SDGs Project 2023: A Look Inside Ena City’s Sustainability Efforts

In Fall 2023, 24 MBA participants from NUCB Business School traveled to Ena City, Gifu Prefecture, to explore what sustainability looks like beyond theory. Guided by Professors Goi Hoe Chin and Hakeem Muhammad Mohsin, the SDGs Project once again pushed students into the field to uncover how businesses, cultural institutions, and local government are confronting real environmental and social challenges.

The group spent several days meeting the people behind Ena’s key sustainability efforts. At Ricoh Ena Forest, they saw how long-term conservation work is shaped by corporate responsibility and community needs. At the Hiroshige Museum, they learned how cultural preservation contributes to regional vitality. Visits to Iwamura Brewery Inc. and the Ena City Government added perspectives from traditional industry and public policy, revealing how each actor navigates constraints, expectations, and opportunities in the sustainability space.

Back at NUCB Business School, students consolidated their field insights into short case studies and multimedia pieces—capturing not only what they observed, but also the dilemmas, trade-offs, and innovations shaping Ena’s approach to sustainable development. This year’s project marked “a new frontier for sustainability,” as Professor Goi described it—a chance for students to step out of the classroom and into a living ecosystem of stakeholders committed to positive change.

Special thanks go to Mr. Ken Ozawa, Director of NUCB’s Accreditation Office, and Ms. Ai Naruse, Executive Director of the Ena City International Exchange Association, along with her dedicated volunteers. Their support made this year’s fieldwork possible.

About the SDGs Project

Organized and steered by Prof. Hoe Chin Goi & Prof. Hakeem, our SDGs Project course has been held in the fall every year since 2020. The project course brings together a group of international perspectives to address issues in ESG areas brought forth by corporate and governmental stakeholders. The course connects elements of academia and industry, providing parties representing corporate, governmental, and educational interests an opportunity to interact and synergize their skillsets in order to solve urgent issues faced by global business.

Emulating the principles of the "Immersion Experience Project" (IXP) by Harvard Business School, the SDGs Project course employs an exploratory and grounded learning approach through interactions with stakeholders and research done in the field. Data collected through surveys, interviews, and group consultation throughout the fieldwork portion of the course provides a confluence of information sources enabling intensive contextual studies informing the consulting proposals for stakeholders.