What if we created a campus with a circular mindset where green is about much more than just minimizing and reducing the buildings’ impact on the environment?

This was the opening question to leadership at the National School of Business Management (NSBM) in Colombo, and over a period of five months a new mutual understanding of green was developed and strategized with the help of Mike Ameko Lippert.

The Sri Lankan government has made a substantial investment in a new prestige university campus for NSBM, which was inaugurated in 2016. The government has envisioned NSBM as a green university where both green thinking and green practice is a central part of the institution’s profile.

The institution’s new strategy for green growth based on circular economy addresses the further development of NSBM’s green profile, with the aim of transforming the institution into a world-class sustainable university within a period of ten years. The strategy consists both of an elaborate directional framework and essential recommendations for initiatives to implement within the next ten years, although some are to be initiated immediately, and are expected to show substantial results by 2020.

Furthermore, the strategy document provides a sound introduction to circular economy including business cases and triggers, and throughout the catalogue of initiatives, the circular economy paradigm is unfolded and made relevant for all focus areas of NSBM.

Thus, the ambition is that NSBM will become the world’s first Circularity University that defines a new understanding of sustainability by working with 100% good goals instead of just reducing and minimizing the environmental footprint. The goals target every aspect of the institution, from operation to teaching, learning and innovating. From the built to the grown environment.

The bold vision is that a Circularity University will inspire everyone to create a better society. That is why NSBM is the institution where future generations of change leaders will be dedicated to showing the world how a prosperous Sri Lanka and a generous Sri Lanka go hand in hand as part of the same sustainable business practice.

If you would like to know more about the project, you are always welcome to get in touch.