SHEB503 Sustainable Development and the Greening of Business
Annotation:
What are the fundamental issues of sustainable development? What are the main challenges facing human society and the environment during the next 50 years? The term sustainability is now widely used by policy makers and business people but what does it mean? This course explores the different dimensions of sustainable development and addresses new options for a sustainable future for society and companies. We will see that sustainable development is a key driver of innovation, a major opportunity and a competitive advantage for business.
This unit aims to:
• Examine the different aspects of sustainable development
• Develop the practice of sustainable development by examining a variety of case studies from sustainable companies
• Focus on the prospects for the emergence of a sustainable society, circular economy and “greener” companies
• Encourage multi dimensional and multidisciplinary thinking
Lecturers:
Agnes Brunet
Asst. Prof. Radosveta Krestanova, PhD
Prof. Dimiter Nikolov, PhD
Course Description:
Competencies:
Students who complete this course:
1) will be able to:
• Identify the complex and multiple dimension of sustainable development
• Recognize sustainable strategies and policies
• Evaluate and justify assumptions about the sustainability of products and companies
• Recognize the importance of sustainable development in terms of professional concerns
• Write an properly structured paper
• Present orally a specific topic
Prerequisites:
Students are required to have the following knowledge and/or skills:
• No preliminary requirements
Types:
Full-time Programmes
Types of Courses:
Lecture
Language of teaching:
English
Topics:
- Why sustainable development? Tutorial 1: Presentation of the oral presentation
- What is sustainable development? Tutorial 2: Presentation of the project
- Playing our part: sustainable consumption
- An Energy Revolution Sustainability Reports and Groups
- A Circular Economy
- How to measure sustainability? (workshop)
- The business logic for sustainability Oral Presentations
- Creating an eco-advantage? The Interface case (case study) Oral Presentations
- Global Environmental Policy The COP21 and its outcomes
- Global Environmental Policy The COP21 and its outcomes
Bibliography:
• Brown, L. (2011) World on the Edge, Earth Policy Institute (LB)
• Theis, T. and Tomkin, J. (eds) (2012) Sustainability : A Comprehensive Foundation, Rice University, Houston, Texas (TT)
• The WorldWatch Institute (2012) State of the World 2012 : Moving Towards Sustainable Prosperity, Island Press (WW)
• All are available online for free