Sustainable Business
Gain a broad understanding of how corporations and the private sector are contributing to a more sustainable future: explore sustainability theory and best practices; how businesses are managing supply chains to improve efficiency and reduce risk; sustainability accounting and reporting practices; and how businesses are helping design, build, and transition to a circular economy.
Takeaways
- Analyze the costs and benefits of business sustainability choices and how businesses influence change.
- Compare Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainability programs, and design them for employee recruitment and retention, insurance, and risk management.
- Assess markets and demand for “green” goods and sustainable brands as impacted by global trends in demographics.
- Assess and manage supply chain risk, and improve efficiency.
- Analyze how improving resource efficiency and reducing risk scale-up can contribute to more sustainable systems of production and consumption at regional and global scales.
- Explain how governance by disclosure influences businesses, consumers, investors, governments, NGOs, and other stakeholders.
- Apply reporting practices for key sustainability concerns such as greenhouse gas emissions, water, and fair labor.
- Compare and prioritize sustainability accounting, reporting, and compliance platforms and practices in different market sectors and in different countries.
- Defend policy, marketing, and production interventions needed to promote a circular economy.
Courses
Business and corporate sustainability theory and best practices for environmental sustainability professionals. Business motivations for sustainability. Corporate social responsibility and sustainability programs and practices. Markets and demand for green goods and sustainable brands. Global trends in markets and demographics. Supply chain management for climate and other sustainability challenges. Sustainable dimensions of investing, reporting, employee recruitment and retention, insurance, and risk management. Circular economy policy and theory.
What is a circular economy? It is a vision of an economic system that looks beyond the conventional linear model of take–make– waste to a future that is restorative and regenerative of resources. A circular economy requires decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources in order to eliminate waste, improve efficiencies, and reduce risks. In addition, a circular economy seeks to redefine growth by focusing on building natural, social, and economic capital.
This course offers a comprehensive overview of the accounting, evaluation, compliance, and reporting systems and practices needed by sustainability professionals. Topics include: governance by disclosure through accountability and transparency; climate, water, and human rights; labels, certification, standards, and roundtables; reporting for businesses and government organizations; international and sectoral differences in sustainability reporting platforms and practices.
Around the world, individuals and communities are experimenting with satisfying their needs more sustainably across key lifestyle domains, including food, transportation, housing, consumer goods, and leisure. Likewise, businesses are managing their supply chains to improve resource efficiency and reduce risk. How do these individual initiatives and campaigns scale-up and contribute to more sustainable systems of production and consumption at regional and global scales? Who are the key stakeholders, and what are the strategies they are using to achieve sustainable development goals?