#SenecaProud

Pat Perdue (00:00):

Hey, I'm Pat Perdue, and I'd like to welcome you to season five of the SenecaProud Podcast. So much change. And now we're post pandemic. Are we though? Kind of? Maybe? What's absolutely true is that the last few years have seen dramatic changes at Seneca College as well. The massive scope of the large project, which has been underway for a few years now, has been transforming Seneca into a college that embraces the highest standards of equity, diversity, and inclusion, as well as sustainability and flexibility. And this entire initiative is to ensure Seneca College is ready for the demands of the future. And with the popularity of AI and other new technologies, the future is becoming the present really quickly. And Senecans are leading the way in this brave new world, which brings us to season five.

In this season, like all of our seasons, we have some amazing guests who are putting their Seneca one skills to work and are making a real splash in their career and in the world. Our guests join the pod to talk about their careers today, their experiences at Seneca and their future in this brave, new, kind of post pandemic, Yeah, everything's normal now, kind of world. So stick around because the next episode of SenecaProud starts now.

Welcome to another episode of the SenecaProud Podcast. I'm Pat Perdue, and I'm really glad we get to hang out a little again today. This is the second episode of Season Five, and that means we have four other seasons for you to check out if you want to. The best way to listen to this podcast is on your phone's podcast app, but of course, it's also available at the Seneca College website. Just Google SenecaProud podcast, and you'll be taken right to it. Okay, so let's talk about you. Or more specifically your day. How did you spend it? Or how do you plan to spend it? And how much of what you did was truly sustainable in any way you want to define that word. In the environmental sense, Did you drive a car? Not sustainable. And that includes electric vehicles. And I'm not judging because while I don't drive a car, I love cars, but I don't drive them.

I do like to eat out! Not sustainable. Did you spend more money than you earned? Obviously you don't want to do that for very long because it's not sustainable. And how about socially? Did you engage in nurturing relationships? Or were they mostly antagonistic? I'm certainly hoping that's not the case for you, and that all of your relationships are supportive, and that would mean they're sustainable. Many companies ask these questions as well. They look at what is known as the three pillars of sustainability; environmental, social, and economic. Seneca College, along with a huge number of colleges and universities around the world, are also asking these same questions. And for colleges with business departments, they're also asking another question. How can we develop future leaders who will tackle the challenge of global sustainability so that our planet is safe, inhabitable, and its citizens can enjoy a fulfilling life while not robbing this right from future generations?

The inconvenient truth is, that this is both very difficult and could not be more important. Which is why I am so excited to share with you my conversation with our guest today, Shahrzad Farnzinpak.

Shahrzad is the chair of the School of Human Resources and Global Business at Seneca College. And I loved our conversation so much because I've known Shahrzad for years. Shahrzad is my boss, Shahrzad hired me. But what's that saying? You don't really know someone until they're a guest on your podcast? Is that a saying? It should be a saying! In addition to Shahrazad’s, fantastic work in her official role at Seneca College. Shahrzad is also the Seneca College head of a global United Nations initiative called Prime, P R M E. That's an acronym that stands for Principles for Responsible Management Education. The mandated prime is to bring the concept of sustainability into every management classroom, regardless of the subject.

Rather than having sustainability limited to say environmental courses or energy courses, the intent of Prime is to equip business leaders of tomorrow with a robust understanding of what sustainability really means. And Shahrzad isn't new to the sustainability conversation. Before beginning her journey with Seneca, back in 2014 as a student at Seneca College, Shahrzad was a full-time consultant in Iran working on a range of projects related to sustainable urban development and socio environmental impact assessments of large scale infrastructure developments. And Shahrzad also taught part-time in the University of Honar, a public university in Tehran. Shahrzad also holds a master's degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Tehran. I'm so thrilled to present to you my conversation with the chair of the School of Human Resources and Global Business, and also head of the Seneca College Prime Initiative, Shahrzad Farzinpak. Shahrzad and I begin our conversation with Shahrzad speaking about what Prime is and Seneca's role in it. Okay. Here's Shahrzad Farnzinpak.

