Raising Marketing Students’ Awareness of Their Role in Achieving Sustainable Development Goals: An Arts-and-Crafts-Based Pedagogy

Abstract

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a framework for building sustainable marketing strategies to improve social and natural environments. Marketing is a key factor for achieving SDG12, “Ensuring sustainable production and consumption patterns,” and a new kind of marketing education is needed to engage and transform students accordingly. In a sustainable marketing class, we asked students to weave a rug from recycled clothes, then estimate its selling price, considering its production and environmental costs. This arts-and-crafts-based pedagogy gave students a deep understanding of the requirements of SDG12. It was engaging for students and highlighted the role marketing can play in raising willingness to pay higher prices for more sustainable products. In sum, this class achieved transformative sustainability learning in line with the Head, Hands, and Heart framework proposed by Sipos et al.