This year, the Student-led Learning team at LBS launched the Social Impact Cohort – with a focus on Sustainable Supply Chains for the pilot programme. The student group, including Tara Higgins, Sasha Riser-Kositsky, Ariane Tardiou, and your co-authors (Sarah Pavlu and Veronique Vera), was brought together to experiment with new ways to drive change on campus in the social impact space.
The cohort brought together a group of students who are passionate about the topic and driven to make a change in how organisations impact the environment and society at large through their supply chain operations. Our aspiration is to integrate sustainability into the lives and careers of LBS community members, inspiring more champions of change. We leveraged the strengths of our networks, the LBS student and alumni community, and the guidance of faculty and staff to further our understanding and have just launched a 4-part blog series to share our findings and keep the conversation going. We encourage you to read further here , and share your thoughts if this is something that resonates with your experience or future expectations.
As we seek to be responsible leaders, LBS offered us a plethora of opportunities to learn about the various methods and means to make our impact – from the shift in focus of the Energy and Environment club, the significant growth in the Social Impact Club, the ever-expanding involvement of the Wheeler Institute, and the increasing addition of and enrolment in new classes related to social enterprises and responsible businesses. We are just one of many groups of students passionate about impact and purpose in our work and our pursuits.
Looking to the next year, we encourage more students to launch similar cohorts in the fields that interest them. Below are our key takeaways from working in our cohort, and we look forward to seeing more social impact cohorts that can build upon our progress.
- Explore the huge array of resources available – We received support from clubs, institutes, professors, and classmates to shape our specific learning journey. Using feedback from others involved in the space and learning about other initiatives underway, we were able to shape the purpose and activities of the cohort to be exactly what would best support our individual and collective learning journeys. There are so many available resources and support from the community for individuals seeking to make a difference
- Leverage the strength of the community – Specifically focusing on the LBS network, there are a number of avenues to connect with students, alumni, and community members who are interested in getting involved. It is important to realise the power of the LBS network and tap into it early and often
- Experiment – The unique format of our small and agile cohort allowed us to quickly shift direction to pursue new avenues, dive further into various concepts from our courses, and learn from and adapt to different approaches to learning and network building. Activities and involvement at LBS are ideal for a low-risk, easy-to-implement testing ground for larger endeavours
There is such a vast and diverse set of experiences amongst the LBS community, we hope you will go out and find it!
Contact the Wheeler Institute for information about initiatives in the area of business for development.
The Wheeler Institute is inspired by the purpose and passion of our students who are focused on applying innovative thinking in the area of business for development. We seek collaborations with student clubs and initiatives that have the potential to evolve how we think about business.
The Sustainable Supply Chain Cohort was an initiative of the Student-led Learning team which creates experiential learning opportunities through student leadership, in addition to their other initiatives such as the Student Leadership Incubator and Project Aasha. Contact the Student-led Learning team for more information about student leadership roles within the LBS community.