Nottingham Trent University
Forest Futures. COILPlus Consultancy for Sustainable Leisure at Center Parcs Sherwood Forest
Finalist, Next Generation Learning and Skills
About
Forest Futures is an international, client-led COIL+ consultancy project embedded in postgraduate business education at Nottingham Business School. Students from MSc International Business and MSc Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship worked with an interdisciplinary University of Brescia (IT) cohort over three online weeks and one intensive week at Center Parcs Sherwood Forest. In mixed teams, students addressed two live challenges set by Center Parcs UK and Ireland, namely creating sustainable new revenue streams and strengthening the park’s leadership in immersive tourism sustainability. Working with the Park General Director, Head of Sustainability and Head of Operations, students produced evidence-informed proposals on sustainable mobility, circular forest-to-lodge systems, a QR-enabled working prototype of a Carbon Smart Stay app, refill/reward journeys and wellness/family experiences. The project moved sustainability learning beyond classroom discussion into applied, intercultural and commercially realistic problem-solving. It developed students’ future-facing sustainability skills: systems thinking, consultancy judgement, client communication, intercultural collaboration, responsible innovation and the ability to design solutions that are environmentally responsible, operationally feasible and commercially credible.
Top 3 learnings
1. Students need real clients to treat sustainability as consequential.
2. Intercultural, interdisciplinary teams create richer and more context-sensitive sustainability solutions.
3. Sustainability education is stronger when students test ideas against real commercial constraints.
SDGs
4. Quality education
| 2026 | |
| Next Generation Learning and Skills | |
| Finalist, UK and Ireland |
More from the 2026 awards
Charles Sturt University
Restoring Nature, Inspiring Futures: 20+ Years of Biodiversity Leadership
Read More
Finalist, Nature Positive
Green Gown Award Regions
Australasia
