Placing the SDGs at the core of business strategy and fully benefiting from the subsequent gains in terms of efficiency stemming from corporate responsibility requires a drastic rethinking regarding the identification of business opportunities and business management.

Moreover, there is a growing body of managerial knowledge recognizing that people who manage corporate responsibility need to have certain expertise and levels of access to relevant networks to perform their jobs effectively and efficiently.

The objectives of the CSR School are three:

• Raise awareness: Ideas for generating sustainable value for businesses and society will arise through a higher level of awareness about corporate responsibility and the SDGs from leading academics and senior professionals in the field. In other words, the aim is to build the knowledge around CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) criteria, the SDGs (UN Sustainable Development Goals) and the sustainability movement at large; knowledge that is needed to address organisational as well as universal challenges that arise while creating shared value for both the organisation and its stakeholders.
• Provide advanced training on how to manage sustainability within a business framework:  The development of the appropriate managerial capabilities and knowledge regarding necessary tools and skills in future corporate leaders constitutes a prerequisite for exploiting the business opportunity of the SDGs and ESG-related issues. The training programme aims to shed light on how to adopt integrated thinking into the management of sustainability as a way to transform business practice and achieve business gains through sustainable solutions. This objective is in line with the first UN Principle for Responsible Management Education.
• Promote communication and cooperation among current and future professionals, researchers and faculty members related to corporate responsibility and the SDGs, in order to disseminate and extend our knowledge regarding the effective approaches and challenges in meeting social and environmental responsibilities. Special focus will be placed on the examination of sustainability challenges and ways to overcome them by identifying key areas inside the organisation that are eager to facilitate change.  This objective is in line with the fourth, fifth and sixth UN Principles for Responsible Management Education.

Finally, participants will exceed the confidence needed to become ambassadors of sustainability and to act as influencers amongst their peers in the process of creating cultural change in the direction of responsibility and sustainability.