We are proud to share that two project management business cases authored by CBISS members have been published by SAGE Publications as part of the internationally recognised SAGE Business Cases collection.

These cases go beyond documenting student projects — they demonstrate how structured project management can drive meaningful sustainability outcomes in real-world settings.

We are especially pleased to recognise Aartee Geshwaree Huzooree and Melina Doargajudhur, CBISS members and co-authors of these publications, whose work reflects the Centre’s commitment to impactful, practice-oriented research and responsible management education.

Why This Matters Beyond Academia

Although developed for teaching purposes, these cases are highly relevant to industry, public sector organisations, and sustainability leaders.

Both cases focus on sustainability initiatives aligned with Scotland’s Net Zero ambitions and explore:

• Stakeholder engagement across multiple interest groups

• Budget constraints and risk management

• Communication strategy and awareness-building

• Planning and execution under time pressure

• Measuring impact and evaluating project outcomes

These are not abstract theoretical discussions. They mirror the real challenges organisations face when navigating ESG targets, climate commitments, governance pressures, and organisational change.

For industry leaders and project professionals, these cases offer:

• Insight into how emerging professionals approach sustainability challenges

• Practical examples of applying project management frameworks to environmental initiatives

• Lessons in cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder alignment

• A clear reminder that successful sustainability transformation requires structured delivery — not just ambition

In many organisations, sustainability goals falter not because of lack of intent, but because of weak execution frameworks. These cases illustrate how disciplined project governance, risk management, and stakeholder coordination can bridge the gap between strategic commitment and measurable impact.

The Prestige of SAGE Business Cases

Publication within SAGE Publications signals academic rigour, global visibility, and strong pedagogical value. SAGE Business Cases are widely adopted by universities and business schools internationally, providing classroom-ready materials grounded in real-world complexity.

By featuring within this collection, these cases will support teaching, executive education, and professional development across global institutions.

This milestone strengthens CBISS’s international research footprint and reinforces our contribution to responsible management education and sustainability leadership.

What These Cases Tell Us About the Future of Project Management

At CBISS, we see these publications as part of a broader conversation about the evolving role of project management in society.

Three key reflections emerge:

1. Sustainability is now a core project competency.
Project managers increasingly operate in environments shaped by ESG reporting, carbon reduction targets, regulatory scrutiny, and stakeholder accountability.

2. Experiential learning builds industry-ready capability.
Real-world sustainability challenges provide deeper learning than purely theoretical instruction, strengthening analytical, leadership, and problem-solving skills.

3. Collaboration drives transformation.
Whether in universities or corporations, sustainability outcomes depend on coordinated action across diverse stakeholders, departments, and external partners.

For organisations, these cases can serve as valuable discussion tools for leadership development programmes, sustainability workshops, PMO reflection sessions, and strategy alignment exercises. They provide structured scenarios that encourage teams to critically examine execution risks, governance mechanisms, communication strategies, and impact measurement approaches.

From Research to Real-World Impact

These publications reinforce CBISS’s role as a hub for research at the intersection of:

• Business

• Innovation

• Sustainability

• Project leadership

We invite industry partners, practitioners, and researchers to connect with CBISS, explore collaboration opportunities, and engage with our growing portfolio of sustainability-focused scholarship.

By bridging academic insight and practical delivery, we continue working toward more sustainable societies — not only through ideas, but through structured, accountable action.

Business case: Scotland Net Zero Target Awareness Campaign

Business case: Project Management for a Greener Tomorrow: The Journey Toward Net Zero

Centre for Business Innovations and Sustainable Solutions (CBISS)  is delighted to highlight a significant research achievement by CBISS member, Mahinda Yapa Mudiyanselage and Onoh Nkiruka Patricia whose latest work has been published in Sage Business Cases—a globally respected platform used by universities and business schools worldwide.

The case, The Edinburgh Tram Megaproject: Challenges of Delivering Sustainable Urban Infrastructure, examines one of the UK’s most high-profile infrastructure projects and offers rich insights into the real-world challenges of delivering sustainability in complex, large-scale developments.

About the Case

The Edinburgh Tram Project was launched as a flagship sustainable transport initiative, intended to reduce car dependency, lower emissions, and support long-term urban development. However, despite these ambitions, the project experienced substantial delays, cost overruns, and governance challenges before eventually becoming operational.

This case takes students and practitioners inside those challenges. Rather than focusing only on financial performance, it explores how project delays affected the three pillars of sustainability:

• Environmental – increased congestion, emissions, and pollution during prolonged construction

• Social – disruption to daily life, reduced transport access, impacts on health and local businesses

• Economic and governance – cost escalation, public trust, accountability, and reputational damage

By doing so, the case moves beyond traditional project management narratives and reframes “delay” as a sustainability issue, not just a scheduling or budgeting problem.

Why This Case Matters

What makes this Sage Business Case particularly impactful is its emphasis on governance, risk management, and stakeholder engagement in megaprojects. Drawing on empirical evidence and professional perspectives, the case highlights how weaknesses in decision-making structures, communication, and risk identification can magnify social and environmental harm—even in projects designed to be sustainable.

