Programme of Study Catalogue

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
Understand the business case for sustainability;
Analyse the environmental, social and economic strategies in corporate sustainability;
Assess the problems in measuring corporate environmental, social and economic impacts and performance;
Select and evaluate appropriate tools of corporate sustainability in benchmarking and advancing the business case for sustainability;
Identify and critically evaluate appropriate choices of corporate sustainability practice for a chosen business or organisation.

Content:

The business case for sustainability: key principles of sustainability; strategic frameworks for implementing corporate sustainability; environmental compliance.
Measuring environmental, social and economic impacts and performance: market and non-market impacts; key performance indicators.
Corporate sustainability tools: environmental auditing including EMAS, ISO1400 certification and carbon footprinting; social and environmental risk assessment; product life-cycle analysis; eco-labelling and sustainable branding.
External sustainability reporting and verification: sustainable business scenarios and cases.

Learning and Teaching Information:

The sessions will be organised in mainly 3-hour teaching blocks. Lectures will deliver core strategic frameworks followed by workshops to demonstrate best practice in corporate sustainability and offer guidance in the selection of appropriate sustainability tools and metrics.
A key focus will be on problem solving using exercises and activities linked to sustainable business issues and case studies. Formal assessment will evaluate research skills and critical thinking in response to a seen case study based on a sustainable business scenario. Students will be expected to present their findings and analysis as an independent report in the format of a 'Briefing Note'.

Lectures
Contact hours: 5
Intended Group size: 1

Workshops
Contact hours: 20
Intended group size: 1

Guided independent study
Hours: 175

Assessment:

001 Student Negotiated Assessment - Equvalent of 4,000 words - end of module 100%

Fact File

Module Coordinator - Anthony Brown
Level - 6
Credit Value - 20
Pre-Requisites - NONE
Semester(s) Offered - 6S2