As part of the 9th International Annual Research Conference Emerging Markets — 2022 held at the Graduate School of Management of Saint Petersburg University, a new course for Russian universities was presented during the round table "Responsible Business and Sustainable Development: Education Issues".

Video course "Responsible Business and Sustainable Development" is created by the Sistema Charitable Foundation. During the course students will learn about what sustainable development means, how its principles are adopted by responsible business strategy, what the origin of ESG term is and how the ESG agenda content and tools of companies and employees are formed. The best professors of top Russian universities and business schools — GSOM SPbU, MSU, MGIMO, HSE, Financial University — are recording lectures and preparing tests supplemented by cases of Russian and international companies and comments of expert community members. The course is intended for a wide audience of specialists, but primarily for Bachelor's students of Economics and Management programs. The access will be free for Russian universities.

Yury Blagov, Director of the Center for Corporate Social Responsibility of GSOM SPbU, Academic Head of the project:

"We're talking about a large national project and an outstanding example of implementation of the 17th UN SDG — partnership for the benefit of sustainable development. The course has united top Russian universities and sustainable development leaders from the sphere of business. Collaboration allows to get a deeper and more detailed understanding of the challenges as well as consider different approaches and advantages of the existing academic schools. We hope that our course will prompt the creation of similar projects and corporate social responsibility and sustainable development principles will become an essential part of Economics and Management educational programs.

The authors are sure that the course will be in demand because today companies need professional employees well informed about the sustainable development agenda. Round table participants had a chance to be added to the list of first universities that will be able to test the first module of the course and give feedback from their professors and students.