Business schools have made great strides over the past decade in integrating sustainability, corporate social responsibility – and ethical practices across curricula. No longer confined to stand-alone modules, these topics now appear across finance, marketing, operations and organisational behaviour. As this integration deepens, a new challenge has emerged: in seeking to mainstream environmental, social and governance (ESG), we risk marginalising it again.
In many programmes, separate ethics courses have been replaced or supplemented with mandatory integration of ESG components in broader business modules. While this signals a welcome shift, it may also send the unintended message that ESG principles are optional extras – tacked on rather than embedded. Research shows that students learn to “switch on” ethical thinking only when it’s clearly signposted, which doesn’t prepare them for the messy, interconnected decisions of real-world business.
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How do we ensure ESG thinking becomes second nature for students, rather than a detachable add-on? The answer may lie in what can be called subtle or “covert” integration. We can embed ESG thinking so thoroughly and naturally into assessments, simulations and business challenges that students engage with it instinctively.
This doesn’t mean avoiding direct ESG instruction. We still need to teach core principles of law, ethics and compliance. But in tandem with overt teaching, subtle methods can help students form sustainable decision-making habits.
Letting students introduce ESG themes themselves through debate
One of the most effective ways to embed ESG principles into business education is to allow students to raise these themes themselves. I begin each module with structured debates on broad business topics, such as “Is marketing good or bad?” or “Do digital marketing practices enhance or harm the consumer experience?” Students are randomly assigned to opposing sides, forcing them to develop arguments and counter-arguments from multiple perspectives.
In doing so, students naturally bring up sustainability concerns, diversity issues and ethical marketing practices as essential aspects that shape their arguments. Using Socratic pedagogy promotes critical thinking, allowing students to develop knowledge through debate rather than simply receiving information passively. By allowing students to establish the connection between marketing and ESG challenges themselves, this approach bridges these topics from the outset without any artificial means or explicit prompting.
The challenge in implementing this method is creating an environment where students feel secure enough to discuss sensitive subjects such as diversity and inclusion, climate change and fair labour practices. Instructors need to develop a supportive discussion environment that welcomes diverse viewpoints while keeping the debate respectful.
Business problems with ESG considerations at their core
Another effective approach is to use case studies where ESG factors are integral to finding the solution to the business challenge. For example, in one class session students evaluated how L’Oréal implemented crisis response strategies during the Covid-19 pandemic. The organisation needed to establish solutions that balanced financial feasibility with social accountability because of supply chain disruptions and economic uncertainty. Without being prompted, students framed corporate responsibility as a strategic necessity.
Similarly, I have used Reebok’s 2019 controversial feminist marketing campaign, which sparked backlash and public debate. Instead of positioning this as a social impact case study, students were asked to analyse it from a marketing strategy perspective: What were the short- and long-term brand implications? How should the company respond? Naturally, conversations around gender representation, brand authenticity and social responsibility became central to their analysis.
One potential limitation of this approach is that some students might overlook ESG factors entirely. To counter this, the design of the case study must subtly guide students toward considering these elements – without imposing them upon them.
Embedding ESG considerations into assessment criteria
Assessment design is a powerful yet often overlooked tool. If ESG considerations are worth marks, students take it seriously. For example, in my Digital Marketing module, students are required to create a full promotional strategy, including content plans, KPI analysis and audience engagement tactics. Alongside standard evaluation metrics, one-fifth of the total grade is assigned to their ability to consider ethical implications, environmental impact and social consequences, and propose solutions to them – ensuring that they consider how their campaign strategies affect consumers.
I have previously integrated this principle into undergraduate and master’s thesis guidelines and assessment criteria, where students – regardless of their research focus – are required to reflect on how their recommendations impact businesses, employees and society.
Some institutions or faculty members may resist this approach, arguing that it shifts focus away from core business competencies. My response to this critique is simple: ESG integration is a core business competency. Today’s leaders must incorporate ESG factors into their strategic planning, which means our evaluations need to be updated accordingly.
The ethical responsibility of educators: making ESG considerations business as usual
The main challenge of subtle integration is ensuring ESG principles become natural business practice rather than isolated ethical lessons. It is possible to argue that subtle integration raises concerns about deception because students should be directly informed about their sustainability education. However, behavioural ethics research indicates that ethical reasoning capabilities emerge more successfully through ongoing exposure and contextual learning experiences instead of direct teaching methods.
When business education integrates ESG principles as an intrinsic part of decision-making processes, we transform ESG factors from a moral lesson into a core element of business narratives. It becomes a natural aspect of problem-solving instead of an external obligation.
Rather than asking whether sustainability, ethics and social impact should be considered in business decisions, students should be asking how – just as they would with any other strategic factor. The best way to achieve this shift is not by putting a spotlight on these topics but by making them impossible to ignore.
Daniel Muravsky is senior lecturer in marketing at the University of the West of Scotland.
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