Message from Head – Sustainability @ TAPMI

T A Pai Management Institute (TAPMI), Manipal, as a mission driven educational institute is immensely proud of one of its main mission aspects – its value bounds. The TAPMI value bounds are essentially an all-inclusive concern for the Society, the Environment and for Ethics. We are also proud of our heritage as being part of the Manipal Group of Institutions. Manipal has a rich legacy of being prodevelopment, pro innovation and growth and pro our natural environment. These lead us to the Sustainability Imperative at TAPMI which is closely aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs as they are popularly referred to.

The SDGs contain several aspects that are very relevant to a business school. They include fundamental yet vital principles like innovation and industry, decent jobs, women’s empowerment, the use of renewable resources, fostering responsible consumption and creating a global partnership for development.

It in this context that we look at several aspects of sustainability at TAPMI. One of them is our campus. The campus is located alongside forests in the foothills of the picturesque Western Ghats of South India, one of the major bio-diversity hot-spots in the world. Being a green campus, solar energy is extensively used produced from various roof top solar installations across campus. The food waste generated is collected and utilized in an animal shelter nearby; textbooks and other unused learning material, left behind each year by the graduating students, are passed on to students in other business schools who come from lower income backgrounds or lack the same resources as are available to our students, in general. Water conservation and recycling is also an integral part of the resource management policy on campus. As for TAPMI’s engagement with our host community, we support the use of renewable sources of energy via the installation of solar lighting in the village; ensuring proper maintenance of the 2 Km stretch of road leading to the institute and adoption of 2 public schools where we undertake several programs with the learners in those schools.

The academic programme at TAPMI includes both in-class and on the field components. In-class engagement happens via the Sustainability, Responsibility and Managerial Ethics Course. The second course, constitutes a on the ground project where every student undertakes a management project that is either with a business, social enterprise, local government or with an NGO. The thrust of these projects is either connecting small-scale producers to markets or helping the local government shape policy around competitiveness of different sectors, which includes objectives of inclusive growth.

The third aspect of our sustainability engagement is partnerships, both globally and nationally. TAPMI is part of a worldwide affiliate network run by the prestigious Harvard Business School, more specifically the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, headed by Prof Michael Porter. As part of this prestigious network, TAPMI works on competitiveness of different sectors, including importantly aspects of social progress. TAPMI is also an advance signatory of the United Nations PRME program, which is run by the Global Compact, and a proud member of Champions Group, comprising 34 leading business schools from around the world, for the 2018-19 cycle.

Our educational, research and corporate engagement framework thus enable us to connect strongly and deeply
with local communities, the student bodies, to our strong alumni base, to business communities and so on; which in turn teaches them the ability to see that social and environmental responsibility along with sustainability are very central to the competitiveness of businesses and managers alike in the 21st Century.

We remain hopeful and confident that we shall continue to be a part of the Champions program in the coming cycles and increase our contributions to fraternity of business schools and the business community in general.

We welcome feedback and the opportunity to collaborate. Do get in touch via phone, email or in person in Manipal.

In this report we bring to you glimpse of all dimensions of our engagement with sustainability in general and the SDGs in particular – across curriculum & teaching, research, projects & partners, greening our campus and sustainability related services we offer to all our stakeholders.

Ishwar HARITAS
Head and Coordinator
Sustainability@TAPMI
TAPMI Centre for Inclusive Growth and Competitiveness