The Transformative Nature of Field-Based Sustainability Case Studies

Think about your most memorable experiences as a learner, experiences where you went beyond rote learning or facts. What do you remember?

Was it a piece of data you read in a textbook? A three-hour lecture characterized by frantic notetaking and information overload? Or do you remember a learning experience in the truest sense of the word, an experience that was sensory, that put you in someone else’s shoes, that made you feel and learn something that ultimately changed you.

As sustainability becomes more central to business education, instructors are increasingly looking for case studies that allow students to experience sustainability as a genuine leadership challenge, not just to understand it conceptually. When sustainability cases feel distant from lived organizational contexts, students may struggle to fully engage with the human, operational, and ethical trade-offs leaders face.

Seen through this lens, the most transformative sustainability cases are field-based and decision-driven, cases that often deliver the richest form of experiential learning for students. Developed through direct engagement with the organization itself, these cases bring “inside the room” tension, revealing insights and contextual details that can only be provided by those directly involved.

“Field-based engagement is crucial both for teaching and research. It provides access to real-life experiences that help students understand the nuances and complexities of sustainability decisions,” says Diane-Laure Arjaliès, Associate Professor of Managerial Accounting and Sustainability at Ivey Business School.

“It also ensures that we are working with the most up-to-date knowledge and innovations, guaranteeing that our teaching is at the forefront of the discipline,” she adds. “Partner organizations also appreciate the case study writing process and often come to class in person to discuss specific questions. This makes the teaching experience very impactful for students who can directly interact with the key characters they study in the cases.”

Because these cases are developed through direct engagement with organizations and their people, when written and delivered effectively, they ground sustainability challenges in local contexts and lived experiences.

“Many sustainability challenges facing today’s business leaders are complex and multi-faceted. Writing a case provides a great opportunity to create experiential learning opportunities for our students to analyze these real-world challenges," says Robert Klassen, Associate Dean, Research, and Professor of Operations Management with Ivey Business School. "And just as important, they must move beyond analysis to develop and discuss plans for realistic actionable change.”

Field Cases in Action

The transformative nature of field-based sustainability cases becomes particularly clear in the classroom. Recent winners of the Sustainability Case Writing Awards, an initiative of Ivey Publishing and the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), offer powerful examples.

Among them is Sea Cider: Succession Planning for a Regenerative Business, taught to undergraduate students by one of its co-authors, Professor Natalie Slawinski, as part of the Strategic Collaboration and Partnerships course at the University of Victoria.

As an enhancement to the case class, Slawinski took her students on a field trip to the company site. One of Slawinski’s students, Jenna Mehlmann, was particularly impacted by the opportunity to step into the shoes of case study protagonist, Kristen Needham, founder and CEO of Sea Cider Farm & Ciderhouse, who faced a decision around succession.

“The core lesson for me was that Sea Cider wasn't just trying to survive, but they were actively trying to restore the social and ecological systems that they inhabit. This concept really hit home because we didn't just read about it in the case. We got to go to Sea Cider itself and embody it during our field trip,” Mehlmann said during a recent Ivey Publishing webinar. “Actually standing there and smelling those apples in the orchard drove home the concept of returning to the soil. Being nourished in that environment felt so real, and it’s something a textbook can't teach you. The case and the visit together made the succession planning dilemma feel very personal.”

Slawinski maintains that even if you write or teach a case that isn’t place-based locally, you can still enhance student learning by making local connections. “Place-based experiences matter to students. They're more meaningful,” she noted in the same webinar. “The lessons transfer over and there's an embodied aspect that can be replicated across different experiences.”

Saeed Rahman, Associate Professor with the School of Business at the University of the Fraser Valley and another co-author of the Sea Cider case, reinforces that what truly engages students is anchoring the sustainability “triple bottom line” to a real location.

“I strongly advise educators to develop cases that address place-based sustainability challenges. Begin with a real-world example where business, society, and nature intersect within a specific local context. Demonstrate how a business’s sustainability efforts are shaped by land, biodiversity, community relationships, governance structures, and history,” Rahman says. “In my opinion, cases that carefully illustrate these complex interactions and interdependencies tend to be the most compelling, interesting, and impactful.”

Anne Wu, Chair Professor at National Chengchi University in Taiwan, whose case Zephyr Solaris Energy: A Stakeholder-Centric Strategy Dilemma received an honourable mention in the same competition, shares a similar perspective. She notes that when a sustainability case is rooted in a real organization or local community, student learning shifts from theory to authentic problem-solving.

“A sustainability case becomes engaging when students can personally feel the relevance of sustainability to their own lives and future. These concrete experiences help them realize that sustainability is not a distant corporate responsibility but a matter that will influence their careers, quality of life, and the world they will inherit,” Wu says. “Once students internalize this connection, they naturally become more motivated to analyze the case and propose meaningful solutions.”

This focus on lived experience is changing how students engage with sustainability. As Subba Lakshmi Prabha, Assistant Professor at UPES India and co-author of another honourable mention case, Saraplast: Driving Sustainability and Profits in India’s Sanitation Space, notes, “Real examples drive real knowledge. Holding up these people as idols can trigger ‘dreaming.’ When students dream based on real examples, living, breathing leaders, they understand the human connections better.”

Aligning with the Principle of Practice

Now in its second year, the Sustainability Case Writing Awards has shifted to accepting only field-based cases, a decision that reflects a deliberate pedagogical focus.

“As we reflected on how to more intentionally integrate the Principles of PRME into Ivey’s Sustainability Case Writing Awards, the Principle of Practice really stood out to us. Field-based business cases require authors to engage directly with organizations, and that process in itself is powerful,” says Violetta Gallagher, Director, Product and Publishing, with Ivey Publishing. 

“Just as importantly, these field-based cases often involve organizations that are actively working to govern themselves responsibly and transparently, making the learning grounded in real, accountable management practice,” she adds. “When a company opens its doors to a case writer, it is sharing its lived business practices and allowing them to be transformed into a learning experience for students.”

Gallagher notes that the collaborative nature of writing a field-based case builds community long before a single word is written. “Prioritizing field cases recognizes that the relationships formed through research are as important as the final product,” she says. “Those relationships lead to richer, more authentic cases with the potential to engage students in deeper conversations about responsible management.”

The Sustainability Case Writing Awards are currently in the review process of this year’s submissions. Winners will be announced in spring 2026.

Log in or create an educator account to browse the winners of the first year, which are available as part of the free case collection, or browse the entire Sustainability collection of learning materials.