Sustainable development goals in every discipline: Olga Dergunova, Director of the Graduate School of Management of St Petersburg University, at SPIEF

The UN Sustainable Development Goals and the ESG agenda − environmental, social, and corporate governance − remain relevant in any economic and political situation. This is the conclusion reached by representatives of government, academia, the banking sector and corporations during the discussion. Ruslan Edelgeriev, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate Change of the Russian Federation, believes that sustainable development goals should not be dominated by individual areas: ecology or climate. All 17 points are equally important, ranging from fighting poverty to quality education: ’We have always said and we are saying that the Russian Federation intends to keep its international agenda within the whole set of sustainable development goals, without singling out climate, gender equality or anything else.’

Quality education in sustainable development is the basis for further development and prosperity of society. This was the point made by Olga Dergunova, Deputy President and Chairman of VTB Bank Management Board and Director of the Graduate School of Management of St Petersburg University.

Young people today are not interested in collecting plastic lids, rather they are interested in producing results and getting real benefits for themselves and for society. The new generation wants to find their place in the local projects implemented by the authorities and businesses.

Olga Dergunova, Deputy President and Chairman of VTB Bank Management Board and Director of the Graduate School of Management of St Petersburg University

’The Graduate School of Management of St Petersburg University has been promoting sustainability goals and ESG-principles in business sustainability for the last 20 years. Interviewing our students, we have received a very clear message − all faculty should be encouraged and trained to implement these approaches so that they are embedded in every discipline. That is why VTB Bank now invests in teaching sustainability principles by embedding environmental, low-emission, social and other agendas into degree programmes. Teachers in all disciplines are trained to communicate the content and tools of sustainable development to students. The main goal is to ensure that our graduates know how to use these tools effectively and apply them in their work in the early stages of their careers,’ said Olga Dergunova, Director of the Graduate School of Management of St Petersburg University.

The majority of speakers participating in the discussion believe that the move towards a low-carbon economy is a global goal that cannot be halted. The two-year delay in implementation of the federal project ’Implementation of the best available technologies’, designed to help production sites in Russia switch to modern "green" solutions, is not a halt, but an opportunity to create a domestic industry for environmental equipment. This message was communicated by Konstantin Dolgov, Deputy Chair of the Committee on Economic Policy of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation: ’Timing adjustments, which are entirely justified at this point, will give our industry extra time, and this will require the maximum amount of investment. If foreign technology can be brought in, it should be done, but the main thing now is to develop our production and revive the industrial infrastructure that we had, but on a new basis.’

The discussion on sustainable development was also attended by representatives of foreign countries. Mr Irfan Iqbal Sheikh, President of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry, expressed an interest in cooperation with Russia on environmental issues. Wang Qi is Director of the Institute for Strategic Cooperation between China and Russia and representative of Tsinghua University, an academic partner of the Graduate School of Management of St Petersburg University. She spoke about the willingness of China to share experience in implementing sustainable development and environmental projects as well as in training young professionals in this field.

The ESG principles are among the key priorities of the development strategy of the Graduate School of Management of St Petersburg University until 2025, with ’responsible leadership’ being among the core values of the business school. The ESG topic is to be integrated into bachelor’s and master’s programmes, MBAs and EMBAs. By 2025, the share of ESG disciplines in the curriculum should reach 15%; the subject is expected to be integrated into all academic programmes. The business school has operated a research centre for corporate social responsibility since 2008. For the second consecutive year, the Graduate School of Management has maintained its high ranking in the prestigious international Positive Impact Rating and is included in the transforming group together with recognised leaders of global business education, such as: ESADE (Spain); Antwerp Management School (Belgium); Aalto University School of Business (Finland); and Kozminski University (Poland). The ranking is based on a large-scale survey of students regarding the management and corporate culture of educational organisations, curricula, teaching methods and student support.