 

 

Shahrzad Farzinpak (05:42):

Absolutely. So as you mentioned, the Prime is an initiative supported by United Nation, I guess it's founded in 2007. And that's basically a platform to raise the profile of sustainability in businesses, schools around the world. And how it happens is that they are really trying to equip business students with the understanding of sustainability, and the ability to deliver the change. So again, you mentioned through the intro that business management and leadership schools are really shaping the skill and mindset of future leaders. They are the among the most influential actors in this regard. So to transform this management education and develop responsible decision makers, prime or principles for responsible management education will engage the schools with six principles; purpose, value method, research, partnership and dialogue to just ensure that these future leaders have the skills required to balance really the economic and sustainability goals while they're actually drawing attention to 17 sustainable development goals. So basically it's a proven framework and a support system that will guide the faculty and the schools to create those leaders, those responsible Leaders.

 

 

Pat Perdue (07:19):

It sounds like a huge initiative. I think there are a lot of postsecondary institutions involved in this, like Seneca College is not the only one. Can you name some of the other institutions that, that you're working with as well?

 

 

Shahrzad Farzinpak (07:19):

Well there are many, actually across the globe. We are the first in Ontario, but there are 880 other institutions that are offering management and business, education, again in Europe, Asia, Australia, south America, and in Canada, of course, to name a few. I guess we have a partner, in Columbia, University of Rosario. There is the Business Management school in Switzerland, IMD, there are, uh, many, many other schools. There are other partner of us in B.C, so, I'm sure I cannot just name 880, but there are many.

 

Pat Perdue (07:57):

Yeah, and that gives us a really good scope of how massive this undertaking is. You know, it's, it's genuinely a global initiative, which is super, super exciting. And what does it mean to participate in the program in terms of changes that we might see at Seneca or the impact of the program on Seneca business classes?

 

Shahrzad Farzinpak (08:20):

Great question. So first I have to mention that basically we became the signatory of Prime in late 2020, and I was just really adhering to the Au Large sustainability pillar. As you know, Au Large is Seneca initiative. It has three pillars, and sustainability is one. So equity, sustainability and more virtual Seneca. So at the same time of Au large, you know, creation, we were going through this Seneca Business transformation plan and just looking at, all different initiative across the globe, we figured that Prime can be a great one for us. I can say three different reasons. Not that we were not familiar with sustainability. We actually at the time had our program and still have obviously sustainable business management program. But we really wanted to one, really accelerate the progress of incorporating sustainability into business curriculum. We wanted to put an emphasis on the fact that we are supporting UNSDGs or sustainable development goals very visibly, and we wanted to have access to a wealth of resources that this framework would've offered us.

So as we became the signatory, the first step before us was looking at the literature, just looking at all the reports out there and see what other schools had done. The next step was really just, you know, having the faculty and other stakeholders on board. So we had different meetings with faculty, with the students. We, we ran survey, we had discussions with the leadership, and then we started with a framework. The framework had three pillars based on those conversations, which is thought the best would be if we incorporate sustainability into our curriculum and practice by incorporating it in education, experience, exposure, and environment. Basically, it means that it's not only that we have components of sustainability added to different courses as an outcome or as an assessment. Rather, we created an environment that students will hear about it, will get curious about it.

So for us, just creating the plan to keep it on time, as you can imagine, it was a lot of conversation just to make sure that we have everything right and hopefully we do. But then it was really about communicating it. It was about making sure that the word gets out there. So in a nutshell, we started having started from low hanging fruits and see, all right, so these are the courses that we already have. So they need revamped, they need to be updated. These are the areas that we can have new courses. For example, we developed a new course called SDG 101 or Sustainable Development Goals 101 for our diploma students that many of them are now going through it as a first step just to get familiar with the concept, and then it'll be scaffolded throughout their programs as they go through different concepts related to business, and they can see it through sustainability lens.

