Matt Gitsham ∙ Professor of Business and Sustainability at Hult International Business School
Faculty Column ∙ July 23, 2026
We traced impact over 15 years – here’s what we learned about experiential learning and sustainability
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Experiential learning is the difference between knowing something and actually doing something differently.
Sustainability, ESG and DEI have come under aggressive attack from certain groups in recent times, but the underlying issues that have been driving businesses to engage with these issues in recent years have not gone anywhere. As these issues become more contested, this only increases the need for senior leaders to be able to understand, navigate, and lead in this complex and fast-moving context.
So how can we develop senior leaders who act as advocates and change agents for sustainability, looking to build long-term business value for stakeholders?
Plenty of research in this area points to the potential of experiential learning. To really shift from knowing to acting needs not just information and briefings, but real, visceral experiences. More broadly, research tells us that while organizations are hesitant to invest in experiential learning, it is perceived to be one of the most effective pedagogical approaches.
But what does the evidence show in the long run? Such evidence is hard to find, not least because long-term measures are difficult to track. On the impact of learning, clear-cut cause and effect is difficult to establish – better perhaps to seek to understand patterns and correlations.
Added to this, leadership development for sustainability is still a relatively new thing. While it is now the norm for sustainability and ESG to be embedded in strategy and part of everyday business, supporting senior executives through leadership development to really understand and bring to life this aspect of their leadership role is still less common than it ought to be.
But researchers at Hult Ashridge Executive Education were recently lucky enough to have the opportunity to talk to leaders within an organization who had participated in a pioneering leadership program 15+ years ago – and to hear their experiences about the long-term impact of the program on their experience as a leader.
A rare opportunity
The organization in question is Sky, a major broadcaster in the UK. The aim of the leadership development program in 2010 was to support a shift in the mindset and cultural norms within the organization, from a short-term, to a more long-term approach, achieved in part through valuing and prioritizing good quality stakeholder relationships and making a positive contribution to society and the environment.
The program at that time consisted of three residential modules, with project-based learning between modules. The three residential modules focused on leadership, strategy, and competitive advantage. The project-based learning between modules was designed to provide opportunities to apply and experiment with new ideas, and also to build capability, commitment and skill around sustainability.
This involved around half the participants working on a project in the Brazilian Amazon with Sky’s NGO partner, WWF. The brief was for the team to research and present economic models and strategies for raising exports of sustainable products from the Brazilian state of Acre. To complete the work, they travelled to and engaged with multiple actors in the Acre region, including the state government, farmers, and indigenous communities. The team then had to present their findings to Sky’s Chief Executive and leadership team and the Chief Executive of WWF.
One participant told us a few months after the program: “After I came back I felt encouraged to talk to colleagues about these things. I am actively pushing more for the organization to focus on climate issues. I’m still doing this three months after the end of the program. We’re all complete converts; it’s created real advocates for this agenda among the senior management team.”*
Another made a similar point: “I’ve been raising awareness with all the various people I work with across different teams, because it’s easy to be flippant, and you get some people who question why we’re doing this, and why it’s important… I’m talking about it more, and if it comes up in conversation, I’m challenging people, or trying to help them see from a different view.”
Fifteen years later
During the past year, we had the opportunity to speak to participants once again, around 15 years after their experience. Could they remember anything at all about their leadership development experience? What impact had it had on them and their leadership, fifteen years after the event?
What was notable was that participants spoke in similar terms 15 years later, with one asserting that it made them “a more vociferous or more educated advocate,” who was “able to understand and explain to others just how critical and actually fragile those ecosystems really are.”
One participant spoke about the impact on career choices and their leadership over the subsequent 15 years: “Within most of the jobs that I've done, I've ended up embedding environmental initiatives as part of my leadership strategy. Obviously, you can't just take the Brazil trip as a driving factor, but it definitely had a big impact on me and was very inspirational.”
Indeed, from the conversations we had, it was clear that the experiential aspect of this program was memorable and impactful: “By and large, the thing that I carry forward was our collective trip to the Amazon.”
The story we see emerging from our conversations is of leaders from across the business who became vocal advocates for action on sustainability.
A number made the point that the nature of the experience itself helped make them more effective advocates. “There’s something about having been there,” one reflected. “You’ve had this unique experience, you understand things at a much more granular level, through your personal experience. It gives you a different kind of authority when you’re in that conversation and putting across your perspective.”
We wanted to know what participants attributed the impact of the learning and change to. “I think it was the immersive nature of the experience,” said one. “We met with senior officials from the Acre government, then we were talking to people on the ground – the communities doing the rubber tapping and growing the açai berries. We were actually going into the jungle and visiting these communities and talking with them through translators. It’s only then that you really start understanding the challenges.”
Another put it this way: “When you have an experience like that , you can go and talk to other people in the business in a way that is authentic, compelling, exciting, and inspiring when you're trying to unlock those kind of activities – like convincing the head of a channel to invest in rainforest programming that they know is going to get probably pretty poor ratings, versus some of the other stuff they might want to do.” Or influencing the supply chain team or the property service group – “where you're running all of the services and facilities for 33,000 people, you can make lots of choices in that that are either positive or negative for the environment.”
Reflecting on the program’s impact, participants also pointed to the quality of the facilitation skills of those orchestrating the experience, and the congruence of strong championing of the program by the CEO.
Speculating on the contribution of the experience to the broader culture at the organization 15 years later, they were also keenly aware of the difficulty in establishing cause and effect: “Were we working with WWF and the Amazon because it was already something that mattered? Or did that kind of supercharge those efforts in an ongoing way? I think Sky was – and certainly continued to be – a strong advocate for pro-environment, environmentally sensitive operations and ways of working.”
The story we see emerging from our conversations is of leaders from across the business who at the outset knew the basics about sustainability issues, but were skeptical of their significance for the business, who became vocal advocates for action on sustainability within the business, and who sought out opportunities to bring sustainability into their work as their careers progressed. Their experience in Brazil made the difference between just knowing something and becoming real advocates for change.
*Quotes from interviews have been lightly edited for clarity and conciseness
Questions for L&D leaders:
How are you connecting sustainability and ESG themes with your approach to leadership development?
Where are the opportunities to use experiential learning and project-based learning to give your leaders first-hand experiences that can make them more effective advocates for change in the workplace?
Which parts of your value chain could make good settings for experiential learning? Which issues could be most valuable to give your leaders first-hand experiences of? Which stakeholder partners could be most useful to build relationships with?
Meet the expert
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Dr Matthew Gitsham
Professor of Business and Sustainability at Hult International Business School
Matt is Director of the Sustainability Impact Lab at Hult International Business School. He specializes in sustainable development, human rights and organizational change. Matt has led numerous research projects on business and sustainable development for over a decade at Ashridge.
Matt is a frequent contributor to Hult Ashridge L&D solutions for executive education clients and has led many courses on Business and Global Society, Sustainable Development and Human Rights themes across Hult’s postgraduate and undergraduate programs.
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