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Looking for windows of opportunity to mainstream disaster risk management within business education, in 2015, the United Nations Office for Disaster Reduction’s (UNISDR) Private Sector Alliance for Disaster Resilient Societies (ARISE), partnered with Florida International University’s Extreme Events Institute (FIU-EEI) and 12 international leading business schools. This partnership began with a call for White Papers to propose innovative approaches to integrate cutting edge disaster management content into business education programs and other academic offerings, based on seven themes or niches identified: (1) Strategic Investment and Financial Decisions; (2) Generating Business Value; (3) Sustainable Mana-gement; (4) Business Ethics and Social Responsibility; (5) Business Continuity Planning; (6) Disaster Risk Metrics; and (7) Risk Transfer. In March 2016, an international workshop was held in Toronto, Canada to present the White Papers prepared by the business schools, and discuss the most appropriate approa-ches for addressing the areas of: teaching and curriculum; professional development and extension programs; internships and placement; research opportunities; and partnerships and collaboration. Finally, the group proposed goals for advancing the implementation phase of the business education initiatives, and to propose mechanisms for monitoring and follow-up.

The purpose of this paper is to show the importance of business education in Disaster Risk Manage-ment (DRM). This paper aims to evaluate the awareness level of the Master in Business Administra-tion’s (MBA) students regarding the importance disaster risk management (DRM) plays. This paper develops a literature review concerning the concept of disasters, Disaster Risk Management, Disaster Risk Reduction, and the role of MBA programs. Furthermore, a survey at Universidad EAFIT (Medellin, Colombia) was designed and implemented as primary source information with the purpose of showing the DRM awareness level of MBA’s students. Finally, a case study connecting DRM with entrepre-neurship formation is described. This paper identified a limited formal education in DRM Latin Ameri-can MBA programs, and specifically at Universidad EAFIT. Additionally, a lack of awareness in MBA’s students about the importance of DRM was identified. In this sense, the paper proposes a DRM edu-cation model that uses a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and entrepreneurial formation in busi-ness education. This study aims to show the importance of the inclusion of disaster risk reduction and management knowledge as part of the courses in: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Sustainabili-ty, and Entrepreneurship content in Masters in Business Administration (MBA) programs.

The aim of this paper is to discuss improvements for the Master in Sustainability Management of Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV), in order to incorporate the topic of disaster risk management (DRM). Considering the risks and opportunities that climate change – and more specifically extreme weather events that can lead to disasters – represent to business, it is essential that business schools help prepare managers to deal with this critical sustainability issue. Therefore, it is extremely important to include this topic in management education. Aiming to support companies to assess and address busi-ness risks and opportunities derived from climate change, the Business for Climate Platform (EPC) of the Center for Sustainability Studies (GVces) of FGV has developed a framework and a tool for business adaptation strategies for climate change and implemented them with seven large companies in Brazil. Thus, based on EPC’s experience, the paper brings a proposal for the inclusion of DRM in the MSM’s syllabi, through the lens of climate change adaptation.

Pedagogical practices that are effective in content courses are often effective in CLIL courses too, yet one such practice – content compression – is generally neglected. Content compression is the purposeful reduction of the content to be taught; however, the CLIL literature often warns against the reduction and simplification of content for fear that it might harm students’ understanding of the subject content. This paper explains the ostensibly paradoxical result that content compression improves students’ understanding of content and shows why it is well suited to CLIL, if applied correctly. It presents content compression principles and techniques that are appropriate to content production and teaching practice in the CLIL classroom and shows how it was used to enhance language acquisition by students in a CLIL business course at a Colombian university over a period of three semesters. This experience suggested that content compression, in combination with other pedagogical practices, not only increased students’ linguistic confidence, but also enhanced their perceived learning in both content and language.

Disaster risk management is an integral part of sustainability, and curricula that are focused on sustain-ability can be broadened to include disaster risk management. The David O’Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise at Concordia University researches and teaches disaster risk management through involve-ment in a collaborative project with the United Nations’ Future Earth network to develop a Sustainable Financial and Economic System Knowledge-to-Action Network (SFES-KAN). The definition of ‘sustain-able’ in this context includes disaster risk management. The SFES-KAN aims to align the current finan-cial system with the UN’s sustainable development goals by identifying research gaps and facilitating interdisciplinary research between academics, practitioners, and policymakers to fill those gaps. Our research on such topics as risk management and sustainable investing for the SFES-KAN project has translated into research on disaster risk management and has led to curriculum development on these topics. The goal of our paper is to provide other institutions with examples and strategic information on how to translate such interdisciplinary and solution-oriented sustainability research into research and curricula on disaster risk management.

This paper discusses the apparent disconnection between disaster risk management research and the lack of tools for business continuity after disastrous events in Chile. As disasters are a common occur-rence in business development, local firms are becoming aware of the need for having tools for pre-paredness and mitigation of negative effects of disasters. Nevertheless, in Chile, this private awareness seems to be part of the business aptitude of large-sized firms rather SMEs. Some of the arguments presented here illustrate this gap between local firms and their need to integrate business continuity management into their business operations and their decision making to cope with disaster risks. In this vein, this document argues the need for innovative academic offerings in Chile and presents a proposal to advance in linking disaster risk management and business education at the University of Chile. This pro-gram is developed in the medium-term for each of its components, starting with undergraduate students and achieving major actions with public and private stakeholders in a progressive ladder of initiatives.