Introduction

This chapter looks at the challenges faced by a company that is trying to be a leading-edge force for sustainability in an industry that is synonymous with pollution and environmental degradation. The teaching of business must adapt to the dramatically different learning needs that such a profound shift demands. This change is especially needed when it comes to teaching business sustainability, for if there is one area of business that requires, ipso facto, out-of-the-box, creative thinking it is precisely this one. This need for new and non-traditional teaching approaches is reflected in this collection of unorthodox teaching pedagogies. Experiential learning— role-plays, case studies, simulations and so on— is effective for a number of different reasons, most of which revolve around the idea of bringing the so-called 'real world' into the classroom. A key component of a simulation's effectiveness as a learning tool comes directly from how well it recreates the world it is simulating, while lessening the inherent risks.