You’ve probably heard of Community Service Learning (CSL) at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, but what does it really mean when students explore real social issues as part of their studies? And could that kind of hands-on approach work in your teaching too? In this series, we zoom in on existing CSL examples at VU. Learn more about how CSL works in different fields and how it might fit with the way you teach.
How can we create sustainable change in complex systems, from community gardens and youth organisations to global recycling enterprises? That’s the guiding question behind Management of Sustainable Innovation (MANSI), a course from the School of Business and Economics (SBE) that annually challenges roughly a hundred students to become consultants, researchers, and innovators in real-world sustainability contexts.
Instead of only learning about innovation from theory, students in MANSI step outside the classroom to work directly with societal partners tackling pressing sustainability issues. Using systems thinking and frameworks on shared value and digital sustainability, they analyse complex networks, conduct interviews, and co-design interventions that help organisations move forward.
Tackling real challenges with real partners
Each student team works on a case with a societal partner. Cases range from local community initiatives to international enterprises. Together, they explore what sustainable innovation looks like in practice, and how people, organisations, and communities learn to do things differently.
Designathon Works – Empowering children to design sustainable futures
Students collaborate with this global social enterprise to help make its impact more measurable and scalable. The challenge: how can Designathon Works capture both tangible and intangible outcomes such as creativity, agency, and climate action and use these insights to strengthen and expand its model worldwide?
PreZero & VU Amsterdam – Creating a circular campus culture
PreZero manages all waste on the VU campus, aiming for maximum circularity. Students help the organisation and university build a stronger waste-separation culture by exploring how communication, motivation, and community engagement can turn sustainable behaviour into a shared norm.
Sociaal Cement – Scaling social innovation for inclusion
This Amsterdam-based youth organisation empowers young people who face social or educational barriers. The students will investigate how Sociaal Cement can strategically scale its programmes to new schools and municipalities while also preserving quality and community spirit and reaching more youth across the city.
Stadstuinderij NoordOogst – Measuring community impact
At this urban farming collective, students explore how to measure and communicate the garden’s social, ecological, and educational impact. From biodiversity monitoring to participatory storytelling, they help NoordOogst make its value visible to municipalities and funders.
Closing the Loop – Designing credible systems for waste compensation
Students partner with this social enterprise to help build trust and governance around a new “waste compensation” model. By comparing it to carbon offsetting, they explore how to make waste compensation transparent, verifiable, and scalable so that sustainability claims truly hold up.
Learning to navigate complexity
Through these partnerships, students experience that sustainable innovation is not just about technology or efficiency. It’s about collaboration, systems thinking, and understanding human behaviour. They learn to navigate uncertainty, work across boundaries, and translate complex sustainability goals into practical action.
MANSI truly embodies the spirit of Community Service Learning: connecting academic insight with societal needs, and empowering students to become professionals who don’t just analyse change, they help them take the first step.
