I was very pleased to be among the recipients of the 2019 Educational of Sustainability Awards this year and felt that it was a great way to recognise the efforts being made to advance the sustainability agenda in our course curriculum. Yesterday’s prize-giving ceremony during the Service Excellence Conference also showed how much the university supports and recognises such initiatives and provided me with an added boost to pursue such initiatives in the future.

I was recognised for my efforts in getting a group of MA Corporate Communications students to reflect upon the importance of sustainability as a strategic imperative in the field of communication management. The main assignment consisted of drafting a thought-provoking piece on a topic relating to the theme of sustainability communications. This was the first time that such a coursework was proposed within that programme. These future professional communicators engaged very well with discussions around the topic and produced several thought-provoking papers as follows:

Ahmed Houda Marlow from Djibouti explored the extent to which social media platforms could represent an opportunity for enhanced corporate sustainability communications and explored ways organisations could utilise such platforms more effectively.

Nikita Baid from India provided a general overview of the developments in corporate social responsibility and corporate sustainability communications in India from the 1850s and how it has been regulated under different reigns of governance.

Nicoletta Cremona from the UK made a comparative analysis of corporate sustainability communications between Scandinavia and the United States on Hofstede’s cultural theory. The aim was to gain an understanding of how their cultural differences in terms of masculinity, individualism and long-term orientation differ when examining corporate social responsibility.

Francesca de Cata from Spain investigated how the sponsorship relationship between football and gambling can affect football club’s image and reputation. It also presented a road map for football clubs in order for them to become more responsible enterprises.

Roberta Dina from Romania discussed how Kaufland Romania, a supermarket chain, is pioneering the concept of CSR in Romania and opened the doors of an Embassy of Sustainability thus inviting all the companies that want to be part of the change to come, learn and apply the new strategies in their own businesses.

Jiya Madan from India analysed how Monnet Ispat and Energy Limited, a large steel player in India, developed a strategic corporate social responsibility scheme to eliminate prostitution from over 20 villages they adopted. The programme used a sustainable and multi-pronged approach for enabling women get education and attain skills which helped them earn a respectful living.

This assignment accounted for 60% of the assessment for a unit called Analysis and Decision Making in Communication Management delivered within the Faculty of Media & Communication.

Tauheed Ramjaun

Senior Lecturer (Academic) In Corporate Communications, FMC

tramjaun@bournemouth.ac.uk