The Moore School’s 15th annual Dr. Alfred N. and Lynn Manos Page Prize for Sustainability Issues in Business award winners were recently celebrated for their efforts to introduce or substantially upgrade sustainability courses or associated coursework into national and international business school curricula.
“Page was a true visionary for recognizing the role that faculty have in educating business school students for a more sustainable future,” said Kealy Carter, Moore School marketing clinical associate professor. “When he conceptualized the prize 15 years ago, few institutions were incorporating sustainability into their curriculum. Even as sustainability has become a relatively mainstream topic, this award continues to recognize faculty in their efforts and make the award-winning course materials available to all who are interested in adding sustainability content to business curricula.”
The Page Prize is awarded annually for the best submission based on the integration of sustainability into business curricula. Faculty, doctoral students and others submit innovative approaches to teaching sustainability to business students. Previous applications have covered a wide range of disciplines including accounting, entrepreneurship, finance, international business, management, marketing, operations and supply chain management and organizational behavior.
“While the submissions that we received this year all brought interesting and impactful
perspectives to sustainability across a range of business disciplines, this year’s
award recipients stood out by truly pushing the boundaries of sustainability education
and offering valuable roadmaps for course and program design around sustainability,”
said Adam Steinbach, Page Prize coordinator and management assistant professor at
the Moore School. “We believe that the 2022 Page Prize winners represent the next
frontier of sustainability curricula in business schools, as each winning submission
was centered around applied learning experiences for students that are much-needed
in this space and, in the case of our Grand Prize winner, moves beyond individual
course offerings to a comprehensive program listing that can serve as a model for
schools seeking to design their own sustainability degree programs.”
Grand prize winner
David Bartlett, Ph.D.
The grand prize winner of the 2022 Page Prize is David Bartlett, Ph.D., with the Kogod School of Business at American University. His program, Master of Science in Sustainability Management, is an exemplary graduate program that effectively blends core sustainability management topics with disciplines such as accounting and global business that are underrepresented in sustainability education. The program culminates in a compelling and challenging capstone project that offers students a remarkable applied learning experience and can be adapted by instructors across universities. The committee felt that Bartlett’s program represents an aspirational model for business schools seeking to expand their program offerings in sustainability in response to increasing market demands.
“The Kogod School's Master of Science in Sustainability Management attracts talented
young professionals from the United States and abroad pursuing careers in the private,
public and non-governmental organization sectors,” Bartlett said. “By blending training
in core business disciplines and specialized instruction in sustainability, the program
provides students with critical skills to address climate change, environmental justice
and related global challenges.”
Honorable mention winners
Maddy Kulkarni, MBA
Maddy Kulkarni, an adjunct marketing professor with Southern Methodist University and the University of Texas at Dallas, received an honorable mention for her Social Impact Marketing course. Informed by Kulkarni’s impressive marketing background, this course takes a unique approach to sustainability marketing by focusing on an authentic commitment to sustainability and enhancing impact through marketing. The course syllabi offer many specific readings — including Kulkarni’s own textbook — and other materials that can be utilized by instructors elsewhere, including most notably a running project that can be adapted for those seeking to provide their students with an applied experience opportunity. The committee felt this course’s unique and purpose-driven focus along with its thoughtful structure will prove to be a valuable resource for marketing instructors developing sustainability courses or any business school instructor hoping to infuse marketing insights in their sustainability-focused curricula.
“Marketing has a critical role to play in engaging consumers around sustainability,
and marketing students want courses that not only teach them how to build brands and
drive sales, they also want to learn how marketing can effectively create positive
impact in society as well,” Kulkarni said. “The Social Impact Marketing lesson plans
and textbook help instructors guide students though a curriculum and exercises inspired
by real, award-winning cases from around the world."
Robert Sroufe, Ph.D.
Robert Sroufe, a professor of sustainability, operations and supply chain management with the Palumbo-Donahue School at Duquesne University. Thoroughly developed and widely applicable, Sroufe’s module sits at the intersection of operations and strategy and thus offers remarkable utility for instructors across a range of sustainability topics. The committee was impressed with the innovative approach to offering students a practical, applied experience, and one that could be implemented in some fashion at most business schools. Further, as a module, Sroufe’s submission provides a flexible resource that instructors could center their course around or adapt to utilize in a variety of interesting ways.
“Corporations and universities are setting goals of carbon neutrality. Yet, how we
get from where we are now to a decarbonized future is unclear. Innovation hides within
our buildings as we spend 93 percent of our time inside,” Sroufe said. “Business schools
can be a living laboratory for developing a more sustainable, high-performance-built
environment with data analytics that engage faculty, students and a broad coalition
of stakeholders all learning from our existing buildings. Experiential learning utilizing
a net zero energy module like this can help students understand how to define and
operationalize net-zero goals, realize cost savings, reduce environmental impacts
and simultaneously invest in a more sustainable future.”
About the 2022 Page Prize submissions
This year’s pool of submissions covered a range of business sustainability topics, with an increased emphasis on energy use, data analytics and stakeholder relationship building compared to years past. The approaches to sustainability education in our submissions continue to expand and diversify, ranging from new course topics to unique module designs, which is exemplified not only in the different offerings of this year’s winners but across all submissions we received.
The Page Prize committee evaluated the pool of submissions based on course content, originality and ability to replicate across other universities and programs. While innovative approaches to relevant sustainability issues set some submissions apart from others, overall design, the use of applied learning experiences, new approaches for conceptualizing sustainability, compelling readings and other materials, and thought-provoking subject matters are valued. Based on these criteria, one Grand Prize winner and two Honorable Mention winners were selected.
The syllabi and course materials for the award-winning courses are maintained in a searchable database for other educators to use in the development of their own sustainability courses. The Page Prize demonstrates the Moore School’s continuing commitment to promoting the development of sustainability curricula and being a leader in business education.
Now in its 15th year, the Page Prize awards honor the late Alfred N. Page, who died on March 31, 2022. Page and his wife, Lynn Manos Page, established the award at the Moore School in collaboration with Hildy Teegen, international business professor and former dean at the Moore School.
Grand prize winners receive $1,000, and honorable mentions are awarded $250 each. All prize winners receive a framed print of Aegean Sea No. 6, an original diptych by Page’s wife, Lynn Manos Page, certifying the award. Lynn Manos Page is an accomplished painter who studied in Venice, Italy and Greece for many years.
Learn more about the Page Prize.