Western’s Ivey Business School has been ranked third in the world for the extent to which research at the school is aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Featured in the Financial Times’ most recent Responsible Business Education report, the ranking examined the SDG “significance” of hundreds of peer-reviewed papers published in globally prestigious FT50 journals from 2018 to 2021.
“We are honoured to receive this recognition of the sustainability significance characterizing Ivey’s research, and it is testament to the deep expertise and collective excellence of more than 20 Ivey faculty tackling sustainability challenges across different management disciplines,” said Jury Gualandris, director, Centre for Building Sustainable Value (BSV).
The ranking reaffirms Western’s position among the best universities in the world in terms of sustainability. In April 2022, Times Higher Education 2022 Impact Rankings placed Western first in Canada and third globally among universities working towards the UN SDGs. In October, the first edition of the QS (Quacquarelli Symonds Limited) World University Rankings: Sustainability ranked Western third in Canada for social and environmental impact.
As an extension of Ivey’s new purpose statement, through its research the school is committed to tackling critical issues facing the world and society. For example, BSV serves as a cross-disciplinary research hub focusing on the circular economy, net-zero climate goals, sustainable finance and systems innovation.
According to Gualandris, Ivey is aiming to be the thought leader on sustainability in Canada and beyond, where academics, business, and governments come to understand and address the most critical sustainability challenges facing the globe today.
Ivey is also leading in integrating the SDGs into classroom teaching. A joint initiative between BSV and Ivey Publishing, the world’s second largest publisher of business teaching cases, is tagging Ivey cases for their connections to each of the SDGs. This tagging helps instructors identify and select cases covering critical sustainability issues, facilitating the integration of sustainability concepts into management education and the student experience.
