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The impact of climate entrepreneurship education in higher education institutions: a university-wide climate entrepreneurship programme Cover

The impact of climate entrepreneurship education in higher education institutions: a university-wide climate entrepreneurship programme

Open Access
|Sep 2025

Figures & Tables

Figure 1:

Climate entrepreneurship programme data.
Climate entrepreneurship programme data.

CEP interventions, participations, means, objectives, progression phase

InterventionParticipantsMeansObjectivespre/post program
Climate awareness photo competition38 photos from students and staff and 100+ attendants at exhibition.Awards evening and exhibition.Building climate change awareness. Promoting CSPC.Foundation
Green week workshops87 students attended in 2022; 40 students attended in 2023Two-hour workshop during green week with follow up to complete CEP pitch (2022)Learn to describe and communicate climate enterprise ideas. Explore synergies between complementary and similar business ideas to form founder teams. Communicate and negotiate own green enterprise start-up skills and those that might need to be acquired from others.Foundation
CSPC rollout for students410 students trained on the CEP programme8 modules over semester leading to video recorded climate start-up ‘pitch’Learn the fundamentals of successfully starting a business. Build a basic start-up business case for a climate enterprise. Pitch the climate enterprise start-up business case in a professional and convincing manner to participants, trainers, and coaches.CSPC
International showcase events for CSOC students (x 2)6 students involved in two international showcase events in Spain (online) and Latvia2 × 2-day events with 8 other international partnersGrow international mindset. Advance climate start-up pitching skills. Intercultural and transdisciplinary team learning and competency development.Progression
International boot camps11 students travelled for 10-day boot camp in Romania. 4 students and one staff attended Netherlands10-day boot camp and 2 day bootcampIntercultural and transdisciplinary team learning and competency development.Advance innovation and entrepreneurship knowledge and skills. Develop entrepreneurial mindset.Progression
International prototyping event6 students over two international events (Latvia and Cyprus)2 × 2-day international eventsDevelop prototyping skills. Intercultural and transdisciplinary team learning and competency development. Meet and listen to the experiences of entrepreneurs and site visits. Learn about entrepreneurial failure.Progression
Global ClimateLaunchpad Competition2 CSPC student pitchesCompetitions held once per year in 2022 and 2023Developing and refining the green business idea. Coaching support and mentoring to perfect green business pitch, value proposition, and develop the business model.Progression
National government supported start-up programme1 start-up from CEP3 phase programmes over 6 monthsEquip start-ups with the right connections, the right skills, and the right route to capital to grow and sustain a successful business.Progression
International mentoring1 start-up from CEP6 hours international mentoring each.Start-up support to bring business to next level.Progression

Exemplar of CSPC board game pitch – House Hero

CSPC moduleStudent pitch content
The Deal- Encourage environmentally friendly and sustainable daily habits.
Target- Families and young children < 15 years- Marketed across Ireland
Value proposition- Changing daily habits- Save money and reduce carbon footprint through positive behaviour
Product- Board / cards / dice / instruction manual- Social / transport / household / chance card questions
Customer discovery- Users enjoyed aesthetics- Interesting to learn how daily habits impact environment
Financial- E18.50- Consideration of shipping
Climate impact- Educates user- Rewards environmentally positive behaviour and repercussions for negative behaviour- Change daily lives of user
Founders dream- Create environmentally friendly game that becomes household name- Positive impact on growing climate crisis.)

