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Petra Molthan

Petra Molthan-Hill

Professor

Nottingham Business School

Staff Group(s)
Department of Management

Role

Prof Dr Petra Molthan-Hill, PhD, MBA, MDiv, PFHEA, is Professor of Sustainable Management and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) at Nottingham Business School.

Professor Petra Molthan-Hill, PhD is Co-Chair of the UN PRME Working Group on Climate Change, Professor at NTU (UK), Author of the 'Handbook of Carbon Management. A Step-by-Step Guide to High-Impact Climate Solutions for Every Manager in Every Function' and Editor of  'Sustainable Management. A Complete Guide for Faculty and Students' (3rd edition).

She is an international multi-award-winning expert for Climate Change Mitigation Tools, leads the ‘Climate Literacy Training -CLT-ECOS' distributed worldwide with QS Impact and UN PRME and has worked with SMEs and many other organizations such as the NHS on how to reduce GHG emissions. From 2013–2021, she led the Green Academy at NTU integrating with her team the SDGs into the curriculum of every discipline across all faculties.

She is an En-ROADS Climate Ambassadors and MIT Sloan has recently summarised her work in this context in an article published on their website

She leads the ‘Carbon Literacy Training for Business Schools, Universities and beyond’ (CLT4BS), a training programme developed by her team at Nottingham Business School in collaboration with the UN PRME Champions, the international student organization ‘oikos International’ and the Carbon Literacy Project and distributed worldwide in collaboration with UN PRME. For example, as part of a global social movement to coincide with the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference Train the Millions - The Carbon Literacy Chain (https://www.unprme.org/carbon-literacy-trainings).

Professor Molthan-Hill also led the design of NTU’s ‘Carbon Literacy Training for staff and students in universities: A systems approach’ which has been adopted by educational institutions across the world. For example, over 400 students from 44 countries took part in the Global University Climate Forum organised by Yale and experienced a taster session of the CLT in November 2020 with students taking the full CLT for universities from November 2020 to January 2021. Students then reported on their ideas execution six months down the line; successfully completed projects will be included in a publication presented during the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26).

Professor Molthan-Hill has worked with companies from SMEs to large organisations such as the NHS, in how to integrate greenhouse gas management and climate solutions. She has won several awards:

She has also worked twice with Coronation Street, her interview with the producer of Coronation Street about integrating climate solutions into the television sector is included in the Online Microcredential and can be taken by anyone interested in the subject.

Professor Molthan-Hill has widely published about Climate Change Education and ESD, for example summarising the current knowledge and practices in three Handbooks and two Encyclopaedias. She is the editor of ‘The Business Student’s Guide to Sustainable Management’ which offers seminars and other teaching material in how to integrate the Sustainable Development Goals into accounting, marketing, HR and other subjects in management/business studies, but also ideas on how to teach system thinking, corporate peace-making and the crowdsourcing of sustainable solutions. The second edition is part of the PRME book series and published by Routledge.

Career overview

Petra started and led the Green Academy at Nottingham Trent University from 2013-2021 with the aim to include ESD related curricular and extra-curricular initiatives into the whole university. For example the internal online course offered to all 32,000 students at NTU: ‘Sustainability in Practice Certificate’ (Shortlisted Green Gown Award 2014, practical challenge day shortlisted in the Green Gown Awards 2017, now three topics on offer: Food, Energy and Clothing). She co-created NTU’s ‘Future Thinking’ Framework in 2016, which includes reference to the Global Sustainable Development Goals and was rolled out within an institutional Curriculum Refresh.

As NBS Sustainability Coordinator, Petra was responsible for embedding sustainability and business ethics into the curriculum of Nottingham Business School. She was the Academic Lead for PRME in the School, the Chair of the TILT group ‘Education for Sustainable Futures’ and the Lead for the Pedagogical Research of the Responsible and Sustainable Business Lab.

In 2017/2018 Petra undertook research with 'Coronation Street' - a popular television programme in the UK - about their impactful carbon literacy training and co-developed the ‘Carbon Literacy Training for Business Schools’ based on these insights.

In 2016/2017, Petra reconceptualised the Sustainable Development Assessment Tool (SDAT) of NHS England funded by, and accountable to, NHS England and Public Health England to work across the NHS, public health and social care system together with Dr Michael Hewitt from NBS and the Sustainable Development Unit (SDU).

After a ‘Master of Divinity’ (‘Erstes und Zweites Theologisches Examen’) and running a company for four years in Germany, Petra did an MBA at Manchester Business School, UK, from 1999-2001. While doing her PhD at NTU (Scholarship), she was a Visiting Lecturer at Manchester Business School from 2001-2004 teaching an elective in business ethics to MBAs. In 2004, she started as Senior Lecturer at NTU.

Research areas

In her PhD Petra focused on cross-cultural comparisons between managers in the UK and Germany and their sense-making of environmental issues, which led to two journal papers about moral muteness and the framing of the business case in both countries. Since then, Petra’s research focus has shifted to Education for Sustainable Development and more specifically to climate change education and carbon literacy.

External activity

Professor Molthan-Hill is Co-Chair of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) working group on climate change and environment. She is a Principal Fellow of Higher Education Academy (PFHEA), Fellow of the Environmental Association of Universities and Colleges (EAUC) and a member of Business in the Community’s East Midlands Leadership Board. Business in the Community is the oldest and largest business-led membership organisation dedicated to responsible business in the UK.

Professor Molthan-Hill is also an Ambassador for Transparency Task Force. She was in the Advisory Board for the QAA and ADVANCE HE guidance on Education for Sustainable Development.

Sponsors and collaborators

Petra embraces collaboration and works in many international teams. She is also a Mentor to academics from business schools worldwide, who want to embed the SDGs or/and carbon literacy or/and climate change mitigation tools into their curricula. It would be difficult to do justice here to all the inspirational people Petra had the pleasure to work with, but here are a few of the organisations:

  • The Carbon Literacy Project
  • Copenhagen Business School
  • Coronation Street
  • Future Factory project, part funded by the European Regional Development Fund
  • iiE Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire
  • iiE Central
  • MIT Climate Interactive
  • NetPositive Ltd
  • NHS England
  • NHS Scotland
  • Nottingham City Council
  • Nottingham Energy Partnership
  • Oikos International
  • Stifterverband
  • UN PRME
  • Yale University

Press expertise

  • Carbon Literacy
  • Climate Change Education
  • Climate Change Mitigation Tools
  • Climate Solutions
  • Greenhouse Gas Management Student Projects
  • Education for Sustainable Development
  • Sustainable Development Goals