We’re proud to share a new chapter co-authored by Beate Klingenberg, a member of the SMIndicator team:
Paradox Skills and the Sustainability Mindset: Frameworks and Tools to Develop Sustainability Skills in Higher Education
Published by Springer in the volume Exploring Value Creation in the Era of Sustainability
🔗 Read the chapter here
This chapter explores the role of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in equipping future leaders with the competencies needed for sustainable development. It introduces frameworks, tools, and impact assessment approaches designed to develop paradox skills—the ability to navigate tensions, ambiguity, and competing goals, all of which are central to sustainable transformation.
Drawing from key international frameworks such as UNESCO’s Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), the OECD Learning Compass 2030, and the EU’s GreenComp agenda, the chapter presents:
Four categories of sustainability-specific paradoxes: belonging, learning, organizing, and performing
Practical classroom exercises including role-playing, simulations, and reflection
Frameworks like the Sustainability Mindset and Paradox Mindset
Tools such as Polarity Mapping and the Sustainability Mindset Indicator (SMI®)
The goal: to support HEIs in integrating these approaches into curricula and to better prepare students for the complex challenges of sustainability leadership.
Congratulations to Beate and the co-authors on this important and timely contribution!
Klingenberg, B., Pratt, N., Suntrup-Andresen, E. (2025). Paradox Skills and the Sustainability Mindset: Frameworks and Tools to Develop Sustainability Skills in Higher Education. In: Machado, C.F., Davim, J.P. (eds) Management in Higher Education for Sustainability. Management and Industrial Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-84963-3_1
