
2008
FSC mixed source
2009 2010 2011
FSC 100% recycled
Not accredited
www.ashridge.org.uk
21

22
Erick Moboti
Head Chef, Ashridge House
There is a serious disconnect rarely spoken about in the catering industry – the
broken relationship between farmers and chefs. Fortunately, there has been a
rethinking of what is important when it comes to food and we’re delighted in some
small way to participate in a modern movement which revives some of those early
values. It is better to pay slightly more for quality from a reputable supplier
with a good and honest traceability record. Here at Ashridge we are working
towards developing a responsible and sustainable food ethos which respects the
produce, keeps it simple and seasonal, sources locally and reduces waste.
Food sourcing
We take pride in the food we serve at Ashridge. Local
producers have supplied Ashridge’s kitchens for
centuries and that’s the way we want it to stay.
We are currently working towards the Soil
Association’s Food for Life Accreditation, and have
a target to be fully accredited by the end of 2013.
This framework sets specifi c standards around fresh
ingredients, the use of additives, trans-fats and
genetically-modifi ed ingredients, animal welfare,
organic farming principles, and labour standards
and sustainable livelihoods for producers, as
well as sustainable fi sh sourcing, building quality
relationships with local producers, and serving fresh,
seasonal meat, fruit and veg.
Proportion of tea and coffee that is either Fairtrade
or Rainforest Alliance Certified
120%
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0
49%
Tea
100%
2%
Coffee
2009 2010
100%
*Ashridge launched an initiative to pilot Fairtrade coffee and
Fairtrade and organic tea in 2011
www.ashridge.org.uk
23

Biodiversity
Ashridge’s Gardens have Grade 2* Listed status,
and they are part of a historic designed landscape,
Ashridge Park, itself part of the Chilterns Area of
Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Ashridge’s gardens are managed primarily to conserve
and enhance this cultural heritage. At the same time
we also manage the gardens to conserve and promote
biodiversity, and to promote awareness among staff
and visitors of the importance of biodiversity.
In 2011, Ashridge adopted a new biodiversity policy
clarifying the principles that inform how we manage
the gardens.
Mick Thompson,
Estates Manager, Ashridge
When we adopted the new
biodiversity policy, we committed
to enhancing habitats for priority
species like bees, butterf lies and
bats, working in partnership with
the National Trust Ashridge
Estate, our local Wild life Trust
and other local partners to
enhance local networks of quality
habitats, reducing the use of
synthetic pesticides, herbicides
and fertilisers, and peat-based
composts, and involving both
visitors and staff in learning
about the biodiversity we have
here at Ashridge.
During the summer months the buddleia in the Dry
Garden are brimming with butterfl ies, including
the peacock, small tortoiseshell and painted lady.
The hummingbird hawk moth can also be seen.
We appreciate that bees are vital to our
ecosystem, and colonies can often be seen
nesting in the brickwork of the House and drinking
from the pond in the Italian Garden. Several hives
have been situated in the Garden.
Several species of butterfl y frequent the Herb
Garden; our summer visitors include the common
blue, comma and small copper. Nearby the
marbled white, brown argus and ringlet can often
be seen in the long grass.
Many magnifi cent tree species can be found in
the Arboretum, including sweet chestnut, cedar of
Lebanon, purple beech, horse chestnut, Holm oak
and Lawsons cypress. Look out for the twisted
bark of the sweet chestnuts on the perimeter
walk.
Green woodpeckers can often be seen on the
lawns and on the old skating pond. The grass
banks are left to grow during the summer months
to encourage pollinator insects.
If you are returning to Ashridge late on a summer’s
evening look out for badgers foraging in the grass
in front of the building; the deer also move closer
to the House during these quiet times.
If you see one of these magnifi cent creatures, a
gardener will probably be following close behind!
Although the Gardens have been deer-proofed they
are determined to break in and feast on the plants!
The Ashridge Ice House is situated outside the
boundary fence, and is now home to a colony of
bats.
Birds of prey can often be heard and seen, with
buzzards nesting at the bottom of the Garden
and red kites soaring in the skies above. Almost
70 bird species have been spotted including
owls, warblers, wagtails and fi nches (too many to
name!)
The monkey puzzle trees in this area haven’t been
in the Gardens for long, so it may be a few million
years before Ashridge is selling jet jewellery made
from their fossilised wood!
