The Centre for Sustainable Business (CSB) at the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE) Riga is an independent institute dedicated to fostering discussions on sustainability within the business community and society at large. Its mission is to raise awareness of sustainability through research, teaching, training, and active participation in public debates across Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.

Planned Activities of the CSB:

Teaching:

• Curriculum Integration: Sustainable business principles will be integrated into the curriculum at SSE Riga. Initially, the Business Ethics course will be transformed into a Sustainable Business course for undergraduates. Subsequently, a similar course will be developed for the Executive MBA level.
• Executive Education: The Centre will collaborate with SSE Riga Executive Education programmes and international partners to develop training programmes focused on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Responsibility (CR) for regional management.

Research:

• Applied Research: The CSB will conduct research on sustainable and unsustainable business practices in the Baltic context. Research areas include waste of human, energy, and environmental resources, corruption, grey economy activities, governance, tax-related behavior, sponsorship, corporate citizenship, and CSR.
• Outcomes: The research will produce empirical findings, trends, and regularities that will inform the Centre’s various activities.

Events and Policy Activities:

• Awareness Raising: The CSB will implement an active communication strategy through events such as open lectures, seminars, workshops, guest lectures, roundtables, and media activities. These events will be aligned with the release of reports, notable dates, and current issues.

Organizational Structure:

• Advisory Board: The Advisory Board, comprising representatives from SSE Riga, funders/contributors, and experts, ensures the independence of the Centre and supervises its activities and work plan.

Role of CSB in Projects:

• Coordinate the Mapping Exercise: The CSB will coordinate and complete the data collection template in Latvia.
• Online Platform Development: The Centre will assist in developing an online platform of resources and review the online tool.
• Bi-Annual Newsletters: Contribute to newsletters.
• Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E): Provide feedback to the M&E framework.
• Dissemination and Exploitation: Contribute to the dissemination of project outputs, outcomes, and future network activities.
• Trial Participation: Participate in the trial of the academy for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Higher Education (HE).
• Active Participation: Contribute to discussions in regional and annual meetings, seminars, and conferences.

Operational and Financial Management:

• Coordination: The project team will coordinate administrative and academic project activities.
• Financial Administration: Handled by the project team in liaison with the institution’s finance department.

Education:

• Course Offerings: The Centre oversees the Business Ethics and Sustainability course at the undergraduate level at SSE Riga and offers similar courses at other institutions, such as Sciences Po Lille (France).