Principle for Responsible Management Education (PRME) is a United Nations initiative to promote Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the management education among higher education institutions in the world. For SBM ITB, even though the school has just joined the initiative in November 2016, however some activities have reflected the school’s mission to meet the sustainability goals. For example, some courses such as Business Ethics, Law and Sustainability for MBA program and Study of Human Society for undergraduate program put their focus on how students can understand the relation between people and their society as well as the effort to make sustainable living for human being.
SBM ITB also has some programs that specifically discuss and disseminate sustainable development issues to its civitas academia. As an example, the Energy MBA program in Jakarta campus aims to prepare students to be able to design policy that considers the environmental impacts in energy sectors. The involvement of prominent guest lecturers such as Prof. Emil Salim (former Minister of Environment) is important to emphasis the importance of sustainable development in the program.
Public lecture is also an important session to spread the idea of sustainable future to public. Former Prime Minister of South Korea and former UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Disaster Risk Reduction and Water, Dr. Han Seung Soo, delivered a talk at SBM ITB about water-related disasters that have been more severe in the past years. Dr. Han gave a warning that climate change has been a pressing issue that will determine the future of the planet and humanity, especially for the future generation. The report from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) showed that our planet is warming up and the impacts of climate change begins to affect us, and there is 90 percent certainty that the warming is caused by human activities on earth. As the impact is going to be adverse, Dr. Han calls us to start the revolution of climate change.
Not only did SBM ITB spread the sustainable ideas through courses, public talks, and study programs, but the school also attempted to implement sustainable development concept through its facilities. SBM ITB newest building that was just inaugurated in December last year, the Freeport Indonesia Business Case Canter, applied the concept of green and smart building in its construction. The six-story building installed the latest sunlight processing cells technology so that electricity use can be saved and monitored periodically. Using this technology, it is expected that energy to operate the building can be used efficiently. Before having this smart building, SBM ITB building in Jakarta has also used the similar green concept in its design.
In the future, it is expected that the sustainable development goals values can be reflected in every activity at SBM ITB. For other sustainable development issues and PRME initiative at SBM ITB, you can contact prme@sbm-itb.ac.id