Creating Social Value Blog / Corporate Social Relevance

Activating the UN Sustainable Development Goals

As an Entrepreneur in Residence here at The Lewis Institute, Carol Atwood has been a tremendous force in integrating the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into experiential learning opportunities at Babson. She recently led what we hope will be the first of many MCFE (Management Consulting Field Experience) projects focused specifically on activating businesses toward these goals.

This first MCFE led students to explore how Bengaluru, India based Zoomcar could leverage the SDGs as a market differentiator. It yielded powerful outcomes, and challenged initial assumptions and expectations of what an activation like this would look like. Read more about the unique challenges of this MCFE and how Carol and her students are bringing value to the world in this recent profile in Babson Magazine: Expect the Unexpected.

Pairing MCFEs with companies driven by social innovation is a learning curve, says Atwood, but The Lewis Institute hopes to facilitate such partnerships going forward. Atwood also believes unforeseen challenges add value to a project. “I think some of the angst the students felt, with the dual mission of the SDGs and Zoomcar, was a healthy ambiguity,” she says. “This is what real work life is like.”