A stroll down Liquidambar Walk, an avenue of
sweet gum trees, is a must during the autumn
months when the colours of the leaves are
magnifi cent.
The Bible circle consists of incense cedars; this is
a species of conifer imported from North America.
24 www.ashridge.org.uk 25

How have we
led change?
We’re clear that we still have a long way to go at
Ashridge, but how has the kind of change that’s
occurred so far been possible?
Leading any kind of change is generally a more
complex affair than what it might appear at fi rst
glance. At Ashridge our starting point is that people
and the way they get on with each other are at the
heart of any change. Much of what we have done
therefore has been deliberately informal, but we have
also looked to where more formal systems can be
amended or created to support that change.
There have been many motivated members of faculty
and staff who have proactively supported these
efforts. But there have also been barriers. We have
seen issues of motivation and anxiety. While a small
minority of faculty disagree with the whole idea of
sustainability, more either do not see it as relevant
to their specialism, or see it as an important but low
priority. The majority of faculty are supporters of
change, but among some, there has been legitimate
anxiety: Do I know enough? Why should I take the
risk on my programme? Will my work be recognised?
Our approach has therefore been to support
innovators rather than seek uniform change through
compliance.
Top-level commitment has also been an important
factor, with several members of the school’s
management team vocally championing the need and
rationale for change. This vocal leadership creates the
space for others in the organisation to take the risk to
lead change.
Alongside support from the top there has been
proactive, informal support for faculty development
and learning. We’ve found that formal attempts at
faculty development haven’t been so useful, but
what has worked better has been to structure the
roles of the sustainability specialists on the faculty
so that a proportion of their time is spent on informal
engagement and coaching of whichever colleagues
are interested and want support to learn about
sustainability and think about what implications it
might have for their own work.
There have been other more formal supportive
interventions: creating space to recognise and reward
innovation through faculty performance management,
ensuring sustainability specialists sit on Teaching and
Learning Committee and Research Committee, and
introducing questions on the place of sustainability
in the curriculum into quality assurance processes.
We also added Ashridge’s carbon footprint as a
key metric in the organisation’s overall balanced
scorecard that is used by our management team and
reported to our Board of Governors.
For the past two years we have been through an
annual school-wide engagement process to review
where we are on sustainability, where we want to be
in the long term and what that means for next year’s
activities.
This has created a comprehensive set of around 100
objectives across the organisation each year, each
suggested and agreed by individual members of staff
to pursue in the following year.
We have a monthly sustainability steering group
meeting, chaired by the Chief Operating Offi cer, and
an annual review of sustainability performance and
agreement of goals for the next year at the Ashridge
Management Committee. Performance is reported to
each meeting of the Ashridge Governors, which occur
three times a year.
Performance on embedding sustainability across
executive education and consulting, open
programmes and qualifi cation programmes is
reviewed annually by Ashridge’s Academic Board.
We also believe that part of how we lead change
at Ashridge is to work with others to lead systemic
change across the wider management education
sector. We have contributed to initiatives across
the fi eld of management education, including
the Association of Business Schools (ABS), the
Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of
Business (AACSB), the European Foundation for
Management Development (EFMD), The Association
of MBAs (AMBA), and the United Nations PRME
initiative itself, where Ashridge played a key role in
the core group preparing the Third Global Forum
on Responsible Management Education at the
UN Rio+20 Summit on Sustainable Development.
Ashridge also plays a central role as a founding
partner in the Academy of Business in Society
(EABIS).
We have also called for support for change from
key rankings and accreditation bodies. We believe
that if the accreditation systems of AACSB, EFMD
and AMBA, and the rankings of The Financial Times,
were to value and recognise innovation in support
of the UN Principles for Responsible Management
Education, this would greatly support business
schools in the change we are trying to lead.
Martin Lockett
Dean of Academic Development
A requirement was added to our
Academic Regulations in 2011 that
all qualification programmes being
approved or reviewed would need to
articulate if and how the programme
addresses sustainability in its
curriculum and design. This has been
another useful prompt to encourage
programme directors to think and
engage with something that otherwise
might not have been front of mind.
26 www.ashridge.org.uk
27

28
Philip Sadler CBE
Vice President of the Ashridge (Bonar Law Memorial) Trust
(Chief Executive, Ashridge Business School, 1969-1990)
I first saw Ashridge House and its gardens
in 1964. They were in a sorry state. The
building was in urgent need of repair and the
gardens were largely overgrown. No wonder,
then, that stewardship and conservation
have featured so strongly on the agenda
over the years.
