Learn to make an impact and become a game changer. Business, Leadership and Sustainability is designed for students who want to advance social, environmental, and economic sustainability in both their personal and professional lives. Creating a business isn’t simply about completing your business plan or determining which products to pursue. It’s about mapping out how you will create ongoing value for your customers and our society as a whole (Raworth, 2018).

In this programme you will be encouraged to explore numerous fields of interest:
• Planetary economy: challenging the models of endless growth.
• Re-thinking corporate strategies for a sustainable and equitable future.
• Transforming economic thinking towards sustainable development.
• Creating business for a positive societal and environmental impact.
• Impact investment for both financial return and social and environmental good.
• Multiple value creation and social enterprise.

Upon completing the Business, Leadership and Sustainability programme, you will have gained experience in:
• Discovering who you are as a leader and understanding the role you play or can play in the bigger picture.
• Inspiring and engaging key stakeholders as part of a sustainable business strategy.
• Leveraging contemporary trends and developments to your advantage as a sustainable business leader.
• Understanding the new economic order and what is required to move toward a sustainable future.
• Making a tangible impact on an organization or its entire supply chain.
• Applying creative and innovative thinking to design sustainable business models.

The following modules are embedded in the programme:
• Business Model Innovation and Multiple Value Creation
• Strategic Management
• Sustainable Transition
• Research Skills
• Personal Leadership

How?

Rethinking economic systems cannot be achieved through conventional teaching, it demands an innovative, experiential approach. That’s why you will learn in an adventurous way: working on real-world projects and exploring business and sustainability themes that inspire you. You will shape your own learning path while contributing to a vibrant learning community of peers and lecturers-coaches. This requires curiosity, openness, proactivity, discipline, and self-reliance. Lecturers-coaches will support you in creating your learning strategies, guide your process, and act as sparring partners. Ultimately, you are fully accountable for your own learning journey.

Coordinator

Joost van Hilst

 

Learning goals

Learning Outcome 1: Impact Entrepreneurship (individual) • Business Plan + Dragons' Den

Learning Outcome 2: Real-World Project (teamwork) • Aligned with the needs of the challenge owners + Interactive Whiteboard Presentation

Learning Outcome 3: Personal Leadership (individual) • You are free to choose how to present your progress

This is what you could be working on:

Testimonials:

"I am very satisfied with my course at Avans, I found very welcoming teachers with whom I established a good relationship, something that had never happened to me in my Italian university where there is a tendency to maintain a student-teacher distance.
The minor I think is well structured and having classes only until Thursday allowed me to travel a lot during the weekends.
Not proposing traditional lectures, but innovative didactic I think is the strong point of this minor as it makes the students very participative.
As for my group work with Canon, it didn't go according to our expectations in part because of us, I think we could have given and done more, and in part because Canon could have stimulated us more.
Instead I think individual work is really motivating, because it allows you to create your own business so you can use a lot of creativity to overcome the various obstacles you encounter".

Thank you for this amazing experience!"
Giulio  Lombardo 

“Taking part in the minor of Business, Leadership & Sustainability was a positive experience which will resonate for the rest of my life. I have learnt that we as a species need to take responsibility for our actions, not only in scope of impacting the planet, but also the lives of other people.

I have learnt that cooperation is key to success and that the real change, real impact, starts with myself. The minor also encourages students to look deeply into oneself, and nudges positive change; of character and view of the world. All the trips and assignments were great experiences, though I would have liked to see more lectures being done. Great time and great minor!”
Maciej Fortunski (Poland)

"I had been looking forward to study abroad for a long time and Avans Hogeschool was an obvious choice for me. Here I knew I could develop my professional skills in regards to sustainability and leadership but also grow as a person and enjoy university life in an international environment.

After finishing my experience here I can say I was able to do that and so much more!

This course has helped me to think more independently and to be more proactive: to search for things I can learn and things I can do regarding sustainability.

The several groups projects I have developed in these past months have also made me a better leader and encouraged me to keep improving my leadership skills.

I can confidently say I will never forget this experience and the skills I have learned and perfected here will be with me for the rest of my life. This was in a huge part thanks to all the amazing professors that guided and helped me on the several projects I worked on. No words in the world can describe how much they have helped me and inspired me.

I would recommend this experience to everyone! It was definitely one of the greatest chapters of my life." 
Marta Teodoro

Presumed prior knowledge

-English B2 
-We invite you to submit a short video pitch (preferably through YouTube) of no more than three minutes. This pitch will help us evaluate your eligibility and motivation for participating in the programme.
In your pitch, please address the following points:
- Why you would like to join this minor and what you hope to gain from it?
- How you aim to promote social, environmental, and economic sustainability in both your personal and professional life?
- How you deal with uncertainty, which is a key theme and learning objective of this minor?
Please note that submission of the pitch does not automatically result in admission, but it will allow us to give your application careful and fair consideration.

Please email your video pitch to jje.vanhilst@avans.nl within a week.

We strive to achieve a 50/50 mix of Dutch and foreign students.

Semester 1: The programme starts on Tuesday, 1 September 2026.

We will end the programme after 17 weeks, which is Thursday 17 December.

Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursday (09:30 a.m. - 01:00 p.m.)

Semester 2: The programme starts on Tuesday, 2 February 2027.

We will end the programme after 17 weeks, which is Thursday 10 June.

Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursday (09:30 a.m. - 01:00 p.m.)

Assessment

Business, Leadership & Sustainability challenges you to develop your own sustainable thinking and business models. We work with multi-level assessments: self-assessment, peer-assessment and coach-assessment. These assessments are based on the level of complexity, self-reliance and self-efficacy.

At the end of the programme, you, your peers and coaches will decide collaboratively whether all the ECTS credits will be accredited.