Sustainability Lens Game author and CEO, Dr. Tamara Stenn
The Sustainability Lens started as a practical framework in Social Entrepreneurship as Sustainable Development (Stenn, 2017): a set of mindsets that helps people spot more options, reduce risk, and build resilience—whether you’re launching, scaling, or pivoting.
The Profitable Good; A Bold Playbook for Sustainable Business Growth (Stenn, 2026) is the academic engine behind the Sustainability Lens Game. Built for a 14-week semester, it gives instructors a complete, ready-to-teach curriculum—activities, discussions, quizzes, and assessments—that takes students from ideas to a real, workable enterprise in one term.
The Sustainability Lens draws on four proven traditions
-
Suma Qamaña (Buen Vivir)
-
Circles of Sustainability
-
Permaculture
-
Solidarity Economy
The Sustainability Lens Games and curricula were created by Dr. Tamara Stenn, Professor of Entrepreneurship at Suffolk University’s Sawyer Business School, shaped by years of research, practice, and continuous play-testing with students and practitioners. It is based on over 40 published peer-reviewed articles, chapters, and books, scores of presentations, US Fulbright research, 30 years of academic classroom teaching, and 20 years of practitioner work as the CEO and founder of enterprises that were: Fair Trade, B-Corps, USDA organic, NGOs, and cooperatives.
Sustainability Sam: EdTech in Action
Sustainability Sam is the secret sauce that makes the Sustainability Lens Game feel like real learning, not just play—it's a customer AI bot that keeps teams focused, sparks sharper ideas, and helps turn sustainability concepts into clear, business-ready actions in the moment.
​
It’s built on a deeply academic foundation: Sam’s prompts and facilitation flow are informed by Dr. Tamara Stenn’s research, peer-reviewed scholarship, carefully selected books, and practitioner-grade industry examples—so every nudge is designed to support better thinking, better discussion, and better decisions (without taking control away from the players).
Why analog (tabletop) games matter
Analog games are increasingly recognized in higher education because they create active, social, low-tech learning environments that reliably support knowledge gains and “power skills” like collaboration, communication, and problem-solving.
A systematic review of analog game-based learning found broad evidence of benefits across knowledge, cognitive, and psychological outcomes, plus engagement and creativity.
Research focused specifically on higher education reports that analog board games can improve academic performance, deepen content knowledge, and simulate real-world application—all while strengthening teamwork skills.
Importantly for sustainability education, analog play supports the kinds of values-to-action shifts that are hard to achieve through lecture alone—because learners must negotiate tradeoffs, test decisions, and justify choices with peers in real time.