In the 1970’s, stimulated by the report
of the C lub of Rome, the economic,
social and environmental issues linked
to sustainability featured on many of
the school’s programmes. Following the
emergence of knowledge about climate change
and its implications, this work intensified
and became a key element in the research
programme. A key milestone more recently
was the adoption of the Masters Degree in
Sustainability and Responsibility.
Today, both in terms of its educational
activities and also in its stewardship of the
land and buildings for which it is responsible,
I believe that Ashridge can serve as a model
for similar organisations worldwide.
Photo by Rachel Piper
www.ashridge.org.uk
29

Selected
publications by
Ashridge faculty
June 2010-June 2012
Lombard, L., April, K., & Peters, K. (2012).
Sustainability & authentic leadership: Stumbling
blocks and enablers. Crown Research in Education,
Vol. 2, Issue 2, pp. 74-84 ISSN 2276-7436
April, K. (2011) What makes us choose to act
ethically?, Breakwater Business, Vol. 12, Issue 1, pp.
44-45
April, K., Peters, B.K.G., Locke, K. & Mlambo, C.
(2011) Leading Ethically: What Helps and What
Hinders, in C. Millar & E. Poole (Eds.) Ethical
Leadership: Global Challenges and Perspectives,
Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 165-186
April, K. & Blass, E. (2010) Ethical Leadership
Required to Lead a Diverse New Europe, in
W. Matiaske, S. Costa, & H. Brunkhorst (Eds.)
Contemporary Perspectives on Justice, München,
Mering: Rainer Hampp Verlag, pp. 183-201
Ceasar, N. & Stubbings, A. (2012) Sustainability As
Usual, 360° The Ashridge Journal, Spring
Ceasar, N. & Stubbings, A. (2012) Sustainability
forever? Embedding sustainability in your brand and
culture, Directions, February
Coleman, G. (2011) Sustainability as a learning
challenge, 360° The Ashridge Journal, Summer, pp.
8-13
Marshall, J., Coleman, G. & Reason, P. (2011)
Leadership for Sustainability: and Action Research
Approach, Sheffi eld, Greenleaf Publishing ISBN 978-
1-906093-58-4
Ballard, D., Reason, P. & Coleman, G. (2010) Using
the AQAL Framework to Accelerate Responses to
Climate Change, Journal of Integral Theory and
Practice
Gitsham, M. (2012) The role of HR in developing
leaders fi t for a rapidly changing world, HR Magazine,
July
Gitsham, M. (2012) Training to shape the future,
European CEO, July
Buono, A.F., Carteron, J.C. & Gitsham, M. (2012)
Schools need to champion a Sustainability Mindset,
Financial Times, June
Gitsham, M. (2012) Rio+20: Reasons to be Cheerful,
The Guardian, June
Gitsham, M. (2012) Experiential learning for
leadership and sustainability at IBM and HSBC,
Journal of Management Development, Vol. 31, Issue
3, pp. 298-307
Gitsham, M., Wackrill, J,. Baxter, G. & Pegg, M.
(2012) Leadership in a Rapidly Changing World: How
business leaders are reframing success, Ashridge
and International Business Leaders Forum for the UN
PRME
Gitsham, M. (2012) A quiet revolution: has the role
of a CEO changed?, Corporate Citizenship Briefing,
January
Gitsham, M. (2012) The Changing Role of Global
Business Leaders, Harvard Business Review Insight
Centre: The Next Generation of Global Leaders,
February
Gitsham, M. (2011) Sustainability and leadership
development, EG Magazine, May
Gitsham, M. (2011) CEO perspectives: management
education in a changing context, Corporate
Governance, Vol. 11, Issue 4, Emerald Publishing
Gitsham, M., Pegg, M. & Culpin, V. (2011) The shifting
landscape of global challenges in the 21st century,
Business Leadership Review, April
Gitsham, M. (2011) The Shifting Landscape of Global
Challenges in the 21st Century, What this Means for
What Businesses Want From Tomorrow's Leaders,
and the Implications for Management Learning, in
Voller, S., Blass, E. and Culpin, V. (eds) , The Future
of Learning: Insights and Innovations from Executive
Development, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp.
17-32
Jones, M. and Fleming, P. (2010) The end of
Corporate Social Responsibility: Crisis and Critique,
published by Sage, London.
