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Pioneer in shaping socially aware leaders, Dr. Balatbat wins teaching excellence award

​Dr Maria Balatbat, a senior accounting lecturer who teaches reporting for climate change and sustainability, has been recognised for nurturing social and environmental awareness among future leaders.

Published on the 05 Jun 2015

​Dr Maria Balatbat, a senior accounting lecturer who teaches reporting for climate change and sustainability, has been recognised for nurturing social and environmental awareness among future leaders.

The Joint-Director of the Centre for Energy and Environmental Markets (CEEM) was awarded UNSW Business School’s first “UN PRME Excellence in Teaching” award – for her work on ethical and responsible decision-making in organisations.

“Maria stood out due to her impressive track record and strong links with industry – she has been a pioneer in teaching sustainability reporting well before the Business School became a signatory to the ‘Principles of Responsible Management Education’ (PRME). Content from her course has been replicated in other undergraduate courses and adapted by other institutions, further amplifying the impact of her work” said Shanil Samarakoon, Learning and Teaching Advisor & Coordinator of the PRME Community of Practice.

“Sustainability reporting goes beyond traditional financial reporting where shareholders are the primary users – it takes into account needs of wider stakeholders such as employees, community, government and the environment,” Dr Balatbat explains, “the underlying point is that an organisation also reports performance on its non-financial aspects such as greenhouse gas emissions, waste and water management, occupational health and safety, product safety and so forth with the view to improve their performance on these aspects.” 

“The world is observing some megatrends that will disrupt businesses in unpredictable ways such as climate change and resource scarcity. It’s thus vital for businesses to e​valuate these impacts to transform their businesses in a timely manner to remain competitive.” 

The United Nations established the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) in 2007 to promote the nurturing of future leaders who will not only look at the profit bottom line, but a triple bottom line of profits, people and planet in their decision making for the sustainability of our planet. 

UNSW Business School has been a signatory to UN PRME since 2010, joining 500 leading business schools from over 80 countries, and is committed to making sustainability and responsibility a cornerstone of its activities. 
The School has several annual teaching awards. The “UN PRME Excellence in Teaching” award was introduced in Semester 1, 2015 by the Learning and Teaching team in UNSW Business School.