How sustainable are Nijmegen businesses? With that question, first-year business administration students knocked on the doors of numerous businesses in the city. The interviews provided insights on how to deal with sustainability, but the students also got to know local businesses. Student Mart Polman and associate professor of Strategic Management Stefan Breet talk about this new project. 'Everyone knows that sustainability is good, but applying it in practice is difficult.'
Students visit baker, data company and NEC: how sustainable are they?
For the very first subject of his studies, Mart Polman suddenly found himself at the table of data company KPI Solutions. Together with four fellow students, he was tasked with interviewing the company's management about sustainability. 'That was great fun,' says Polman. 'The conversation went in all directions. The company's emissions are low. They get data from other companies and use it to optimise processes. That data is recharged in the evening, as it takes less energy. In the future, they might want to make the warehouses more sustainable.'
Eighty companies
Polman's interview is part of a new project. Some 400 students visited eighty companies in Nijmegen and its surroundings, including professional football club NEC, a picking garden, waste processing company DAR, a bakery and the municipality. The students were paired with SME entrepreneurs and government agencies in the city by network organisation LifePort. 'The company visit falls under the subject Introduction to Responsible Organisation,' explains Stefan Breet. 'That course is a first introduction to business administration and teaches students how sustainability and responsibility are reflected in many aspects of management.' The results of the interviews ended up in a report that was presented at LifePort Festival Circular on 2 June. This report shows that entrepreneurs in the region often take an active role in protecting nature and well-being, and contribute to sustainable growth. A large number of companies have an explicit vision of sustainability. However, a much smaller proportion brings out their own green contribution in an annual report or other publication.
Being critical
What also emerges from the interviews is that sustainable business is a lot more difficult in practice than in theory. For instance, half of the companies have already been working on contributing to the circular economy in some way, but often they are still searching how. As a first step, they usually look at making transport more sustainable. Greening and reducing energy consumption receive less attention. 'That is also what we want to show students ,' says Breet. 'Companies are under pressure to make money and stay competitive. Making them more sustainable is often costly.' Polman: 'The theory speaks for itself. Everyone knows sustainability is good, but applying it in practice is difficult.' Breet nods to Polman. 'If you realise that, you have already made a step. With this assignment, you learn to look sharply at companies, but also at theory.'
Organic sauce factory
There are also big differences between companies. A picking garden deals with sustainability in a very different way than a bakery. 'We want to show that it is not so black and white,' says Breet. And sometimes the motives of the business also turn out to be quite different from what you expect beforehand, he explains. 'With an organic sauce factory, you would think that sustainability is the starting point, but no: it is simply market demand.' What he gets back from entrepreneurs is that the interviews also make them think. 'There was a marketing agency, for example, and they had never really thought about how they themselves could become more sustainable. Because of the students, that has changed.'
Timid
How do you know if the picture painted of an entrepreneur is accurate? Surely they may be pretending to be greener than they actually are? 'We did ask around and they were fairly open about it,' says Polman. 'If you interview 80 companies, you do get a pretty good picture of how things are going.' Breet heard from one of the companies that the group of students sitting there at the table was very timid at the beginning of the interview. 'That's something we want to pay more attention to next year: how to prepare.'
Practice
The project not only focuses on sustainability, it is also about giving students insight into the companies in this region. Polman is enthusiastic about this. 'The university is known for its theoretical side. By experiencing the practical side, you see what it's all about concretely.' Breet thinks it is very important to focus on practice within the programme. For many students, that practice is still far away, they often don't even have a LinkedIn account. 'Besides this project, we are trying to take internships to a higher level, so that it becomes a regular choice. That way we embed it in the programme.'
Text: Willem Claassen
Contact information
- Contact
- Dr J.S. Breet (Stefan)
- Organizational unit
- Nijmegen School of Management, Institute for Management Research, Business Administration
- Theme
- Sustainability, Management