Most students today are familiar with the concept of sustainability.

They hear about climate change, social inclusion, responsible consumption, and environmental protection both inside and outside the classroom. Yet understanding these concepts is only the first step.

The real challenge is learning how to apply them.

This is particularly true for ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) principles. While it is possible to explain ESG through presentations, frameworks, and case studies, the most meaningful learning often happens when students are asked to tackle real-world challenges.

After all, project management is not learned by reading a project plan. It is learned by managing projects.

The same is true for ESG.

From Theory to Practice

Traditional education has often focused on transferring knowledge. Students learn concepts, memorize definitions, and complete assessments designed to measure understanding.

However, the challenges of the 21st century require something more.

Climate change, social inequalities, resource scarcity, and community resilience are not textbook problems. They are complex issues that involve multiple stakeholders, competing priorities, and uncertain outcomes.

To prepare young people for this reality, education must move beyond theory and create opportunities for experiential learning.

Students need opportunities to apply ESG principles in real situations where decisions have consequences and where solutions are rarely straightforward.

Why Real-World Challenges Matter

Imagine a group of students discussing food waste.

They can learn statistics about global food loss and understand its environmental impact. But what happens when they are asked to measure food waste in their own school cafeteria and propose solutions?

The learning experience changes completely.

Students begin asking different questions:

• Who is responsible for the problem?

• What data do we need?

• Which stakeholders should be involved?

• What solutions are realistic?

• How can we measure success?

Without realizing it, they are already applying ESG thinking.

They are considering environmental impacts, engaging stakeholders, analysing data, and evaluating potential outcomes.

The lesson becomes active rather than passive.

ESG4PMChange in Practice: A Pilot Week Experience

A powerful example of this approach took place during the ESG4PMChange Pilot Week in Poland.

Rather than learning ESG through lectures alone, students participated in practical simulations and project-based activities designed to test ESG thinking in realistic scenarios. They were asked to integrate environmental, social, and governance considerations into project planning and decision-making while working in teams and navigating competing priorities.

One of the most valuable aspects of the experience was the use of simulations. Working under time pressure and facing real-world constraints, students had to evaluate difficult decisions, balance stakeholder interests, and assess the long-term consequences of their choices.

The exercise highlighted an important lesson: ESG only becomes meaningful when it influences actual decisions.

Participants quickly discovered that responsible project management is not simply about delivering outputs. It is about understanding impacts, managing trade-offs, and creating value for both people and the planet.

Experiences like these help transform ESG from a theoretical framework into a practical skill set—one that students can carry into their future careers as project managers, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and changemakers.

Learning Through Communities and Real Challenges

Some of the most effective learning environments are those that connect students with real communities and real problems.

When learners engage with local challenges, sustainability stops being an abstract concept and becomes something tangible.

Whether the challenge involves reducing waste, improving public spaces, promoting inclusion, or supporting sustainable development, students learn to navigate complexity while developing practical skills.

Most importantly, they discover that meaningful change requires collaboration.

No project succeeds in isolation.

The ability to listen, engage stakeholders, and co-create solutions is increasingly becoming as important as technical knowledge itself.

ESG Is About Decision-Making

Many people think of ESG as a reporting framework or a set of indicators.

In reality, ESG is fundamentally about decision-making.

Every project requires choices.

How are resources allocated?

Who is involved in the process?

Who benefits from the outcomes?

What impacts might emerge over time?

Real-world challenges help students understand that ESG is not an additional task to complete at the end of a project. It is a lens through which decisions can be evaluated from the very beginning.

The earlier this mindset is developed, the more naturally it becomes part of professional practice.

Preparing Future Changemakers

Tomorrow’s project managers, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and community leaders will face increasingly complex challenges.

Technical knowledge will remain important, but it will not be enough.

They will need the ability to work across disciplines, engage diverse stakeholders, understand interconnected systems, and evaluate the long-term consequences of their actions.

These are precisely the skills that challenge-based learning helps to develop.

By confronting real problems, students gain more than knowledge. They develop confidence, responsibility, and the capacity to transform ideas into action.

A Call to Action

If we want young people to lead sustainable change, are we giving them enough opportunities to practice it?

Conclusion

ESG competencies are not built through theory alone. They are developed through experience, experimentation, and engagement with real-world challenges.

The ESG4PMChange Pilot Week demonstrated how powerful this approach can be. When students are placed in realistic project environments, asked to make decisions, and encouraged to reflect on their impacts, ESG becomes more than a concept—it becomes a way of thinking and acting.

By creating learning experiences that connect classrooms with communities, projects, and practical problem-solving, we can prepare not only future professionals, but future changemakers capable of creating positive impact in an increasingly complex world.

Because sustainability is not something we learn once.

It is something we learn by doing.

Short bio of the author(s):

Daniele Quadrellaro is a Strategy and Operations Specialist at the Future Food Institute, where he plays a cross-functional role in managing key projects such as Empower Women in Agrifood (EWA) and ESG4PM, alongside other initiatives. He holds a Master’s degree in Economics and Management of Sustainable Food Systems, as well as a Bachelor’s in Gastronomic Sciences, both from the University of Parma. He also completed an Erasmus exchange at Wageningen University & Research.

With a keen interest in entrepreneurship and innovation, Daniele won first place at the 2022 Techstars Startup Weekend Food Sustainability in Parma and received a special mention at the 2021 edition.

Passionate about food, Daniele views it as both endlessly complex and immediately accessible. To him, food is sophisticated pop.

Clarissa, born in Genoa but originally from central and southern Italy, is a nutritionist and pastry chef. A lover of nature, people and simple things, she believes that nutrition plays a fundamental role in creating a more equitable, healthier and more sustainable world. Fight against waste, sharing and consistency are its values; to be a drop in the ocean, her goal.

Only by restoring virtue to tradition and dialogue between cultures is it possible to innovate; the wisdom of our grandparents and research are the keys to leaving the world a better place!

Currently in charge of Education & Community Operation at the Paideia Campus in Pollica at Future Food Institute.