The University of St.Gallen takes a holistic approach to integrating responsibility and sustainability into courses and programmes, aiming to equip all students with the knowledge and skills essential for future-focused responsible leadership.
HSG applies a “both-and” approach by integrating sustainability through new as well as in existing courses and programmes:
Dedicated programmes including the Master Certificate in Managing Climate Solutions (MaCS), the Bachelor Certificate in Integrative Sustainability Management (SuM), and the ENGAGE.EU Joint Master Certificate in Global Sustainability Management (GSM) provide in-depth, cutting-edge knowledge and hands-on, practice-relevant learning experiences.
Courses offered in the Contextual Studies provide a holistic view of sustainability, considering not only ecological but also social, political, and economic dimensions. Every semester, students can choose from a wide range of courses that complement and enhance their core study area.
Examples for Contextual Studies offerings:
Sustainability and impact-oriented content is increasingly incorporated into core courses of all HSG study programmes. A key lever is real-world case collaborations with partners, which bring global grand challenges to the center of the conversation in subject-relevant ways.
Examples for integrating sustainability topics in core study programmes:
HSG's Executive Education offerings respond to the constantly evolving needs of business through a range of programmes of various lengths and formats.
Examples of executive education offerings:
Empowering Talents, Inspiring Leaders: Offerings and Activities to Broaden and Deepen Responsibility and Sustainability in the HSG Curricula
As a European leader in business education, the University of St.Gallen is committed to empowering talents to become responsible and entrepreneurial leaders who create long-term sustainable value for business and society.
This commitment runs through teaching at all levels, emphasising holistic and collaborative approaches to solving global grand challenges through rigorous, business-relevant curricula.
The Delegate’s Team for Responsibility & Sustainability helps to operationalise this ambition. Guided by the HSG Strategic Plan 2030 and in partnership with schools, programmes, faculty, and students, it supports the integration of contextually grounded, subject-relevant approaches to responsible leadership, sustainable value creation and resilience into management education at both curricular and co-curricular levels. In doing so, it collaborates closely with internal service units around teaching development, namely the Center for Curriculum & Teaching Innovation (CTI) the Competence Center for Educational Development and Research in Higher Education (CEDAR), and the Centre of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (HDZ).
NextGen Impact is a co-curricular initiative at the University of St.Gallen that inspires student engagement and cultivates impact-driven, entrepreneurial leadership across disciplines and degree levels.
The initiative offers:
Contact: NextGen(at)unisg.ch
Teach for Sustainable Futures is a university-wide curricular initiative that collaborates across programmes and faculty to equip students as responsible and entrepreneurial leaders in business and society.
The initiative brings together expertise, curated resources, and innovative learning approaches to embed responsibility and sustainability across teaching and learning. It combines academic rigour with purpose-driven, active learning that inspires real-world action.
Teach for Sustainable Futures supports the development of new courses and programmes that directly address global grand challenges, while integrating responsibility and sustainability into existing curricula in parallel, ensuring impact across disciplines and degree levels.
By connecting faculty, programme managers, and students in an active community of practice, the initiative strengthens HSG's collective commitment to developing responsible, entrepreneurial talent.
The initiative offers:
Explore how Teach for Sustainable Futures can support your course or programme (for HSG internal stakeholders): Teach for Sustainable Futures HSG offerings for faculty and programme managers
Contact: sustainability-curriculum(at)unisg.ch
Teach for Sustainable Futures is a collaborative initiative founded and implemented by:
SiA+ is an HSG initiative that connects academic knowledge with real-world sustainability challenges, supporting the integration of sustainability into teaching, research, and professional practice.
Developed in collaboration with WWF Switzerland and the Network for Business Sustainability, the platform provides a curated, open-access repository of peer-reviewed teaching materials designed to help educators embed sustainability meaningfully across disciplines in subject-relevant ways.
By making high-quality resources easily accessible, SiA+ enables educators, students, and lifelong learners to engage with sustainability as a core analytical perspective for understanding today’s economic, environmental, and societal challenges.
Contact: sustainability-curriculum(at)unisg.ch