So what it means for us, it means a lot of work and curriculum, having different events. We have at least one every semester, and these are annual events from having a sustainable development goals multimedia concept, or the competition to, the ones that dive deeper, like the applied research conference that we have every summer. In the meantime, we have space on the internet, just communicate everything that we are doing. There is a blog for students there. We have a reward and recognition program in place, and the list is long. So, I stop here for now,

 

Pat Perdue (11:57):

Okay. That was amazing, and thanks for that overview. And you mentioned, you know, I, and I love in your overview that we talked about the students, and how have you found the response from the students to these initiatives?

 

Shahrzad Farzinpak (12:12):

Amazing! I can't tell you how actually exciting it is to see the students who are reaching out. So as I mentioned, so we do have this reward and recognition program in place, and we recognize the students who are either actively participating in different events that we have, or the ones who are getting higher grades in different sustainability courses. So I think as of today, probably we have over a thousand students that got certificates for different reasons, I mean, for different type of participations that they have. And the fact that you just open LinkedIn and you just see how proudly they posted their certificates there and how passionate they're talking in different events about how this exercise and this experience changed the way that they're looking to their future and how they want to incorporate everything in their future jobs and in businesses that they're getting, that they're going to get into. It's really inspiring. So I can't say really how proud I am to see at this point after two years, the impact that we made. Even if you look at the blog that we have already on the internet space, you see how passionately they're talking about their experience in different classes, in different events, and that's really why we are here.

 

Pat Perdue (13:29):

And that has to be so gratifying to see your efforts and initiatives reflected in the enthusiasm and, and direction impacting from the student level. That's amazing.

 

Shahrzad Farzinpak (13:42):

Mission accomplished. Yes

 

Pat Perdue (13:44):

Yes, definitely. Definitely. And you're impacting thousands of students, or at least a thousand in the story you're just told, you know, is your team a team of dozens putting this together? Or what does the sustainability group look like at Seneca College?

 

Shahrzad Farzinpak (14:00):

Great question. So far and during the two years, we had small but Mighty Working Group. I started in January, 2021 with a team of three, and then we expanded to Team of four. So they're all professors in different areas and different experience and discipline. So we have Stephen Phoon, Samin Shaaban, Anita Toma, and Marko Jovanovic, who are the active members of Prime Working Group from day one. And no, they, as you can see, it's only four of them and one of me. And I cannot say that we didn't have the support. I mean, the core team was the individuals I've mentioned, but obviously we had the support of the leadership. We had the support of the sustainability office, and as such, like when you're working in an environment and an organization that is really driving, supporting such initiatives, it goes a long way. But yes, we were a small group. We had the support of our faculty, and we are hoping to expand and decentralize even more as we go forward. But the team has been amazing and accomplished a lot. Although they're a small group.

 

Pat Perdue (15:19):

It sounds like it. So you all should be tremendously proud of the impact that you're clearly that you're having. And recently you've submitted a study at Seneca College around sustainability. That's part of the bigger prime conversation and Seneca's role in that. Can you share a little bit about what that study was about and if people can access it?

 

Shahrzad Farzinpak (15:40):

Yeah, happily. So when you become the prime signatory, you have the commitment to submit a sharing information on progress report or SIP we always go by the acronym, so it's difficult to remember the full form. So this sharing information on progress report will be publicly shared on their website. And you can see Seneca has already posted one there after two years. Basically this report, it will create awareness, it will boost visibility, it will create opportunities for collaboration with other institutions that they are prime signatory. And what it has is that it outlines the commitment and progress we made in the past two years, or any two years. So as I mentioned, we had a variety of activities and the way that we plan in accordance to our platform and the framework that we had, everything has been captured now. So from students events to faculty workshops to all the collaboration and coordination that we had with other institutions as well as so internally and externally, everything is already there. And of course, the promise that we made for future years. So yeah, a lot there. We try to keep it concise, but at the same time, I really hope that everybody, at least at Seneca will read the report

 

Pat Perdue (17:09):

For sure. And you know, you try to keep it concise, but there's a lot to say.

 

Shahrzad Farzinpak (17:12):

Absolutely.

 

Pat Perdue (17:13):

Does anything stand out from the report that you can talk about or, or highlights that you're particularly proud of?

