Sustainable Management

Although many companies nowadays report on their sustainability actions, only few successfully integrate sustainability into their business operations. In this seminar, we will cover three main questions that will help you to critically analyze and develop strategies for sustainable business:

1. What is sustainability in business?

2. How do I design a sustainability strategy?

3. How do I implement a sustainability strategy

Examples of the content include a critique of typical sustainability statements of firms, an analysis of IKEA’s sustainability activities, group exercises on sustainable product design, and an interactive case study on the sustainability of Coop.

Relevant materials will be distributed in class.

In this course, students will learn about key concepts in sustainable management and about methods and tools to implement the concepts in the real world. The lecture aims at enabling students to become champions for sustainable business practices in their later careers.

After the course, students should therefore be able to:

1. Understand and explain sustainability challenges companies are facing;

2. Critique sustainability and related strategies;

3. Evaluate decisions taken by managers;

4. Suggest alternative approaches;

5. Develop action plans;

6. Reflect on strategies for sustainability in organizations they work for in the future.

In presence

Traditional format of the course: Lectures introduce key concepts, before they are complemented with discussion of “Harvard-style business cases” that students have to prepare at home. As such, the course will be highly interactive.

Written exam, 60 min, closed book rule.