For students, the case develops critical skills in:

• evaluating trade-offs between cost, time, and sustainability,

• analysing infrastructure projects through an ESG lens,

• understanding how public trust and legitimacy are shaped by project outcomes.

For practitioners and policymakers, it offers timely lessons on how large infrastructure investments can better align ambition with delivery.

The CBISS Contribution

This publication reflects CBISS’s commitment to applied, interdisciplinary research that speaks directly to real-world challenges. By contributing to Sage Business Cases, Mahinda Yapa Mudiyanselage has helped ensure that CBISS research reaches classrooms, executives, planners, and future decision-makers across the globe.

It also reinforces CBISS’s role in advancing scholarship that connects:

• infrastructure and sustainability,

• management and governance,

• policy, practice, and societal impact.

This is not a course about football as most people think about the sport. We don’t discuss tactics or matches but view football clubs as complex businesses. Players are seen as employees but also as assets. Player contracts are amortised over time but the person may be a cultural architect or assassin. Most fans are customers but not all are. Not all customers are fans as the products on offer vary from match attendance, club TV packages, event space in stadiums as well as players sold to competitor clubs.

Confused? That’s a perfectly healthy place to start as in this programme. You need to be ready to challenge everything that you thought you knew about football.

The step into a management role is difficult in most industries as your technical expertise may help you solve some problems but not many. You move from a large independent role into an interdependent one, where your ability to build a network is crucial for your survival. You tend not to make that difficult transition in public but you do in football. Relatively few new managers survive a full season in their first job and half of those leave the game completely afterwards.

Scottish football has a long tradition of producing skilled technical coaches but this course focuses on the challenges of managing part of a complex organisation. It has been said that playing football is relatively simple. Players focus on their own game and they are given the information they need for the next challenge. Overnight, a person can go from making sure that they turn up at the right place at the right time to being responsible for 20-25 people turning up at the right place and time. In some cases, dealing with those who do not arrive as scheduled. If you take on management or coaching responsibilities at the same club where you played, you leave the safety of the players’ WhatsApp group. Those who were friends are now your players who you may need to leave out of the team. You are now required to deal with the players, coaches, other staff and the businesspeople at the club. Very quickly new managers realise that there is a gap between responsibility and authority. You do not only have to manage a team of players but learn to manage ‘up’ and ‘across’ within the organisation. Within a small part-time club, you may have a much broader range of responsibilities that at one of the high-profile clubs.

Dr Stevie Robertson is the architect of the programme and draws on a unique set of experiences as leader in IT projects, long-time involvement in Edinburgh Napier University football club across a range of roles and his doctoral research into the business strategies with Scottish football. Stevie has a wide range of teaching experience, including commercial workshops, to draw on. The course was originally designed to be face to face but quickly moved to a virtual delivery during Covid. The decision was been taken to keep the virtual sessions as it makes it possible to recruit players across the country. It also allows players to take part when playing for their national team.

The course is funded by the players’ union in Scotland (PFA Scotland) and Scottish Union Learning so attendance is restricted to their members. The course runs from August to March (30 weekly sessions) and numbers are restricted to a maximum of 15 to encourage discussion. The academic content is used as a discussion focus to allow the participants to share their own ideas and experiences.

Participants are drawn from all 4 professional men’s leagues and the top division in the women’s game. Without name-dropping, many of the participants are household names. The women who have taken part have played around 250 matches (and counting) for Scotland between them and all have played in the Champions League. Many of the men who have participated

have played international football, including at the World Cup, have captained teams in national Cup Finals, some have scored winning goals in those finals. Many have played in England while others have experiences in other countries. Players have won leagues, been relegated and others have experienced clubs in administration. While those stories and experiences remain in the rooms where they were shared, they do broaden the knowledge of others especially the delivery team.

Stevie is able to use his broad business knowledge to facilitate on most of the sessions but the experience of James MacDougal makes the session on Football and the Law makes for an excellent session. We also make use of the experience of Luke Shanley from Sky Sports to explore the role of the media. It is one of the most enjoyable sessions and easily the longest. All students are required to formally present solutions to problems using theory as a base. Many have found this beneficial. Where possible, this is done in person in the Board Room at Craiglockhart.

The benefits of participation within the course can be seen in the number of participants who are moving successfully from playing to post-playing roles. There are several participants in Manager and Assistant Manager roles in full-time clubs. Others are continuing to develop their leadership skills in elite academies across Scotland. Some of those involved have moved into roles outside of football as the course is designed to help those who are looking to move away from careers with a little more security. An informal mentoring network has grown over the years, and this allows us to gauge impact of the sessions as well as develop the material for the future.

When you ask Stevie if this works, his reply tends to be “That’s not for me to say. When I go to a Scottish Cup Final and I’ve worked with both managers, then I’ll know it’s worked.”

The programme is being shortlisted for the Herald Higher Education Awards for outstanding business engagement in universities! The Herald Scotland Higher Education Awards is a prestigious annual event that celebrates excellence and innovation in higher education throughout Scotland. It provides a platform to acknowledge exceptional achievements, contributions, and initiatives within the academic community.