Making Money and Saving the World: Empowering Students for Sustainability Through Social Enterprise

In 2013, The Students Green Fund was awarded to 25 Student Unions across England for projects that aim to position students as active agents for sustainability across their institutions and into their communities. In an effort to engage students more deeply with a holistic view of sustainability, The University of Gloucestershire Students’ Union is encouraging students to start their own social enterprises. Students gain business skills, and actively apply principles of sustainability to their enterprising activities. This takes sustainability beyond the understood environmental sustainability and teaches sustainability as social and economic in a practical, real life way. The small amount of evidence gained so far is showing that students who become involved in social enterprise are transforming the way they relate to business ethics, gaining a broader understanding of corporate social responsibility and the possibility that business can be a vehicle for positive change towards a better world. These are skills that will follow them into their future careers.