Course Description
Strategic sustainability advances students’ managerial skills for identifying, researching, evaluating and communicating innovative opportunities involving the efficient and effective integration of financial, environmental and social resources in management.
Building on our commitment to the United Nation’s Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), and Global Compact, this course experience serves as a foundation for strategic sustainability, models and tools across the curriculum.
Students work individually, and in teams to frame problems, research and develop training seminars, and manage resources for assigned topics. The focus is inspiring innovation, and creating competitive advantage – both short and long term – for organizations. Deliverables include presentations of mini training seminars to peers, energy management system design competition, enterprise strategic sustainability assessment, along with participation in case analysis, and class discussions while applying critical thinking to identify productivity gains, cost savings, revenue increases, and profit growth when implementing sustainable business practices.
The course is taught as a seminar where sharing learning, best practices and sustainability knowledge across teams and individuals enables all to gain insight to emerging issues beyond the scope of a single entity. Students work within an integrated curriculum to analyze internal/external situations, drivers and risks; to identify problems and opportunities; to evaluate return on investment from alternative courses of action; and to value both short- and long-term prosperity. Students independently learn about, apply, and reflect on proven models and methodologies while honing their skills as a researcher, analyst, writer, and speaker.