Lockett, M. & Gitsham, M. (2011) Business schools
fi t for tomorrow, Global Focus (EFMD), Vol. 5, Issue 3,
September, pp. 48-51
Malnick, T. & Gitsham, M. (2010) HSBC Climate
Partnership Earthwatch Learning Evaluation, Ashridge
Report
Millar, C.C. J.M., Gitsham, M. & Mahon, J. (2012) The
sustainable challenge: can public affairs infl uence the
necessary change?, Journal of Public Affairs, Vol. 12,
No. 3, pp. 171-176
Millar, C.C.J.M., Hind, P. & Magala, S. (2012)
Sustainability and the need for change: organisational
change and transformational vision, Journal of
Organizational Change Management, Vol. 25, Issue 4,
pp. 489-500
Millar, C.C.J.M. (2011) Managing the Sustainability
Challenge: Organisational Change and
Transformational Vision, Anglo-Higher, June
Millar, C.C.J.M. & C.J. Choi (2011) MNCs, Worker
Identity and the Human Rights Gap for Local
Managers, Journal of Business Ethics, 97 (S1), pp.
55-60
Millar, C.C.J.M. & Poole, E. (2010) Ethical Leadership,
Global Challenges and Perspectives: Theory and
practice for scholars and executives, Palgrave
MacMillan, December
Millar, C.C.J.M, Delves, R. & Harris, P. (2010) Ethical
and Unethical Leadership: Double Vision, Introduction
paper. Journal of Public Affairs, Vol 10, (3), pp. 109-
120,
Page, N. C. (2012) Doing Something Different to
overcome 'bad' habits and create a more sustainable
culture at work, 360° The Ashridge Journal, Autumn
Page, M.P. & Page, N.C. (2011) HOT topics: Habits,
Opportunities and Thoughts in pro-environmental
behaviour change, in D. Bartlett (ed). Going Green:
The psychology of sustainability in the workplace, pp.
65-71, Leicester, The British Psychological Society
Pegg, M.W. (2012) Leading with Scarce Resources,
Virtual Ashridge Learning Guide
Stubbings, A. & Ceasar, N. (2012) Sustainability as
Usual, Ashridge Report, September
Stubbings, A. & Ceasar, N. (2010) From Lightbulbs to
Lightbulb Moments, Converse, Issue 7, pp. 30-33
Stubbings, A. & Ceasar, N. (2010) Changing
conversations in a changing climate, Converse, Issue
7, pp. 34-36
30 www.ashridge.org.uk 31

Selected conference
presentations and contributions
to events by Ashridge faculty
June 2010-June 2012
Lombard, L., April, K. & Peters, B.K.G. (2011)
Achieving authentic, sustainable leadership, Ashridge
International Research Conference, June
Ceasar, N. (2011) Sustainability – It's a People Thing,
CIPD London Conference
Ceasar, N. (2011) Crafting an approach to
sustainability: board engagement with the critical
issues of our times, Ashridge International Research
Conference, June
Ceasar, N. (2010) Developing the Global Leader of
Tomorrow, 2010 Responsible Business Summit,
London
Coleman, G. (2011), Leadership for sustainability:
an action research approach, Ashridge International
Research Conference, June
Desmond, B., Araon, B., Adams, W., Feinstein, G.,
Myles, G. & Tuli, K. (2010) Gestalt: Sustainability
of Our Global Environment Presentation Panel
at International Conference Association for
the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy (AAGT),
Philadelphia, USA, June
Gitsham, M. (2012) Sustainable Leadership,
Leadership for Tomorrow: Leadership skills for a New
Era, Ashridge, May
Gitsham, M. (2012) The changing global context:
what it means for your role as a leader and your
management education, Webinar for Economist
Which MBA?, April
Gitsham, M., Rose, S. & Foster, M. (2012) Leadership
in a Rapidly Changing World: How business leaders
are reframing success, Institute of Directors, London,
March
Gitsham, M. (2012) What are the hallmarks of
effective behaviour change?, Panel contribution,
Unilever Sustainable Living Lab, April
Gitsham, M. (2012) Anticipating the next 10 years:
priorities and challenges for sustainable business
in executive development, EABIS Decennial From
Corporate Responsibility to Sustainable Business:
Taking stock and the Next Ten Years, Nottingham
University Business School, January
Gitsham, M. (2011) Innovations in leadership
development for sustainable organisations – are we
moving far and fast enough?, International Leadership
Association Global Conference: One Planet, Many