 

Shahrzad Farzinpak (17:19):

Hard to say. So the way that we organize the report is literally our response to the six principles. So under each principle, you will see what are the initiatives, initiatives that we took, how did we approach different principles. So either, again, it's from curriculum evaluation, curriculum assessments, to incorporating different context contents in, uh, different courses to having a full program revamped around sustainability and that's our graduate certificate in supply chain management. Given the importance of supply chain in sustainability, oh, now we have a professional option for students in that discipline to get more involved in sustainability to having a community of practice, to having variety of events. So everything really is great there. So I can't really point finger at one

 

Pat Perdue (18:18):

Well, I'm looking forward to reading it. It sounds like it's a great retrospective on the accomplishments that you've made and perhaps some direction setting into where you see the program going in the future. Which leads me to my next question. Where do you, where do you see the program going in the future? Is it, you know, you're kind of dusting the dust off your hands and saying, our work here is done, or is your work just getting started?

 

Shahrzad Farzinpak (18:44):

It's absolutely an ongoing commitment, and we can, I don't think at any point we can just say, okay, everything's done. Let's just pack up and go home or carry on with the rest of our work. No, but I can say as long as we expanding our work to further integrate sustainability into our curriculum, research

industry partnership with the same pace, because we, we were quite actually agile in with this in this regard, I think we will be in a good space. A new initiative that we have, and I'm again very keen on launching it sooner rather than later, is having formally students at the table. So, we had the surveys, we had our focus groups, we heard anecdotally from students, but we are hoping to have an advisory group of students just like the one that we have among faculty, so that we can hear firsthand what's working, what's not working, how we can make more impact. So yeah, that's the, the next coming up down the pipe.

 

Pat Perdue (19:45):

That sounds super exciting. Well, thanks for sharing all of that, it clearly sounds like you're doing a ton of great work. And this is in addition to your day job, right?

 

Shahrzad Farzinpak

True.

 

Pat Perdue (19:56):

And you're a mom and all the other stuff. So can you share us with us a little bit about your own journey with Seneca College and, and perhaps what brings you into working and making a difference in this, in this environmental initiative?

 

Shahrzad Farzinpak (20:14):

Well, when it comes to sustainability, although it's being accused of having a vague definition, it's always close to home for me. It's always close to my heart. And the reason being that, so as you mentioned, my background is urban development and urban planning, and I have worked in this, area for a while. When I was working as a consultant in infrastructure and construction area, it was really all about, so you're going to have this dam or you're going to create this powerhouse or select a site for this powerhouse. How can you minimize the impact on the local community, on the environment around it? How can you make sure that at the same time that this is going to be a profitable infrastructure? At the same time you are looking ahead, and you're looking for the future generations so that you will minimize the impact on them, rather increase the positive impact for them. And then when we were going through the transformation plan in business and business education, I just thought, okay, although it's quite different, but at the same time, very much the same. So it has, sustainability always has three aspects; environmental, social, or economic. Or you call it planet, people, profit or planet, people, prosperity or triple bottom line, or in a more, on the investment side, you want, you might call it ESG or environmental, social and governance, but they're really all the same thing. They're having the same message, and it's all about what we can do, how we can raise their awareness, and what actions we can take so that what we are doing right now, it will benefit us, but it doesn't take from future generations. It doesn't take what we can present to them or actually leave for them, after we are done. So again, pretty much of the same thing. So I, it was a raise of hand and I was really excited to, to hear that we are going towards creating or developing more sustainable or more sustainability aware graduates. So yes, it's more work, but it's an exciting and definitely rewarding work

 

Pat Perdue (22:29):

For sure. And it's so interesting how your time prior to Seneca dovetailed with this wonderfully impactful work that you're doing at Seneca College today, which is, you know, sometime after you first began your time with Seneca College. I find that so fascinating and it's gotta be very gratifying.

 

Shahrzad Farzinpak (22:50):

Well Seneca is a great place. I was here as a student, I was here as a part-time prof. I was here at different roles, and it really feels like home. And I always thought that even as a student or any type of position that I got, everything that I'm doing has a purpose, has a meaning, and it's really resonates with me personally. I guess I've been here since 2014, and I hope that I continue being able to be a contributor to Seneca, what Seneca is trying to achieve and accomplish.

