How to positively influence the fate of the world?
Kozminski University for the third time made it to the International Positive Impact Rating (PIR) 2022 list and advanced to the group of universities which consistently transform their entire policy and method of education to protect the planet and its inhabitants. This means that at every step of the way, from its concern for natural resources to its zero waste policy to its integration of sustainable development goals into its educational programmes, the university is influencing its surroundings to protect the world from the dramatic effects of the climate, economic and social crises.
The Positive Impact Rating (PIR) is an international project under the auspices of the UN Global Compact, WWF and student organisations to assess the strength of a business university's impact on future leaders and those around them. The assessment is made by the students themselves on the basis of a questionnaire. In this year's edition, 45 business schools from 21 countries across five continents participated. A total of 8640 students audited the positive impact of their universities on society and the environment. At Kozminski University the project was coordinated by the student organisation Green Kozminski.
On June 2, the PIR 2022 Summit took place in New York City, where our University was represented by Aleksandra Knap, a KU law student and co-founder of Green Kozminski.
The highest position of the leaders of positive influence was awarded to four universities from India, because - as the authors of the report point out - the poor South has been struggling with huge crises for years, that's why business universities there are permanently inscribed in the vanguard of social progress and undertakings beneficial to the environment. For this reason, they can set an example of how to have a positive impact on the environment even for universities in the affluent North.
The students also indicated the directions of business universities, desired by the young generation. According to the students, the universities should: include the need for responsible and sustainable development in all courses, not only those dedicated to business ethics, develop the competences of the future, expand social involvement into new areas and take care of the health and wellbeing of students. Instead, they should stop: using single-use plastic packaging, allowing the sale of unhealthy food in university cafeterias, producing too much rubbish and teaching theory in isolation from social and environmental engagement.
Assessing positive impact is of paramount importance in determining the real purpose of functioning business schools. Our role is to change the world and develop personalities who will responsibly manage our economies and societies in the future - comments Professor Grzegorz Mazurek, rector of Kozminski University, in the PIR 2022 report. - The Positive Impact Rating (PIR) is at the same time a tool, a platform and a community that supports us - the leaders of leading business schools - in the real transformation and transformation of business education aimed at making a real, positive impact on our world.
Kozminski University was placed in the rating in the Transforming School category, which means (according to PIR nomenclature), schools with a positive culture of impact, rooted in management and systems, achieving visible results and progress in many dimensions of impact. In addition to ALK, 28 business schools were similarly ranked, including: Aalto University School of Business from Finland, Audencia Business School from France, HKUST Business School from Hong Kong, Spanish universities EADA and Esade or Colorado State University College of Business from the USA. Katrin Muff, President of PIR, emphasises PIR's role as a model of modern education for the benefit of the planet and people. PIR helps change business universities around the world in the desired direction, where it is not about being the best in the world, but being the best for the world.
The first Positive Impact Rating was announced in January 2020 during the World Economic Forum in Davos. Kozminski University stands out in terms of social commitment and care for the environment and is the only business university from Central Europe present in this ranking to the first edition. In this year's report authors dedicated a special chapter to the commitment of our university to help the war refugees from Ukraine. The full report of ALK's positive impact can be found HERE.
International Positive Impact Rating (PIR) 2022
###
*Green Kozminski is a student organization operating at Kozminski University, which aims to promote ideas related to sustainable development and green solutions in business and to raise awareness and take action for environmental protection, electromobility, sustainable tourism, gender equality, responsible and conscious consumption, ecological approach to private and professional life.
In the photos: our student Aleksandra Knap during the PIR 2022 Summit in New York (in the group photo: first from the left in the first row)