Worlds – Remapping the Purposes of Leadership,
London, October
Gitsham, M. (2011) Learning and leading on
sustainability: business perspectives and
expectations, Learning and leading on sustainability –
the green skills agenda, Loughborough, October
Gitsham, M. (2011) The role of business schools
in advancing sustainability, Guardian Sustainable
Business Online Panel, July
Gitsham, M. (2011) From managers in organisations
to leaders in society: developing the global leader
of tomorrow at the business school of tomorrow,
Ashridge Seminar, Masdar Institute, Masdar City, Abu
Dhabi, May
Gitsham, M. (2011) Creating an MBA for the 21st
Century: corporate perspectives on integrating
sustainability into MBA programmes, Australian MBA
Directors' Forum 2011: Creating an MBA for the 21st
Century, Melbourne, Australia, May
Gitsham, M. (2011) Business Schools: their role in
sustainability, EFMD External Relations Meeting,
FUNDESEM, Alicante, March
Gitsham, M. (2010) Developing the Global Leader
of Tomorrow, Developing Responsible Leadership in
Central and Eastern Europe, Lviv, Ukraine, December
Gitsham, M. (2010) Leading Organisations of
Tomorrow: organisational change through executive
education, Mainstreaming Corporate Responsibility
through executive education, co-hosted by EABIS
and Fondazione ISTUD, Stresa, Italy, June
Gitsham, M. (2010) Adapting to a changing context:
the role of management education, Ninth Annual
Colloquium of the Academy of Business in Society:
Corporate Responsibility and Emerging Markets, St
Petersburg, Russia, September
Gitsham, M. & Clark, T.S. (2010) Corporate Leaders'
interests regarding sustainability in management
education, Dare to Care: Academy of Management
Annual Meeting 2010, Montreal, Canada, August
Gitsham, M. (2010) Shifting notions of leadership and
leadership development in an era of sustainability,
Annual Conference of the British Academy of
Management 2010: Management research in a
changing climate, Sheffi eld, September
Hind, P., Smit, A. & Page, N.C. (2012) Global
interpretations of sustainability – Enabling
Sustainability through Action Research (EStAR),
Annual Conference of the British Academy of
Management 2012, Cardiff, 11-13 September
Hind. P. & Smit, A. (2012) The EStAR project –
Enabling Sustainability through Action Research, 3rd
International Action Learning Conference: The Impact
of Acton Learning: What Difference are we making in
the world?, Ashridge Business School, April
Hind, P. (2011) The EStAR project – Enabling
Sustainability Through Action Research, The African
Leadership Colloquium, Stellenbosch Business
School, November
Hind, P. (2010) Developing Organization for
Sustainable Performance, Annual Retail Forum and
Symposium, Oxfordshire, July.
Nichols, C. (2010) Standing Gently: How might
organisations and Earth be at peace?, Ecopsychology
Conference, Poster presentation, Psychosynthesis
and Education Trust, London
Nichols, C. (2010) Keynote speaker, Corporate
Governance, Innovation, Social and Environmental
Responsibility Conference, University of Lisbon,
September
Page, N.C. (2011) Jekyll v Hyde = Home v
Work: Exploring the context dependency of
pro-environmental behaviour, Environment
2.0 Conference, 9th Biennial Conference on
Environmental Psychology, Eindhoven, 26-28
September
Page, N.C. (2011) Jekyll v Hyde + Home v
Work: Exploring the context dependency of proenvironmental
behaviour, UK Energy Research
Centre People and Energy: Futures, Complexity and
Challenges Conference, Oxford, 20-21 September
Peters, B.K.G. (2011) Partnership in Responsibility,
Embedding the UN Global Compact's PRME, 2011
EFMD-PRME Summit, Brussels, June
Peters, B.K.G. & Gitsham, M. (2010) Developing the
Global Leader of Tomorrow: Leadership in a changing
world, Preparing for Change, Ashridge Consulting
Client Forum, Ashridge,
Seeley, C. (2011) Artful Knowing for a sustainable
future, Ashridge International Research Conference,
June
Stubbings, A., (2011) Change principles for an ecohumane
organisation, Ashridge International Research
Conference, June
32 www.ashridge.org.uk 33

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