There is an increasing pressure for organizations to assess the impact of their businesses, not only in terms of profitability but on how they affect society.
Assistant Professor Diane-Laure Arjaliès was recently recognized with a Page Prize award for her course that teaches student to do just that. The course, Assessing the Broader Impact of Business, demonstrates sustainable and responsible business practises through hands-on experience.
Since 2008, the Page Prize, awarded by the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina, has been recognizing educators with well-designed, innovative courses relevant to sustainability topics.
“Discovering the buzz around impact assessment is usually a source of anxiety for any social and environmental accountant who tries to catch up with the field,” said Arjaliès in a blog post for the Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research. “Impact assessment is relentless. Newsletter, after newsletter, report, after report, it never stops.”
Arjaliès, who is one of two grand prize winners, has created a course based on fieldwork and case study methods. To date, her students have gained impact assessment experience through work with farmers, Syrian refugee programs, social enterprises, investment funds and Indigenous reserves, to name a few.