 

Pat Perdue (23:22):

When you first started with Seneca, let's say as a part-time prof, were you able to envision the impact that you would have on Seneca College and also maybe the impact or the role that Seneca College would play overall in your life?

 

Shahrzad Farzinpak (23:38):

Well, I can't say that I could envision it. It has been a long ago, and you never know what life's really bring, but I can say that I always hope so, because again, Seneca is great. It's the impact that it has on the life, many, many individuals as a student and faculty internationally and domestically, it's amazing. So I can say that I hope so, but I would never envision.

 

Pat Perdue (24:05):

And so when we look at the sustainability program, you know, there's all kinds of different people listening; there's students listening and there's faculty listening, there's alumni listening to our podcast. What, from a faculty perspective, what's something that they might anticipate or how can they incorporate sustainability into their program?

 

Shahrzad Farzinpak (24:28):

Well, there are so many different ways to do that. I would say the first step will be getting more curious about the whole thing. We offer faculty workshops just with the same title, how can you incorporate sustainability into your curriculum? And it can be anything really from providing, let's say in a more tech class, providing data around sustainability that students can have on an Excel sheet and can analyze to something more concrete, like having a chapter or having a class all around, I don't know sustainable accounting, as I mentioned, sustainable supply chain or even sustainable aviation and anything in between. And of course, apart from that, apart from the classroom, as I mentioned, it's really about creating that environment that students will be exposed to the concept over and over and over again. It's not really something that you can get done in one go. You just have to have that reiteration. So that part will be covering the curriculum, but if you are more enthusiastic about the topic, please do get in touch with us. Go through the space, like the prime space and the internet, and get involved into different projects and events that we have. So that will be double the impact. But again, we are also always happy to hear more from faculty what they are interested in doing and what's, what are the things that we might have missed and they want to put forward

 

Pat Perdue (25:56):

From a student's perspective. If a student listening to this wants to get involved and express their curiosity and pursue their curiosity, what, uh, what advice might you have for them?

 

Shahrzad Farzinpak (26:06):

Yeah, the list is long there as well. Again, be curious in the classroom, be passionate about what you're studying, get involved into different events. We have in the fall; we have SDG multimedia contest. In the winter we have the solution workshop. This time around, we are actually working with, as I mentioned, one of our partners in Colombia. And we are working on an issue or rather a question that a client put forward around sustainability. And we call it actually something more exciting. It's going to be sustainability, open innovation, big core competition. In the summer we have our PARCcon or prime applied research conference. So if you worked on a capstone project, uh, or any applied research project with the theme of sustainability, be ready to present over there. And soon we are going to post for our student advisory committee, as I mentioned. So if you are interested to be more involved, put your name forward and join the group.

 

Pat Perdue (27:08):

Well, it sounds like a really exciting space to be deeply involved with, and you know, goodness knows it's necessary, <laugh> Shahrzad Farzinpak (27:17):

For sure.

 

Pat Perdue (27:18):

So Shahrzad, thank you so much for joining our podcast today. I was so excited to be able to get you on as a guest. And thank you very much for your time. I really appreciate it.

 

Shahrzad Farzinpak (27:30):

Thank you for having me.

 

Pat Perdue (27:31):

Thank you. Bye

 

Shahrzad Farzinpak (27:33):

Bye.

 

Pat Perdue (27:34):

And that was my conversation with Shahrzad Farzinpak. You know, with all the bad news in the world about the environment and sustainability, I don't know about you, but I find some comfort in the fact that such brilliant, dedicated people like Shahrzad and her team are stepping up to the challenge of impacting the sustainability conversation on a global level. But let's bring it down to what you and I can impact. If you are a faculty member, how can you make sustainability an ongoing part of your curricula? Or if you're a student, how can you infuse your assignments with a sustainability angle? And for all of us, how can we develop our own individual sustainability initiative that is part of our daily life? I'll leave that with you to consider. Until next time, I'm Pat Perdue. Stay sustainable, Seneca.