CEP pedagogical approaches and impact

InterventionPedagogical approachesAffective objectives impactSkills based objectives impactStart-up objectives impact
BehaviouralResultBehaviouralResultBehaviouralResult
Climate awareness photo competitionTransformative learning: use of art (photo) method. Reflective statements on photos. Whole society approach: Keynote talk, exhibition with invited guests, meeting entrepreneurs.Progression model: introduction of CSPC and previous winning pitches to encourage progression.Inspired conversations on climate awareness, photo representation and context. Requests to use / exhibit photos in other places.Participants identified for Green Week workshops. 2 students intentions to join CSPCEntering climate competitions.5 students won photo prize with financial reward.NoneNone
Green week workshops (x2)Active innovation methods: team formations, quantifying ideas. Transformative learning: use of art methods in multimedia storyboarding. Inclusion designs: universal design for learning principles to storyboarding, gender considerations in teams. Progression model: introduction of CSPC and encouragement to join.Mapped out storyboard of individual climate enterprise dreams. Engaged in trading exercise to develop teams. Presented outcomes to peers and guests.Each participant has a storyboard and a team formed to progress to CSPC. 8 students (2022) and 40 students (2023) progressed to CSPC.Quantifying climate enterprise ideas. Communicating ideas verbally and through mixed media.Students have foundational aspects of CSPC course (Module 1)None.None.
CSPC rollout for students (x8)Active innovation methods: team formations, quantifying ideas, customer discovery, financial planning.Whole society approaches: customer discovery, real world validation.Progression model: to international events or CLP global competition.Quantified main areas of interest in CE (board games, waste management, transport, building efficiency, energy, low carbon manufacturing)Improved Attitudes: 3.94 (El survey). 50% of groups submitted pitches for the chance to progress to international showcase. Two groups progressed to global CLP competition.Refining The Deal. Converting climate idea into alternative business model. Embedding climate impact into customer value proposition. Basic financial modelling. Designing and delivering customer discovery research. Identifying and calculating CO2 savings for customers. Pitching a climate start-up idea.Improved Skills: 3.85 (El survey)Entrepreneurial intentions.Overall El score: 3.74.
International showcase events for CSOC students (x2)Case study methods: presenting and listening to pitches from other countries. Active innovation methods: working in diverse teams.Whole society approaches: meeting entrepreneurs and policy makers, site visits.Context and inclusion approaches: international context, gender representation, intercultural and transdisciplinary team-based events.Inspiration and enjoyment of seeing the pitches of other students. Increased awareness of value of transdisciplinary challenge-based team work. Intercultural interest and context awareness.Students agreed to be ambassadors for the CSPC and shared stories of international experience with peers.Intercultural awareness.Transdisciplinary team competence building. Advanced pitching skills.Enhanced knowledge of how to embed climate impact dimension into climate entrepreneurship start-up.None.None.
International boot camps (x2)Active innovation methods: working in cross-country transdisciplinary teams, challenge-based learning on CEE. Whole society approaches: mentoring, co-creating with entrepreneurs, site visits. Context and inclusion approaches: international context, gender representation, intercultural and transdisciplinary team-based events. camping trip. Transformative learning: reflective journalling.Intercultural interest and context awareness. Increased awareness of value of transdisciplinary challenge-based team work. Building international network.Students agreed to be ambassadors for the CSPC and shared stories of international experience with peers.Advanced knowledge and skills measuring climate impact for customers. Intercultural and transdisciplinary team competence building. Development of alternate business modelling for CEE, financial planning and customer discovery skills through new pitching competitions.Awards for CEE pitching competitions.Attitude and self-efficacy to start a climate enterprise.One climate start-up created.
International prototyping events (x2)Active innovation methods: working in cross-country transdisciplinary teams, experimental prototyping challenges.Whole society approaches: site visits, mentoring from entrepreneurs.Context and inclusion approaches: international context, gender representation, intercultural and transdisciplinary team based events.Intercultural interest and context awareness. Increased awareness of value of transdisciplinary challenge based team work. Building international network.Students agreed to be ambassadors for the CSPC and shared stories of international experience with peers.Basic prototyping skills for green product development based on simple experimental models. Intercultural and transdisciplinary team competence building.Awards for prototyping competitions.None.None.
Global CLp Comp.Active innovation methods: quantifying CE ideas, customer discovery, financial planning. Whole society approaches: customer discovery, real world validation, mentoring. Progression model: to national, regional, global finals.Learning, coaching and mentoring from international experts and sponsors in CLP global ecosystem.Inspiration from expert mentors and companies. Positive attitude towards green value proposition.Refining The Deal. Converting climate idea into alternative business model. Embedding customer value proposition. Basic financial modelling. Designing and delivering customer discovery research. Identifying and calculating CO2 savings for customers. Pitching a climate start-up idea.National, Regional, Global awards in CLP.None.None.
National government supported start-up programmen/an/an/an/an/aTraining, mentoring, funding and coaching.One start-up created.
International mentoringWhole society approaches: expert mentoring.Context and inclusion approaches: international contextInternational mindset developmentAttitude towards looking international for new markets.Intensive coaching to support skills to move from start-up to acceleration to growth phase.Knowledge of internationalisation process. Knowledge of accelerating climate start-up.Progressing from incubation to acceleration.Inspiration and knowledge to grow and seek international customers.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ijm-2024-0013 | Journal eISSN: 2451-2834 | Journal ISSN: 1649-248X
Language: English
Page range: 39 - 58
Submitted on: Feb 15, 2024
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Accepted on: Jan 22, 2025
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Published on: Sep 4, 2025
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 3 issues per year

© 2025 Deirdre McQuillan, Sylvia Gavigan, published by Irish Academy of Management
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.