Embedding SDG Literacy to Prepare Future Business Leaders forCritical Global Challenges

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) present urgent challenges that impact our global society and the planet. However, many business school students, who will be the future leaders, while gaining digital literacy, lack essential SDG knowledge to enable them to diffuse digital innovation to address the SDGs. To address this, we developed an approach to integrate SDG literacy, specifically carbon literacy, into digital business analysis teaching. This is achieved through applying our socio-ecological-technical framework, Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) Impactful 5 (I5), within project-based learning. The approach includes interactive workshops, industry panels and mini-hackathons, and assessment projects, engaging experts and students in developing digital sustainability initiatives. Students acquire digital and carbon literacy by specifying business and sustainability requirements of analytics tools for anonymized businesses. This paper reports a case study demonstrating how the approach empowers students to become future leaders committed to SDGs, benefiting society and the planet by diffusing digital technologies to address SDG 13. The paper contributes to IS research by showcasing the practical application and further refinement of the SET framework in IS education, thus advancing scholarship in this field. In addition, the content and teaching practices outlined in this paper will serve as valuable contributions to PRME's educational resources, supporting future initiatives in sustainability education.