European Businesses

The Fall semester of 2024 came again with the wonderful opportunity (for myself and my students) to do the AIM2Flourish challenge with a wonderful and challenging twist. AIM2Flourish is an inspiring initiative that highlights the transformative potential of business innovations to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As a professor, participating in this global opportunity was both a privilege and an incredible learning experience. COIL allow us to go beyond the traditional boundaries of education, set within the four walls of a classroom, to enter the “real” world. In it, our students weave together real business practices, sustainability, and cross-cultural collaboration through the Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) framework.
Students explored businesses ranging from renewable energy to social enterprises. What a treat to see and experience the richness of business doing well and doing good! Student reflections revealed not only the innovative character of these “everyday” businesses but also their potential to inspire larger systemic change. You don´t have to be big to do great things, many of these stories tell us that!
One example comes to mind: the case of BioTrailla, a company dedicated to producing and promoting sustainable agricultural practices in Spain. BioTrailla, a family business innovates “rethinking and improving the how of farming, rather than the what”. I loved that sentence and the realization that “these innovations contribute significantly to several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).” These words, contained in the story published by the students in AIM2Flourish.com, summarize one of the great aspects of this assignment, the changing of mindsets.
The COIL framework added a unique dimension to the AIM2Flourish challenge, my students were put in teams with peers from Canada, the USA, Indonesia, South Africa, Brazil, the UK, and Saudi Arabia. Working in these global teams was both rewarding and challenging. Time zone differences, language barriers, and varying academic expectations required adaptability, patience, and a strong commitment to shared goals. All of these will be of immense value to my students once they graduate.
As a facilitator, I was impressed by how students overcame these obstacles, and I was thrilled to see how they cultivated highly valuable soft skills such as empathy, cross-cultural communication, and resilience—qualities that are essential for future global leaders. One of the most rewarding aspects of this experience was witnessing the transformation of students. I saw them go from horrified “(my grade will depend on a team of people half a world away!?”), to hesitant about engaging in cross-cultural collaboration (I guess we can do this…), and then end up as confident and proactive team members (“we work well as a team”). Their reflections showcased how the AIM2Flourish challenge reshaped their perspectives on global issues and the role of business in addressing them.
As a professor, this experience again reinforced the importance of incorporating experiential and global learning opportunities into my course. COIL proved once again to be a powerful tool for fostering collaboration and critical thinking while preparing students for the complexities of an interconnected world. The reflections shared in this book will attest to that, as well as to the value of integrating real-world challenges, like the AIM2Flourish assignment and the challenge posed by the SDGs, into academic activities. We hope to teach not for the grade, or even the knowledge alone, but for the professionals our students will become.

Isabel Rodriguez Tejedo, University of Navarra, Spain

This was my first time joining the Collaborative Online International Learning project, and both my students and I have really valued the experience.  For several years, I have been leading a module on Business Ethics and Sustainability to the final year Business and Management students at the University of South Wales, which fit the theme of this COIL perfectly – adding the COIL to this module provided a better experience for students and deeper engagement with the content of the module.  As a lecturer, I am quite motivated by the drive towards Education for Sustainable Development, and for me this project ticked a lot of those boxes – not only is the content of the project allowing a focus on sustainability, but the pedagogy of the project – where students work in multicultural groups, working with students across year levels and cultures and courses to investigate real-world sustainable businesses, really matches my beliefs around effective teaching.

I have had very positive feedback from the students who took part.  While a lot of them acknowledged the hard work involved, they also valued the opportunity to make friends from other countries, to learn more about businesses in those countries, and to shift the focus of their learning from theory to practice – not just hearing about other businesses, but doing appreciative inquiry of their own.  Several of the students have used the COIL project as examples in graduate job applications, and it’s been encouraging that a number of our students have developed their interest in sustainability and have chosen to attend a student sustainability conference in Canada following the project.

On a personal level, I’ve also valued the opportunity to meet and work with colleagues from around the world and have found the COIL project to be a fulfilling experience that I look forward to repeating in future years.

Liam Newton, University of South Wales, UK