Laying the Groundwork for Responsible Management Education

The Principles for Responsible Management, or PRME, initiated by the United Nations seeks to make economic and management education more sustainable and to impart a stronger sense of responsibility to future generations. Since its inception, the initiative has grown to include over 850 signatories from around the world, including WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, which joined in 2013. PRME defines seven criteria that are used for tracking the progress that participating organizations have made on their sustainability efforts. This allows for comparison, shows where progress has been made—and reveals where there is still a need to take action. WHU has now published its progress in its yearly “Sharing Information on Progress” status report.

In its report to PRME, WHU stresses how it has further embedded sustainability, ethics, and responsible leadership across all areas of the institution. The establishment of the Sustainability Management Center, alongside dedicated leadership positions, demonstrates the school’s resolve to make sustainability a central pillar of its strategy. It has set ambitious climate targets, committing to achieving net-zero Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2025 and Scope 3 emissions by 2035, and is planning on complementing these with systematic carbon footprint reporting and investments in green infrastructure. 

“At WHU, we understand that sustainability is our shared responsibility, one which imbues our teaching, our research, and our collaboration,” says Professor Christian Andres, Dean of WHU. Our goal is to empower future business leaders and allow them to make long-lasting contributions to our economy and our society. It is for this reason that we expressly offer our support to this UN initiative.” 

Three of the seven PRME principles receive considerable attention in its status report: teaching, research, and partnerships.

The teaching-related activities that happen at WHU promote personal development and prepare students to assume roles as responsible leaders. Since its inception, the school has always integrated ethics, responsibility, and sustainability into its curricula and other educational formats.

WHU’s research embodies a combination of academic excellence and practical relevance. It attempts to identify entrepreneurial solutions for sustainable transformation across a variety of management-related disciplines by focusing on relevant ecological, social, and economic challenges.

Through strategic partnerships and initiatives, such as the WHU-co-founded Alliance for Environmental Responsibility in Business Schools (AERO), the school is actively advancing sustainable development both on campus and beyond.

Through its participation in the PRME initiative, WHU is supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. Additionally, WHU became the first business school in Germany to receive the Business School Impact System (BSIS) label in 2022, which was recently renewed in 2025.

A more comprehensive look at WHU’s progress report can be downloaded via the school’s page on social impact.