B&E: Global Environmental Challenges and the Business Response (BBA40004)

General information

Type:	OP	Curs:	3	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	3 ECTS

Teaching Staff:

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
	Rafael Sardá Borroy	Operaciones, Innovación y Data Sciences	ENG

The course has been designed to provide skills and competences for future leaders to address the necessities of today's business in balancing economic development with environmental protection, a priority for mankind and, decoupling economic growth from environmental impact, its mandatory requirement. The course does not need a previous basic knowledge rather than the previous general courses of the program.

No previous knowledge rather than the normal management degree courses are required.

Lectures and work in class 30 hours
Autonomous and Group work 40 hours

The course contributed to the student's education by:
a) introducing the students into the Corporate Sustainability concept of the 21st Century,
b) framing the development of a new language in business linked to the environmental variable and the used business tools
c) showing students to address major global environmental challenges,
c) developing sustainable and responsable social-ecological values in your career formation,
e) promoting team work.

In our globalization era, to balance economic development and social prosperity with environmental protection is a priority and, decoupling economic growth from environmental impact its mandatory requirement. Sustainable Development in the recent social-ecological paradigm has made its way from the public and political agendas to the business agenda. Today, environmental challenges such as climate change, water shortages, the biodiversity crisis,... are pressuring us for action and demand business to respond. This course introduces and applies the idea of a new Corporate Sustainability concept for the 21st Century where firms can create Sustainable Value using different strategical options companies may have. We will illustrate how companies engage in Corporate Sustainability and how they can create sustainable added value.

Transferring new concepts and jargon into the above perspective, the course evolves on two conceptual frameworks. The course redefines a set of corporate sustainable strategies that companies can develop to manage environmental issues in practice and create sustainable added value. On the other side, the course acknowledges the notion of corporate extended responsibilities and the transformation of organizational and operational boundaries framing four basic approaches that can guide managers in rethinking the corporate value change: increasing the eco-efficiency of productive units; making supply chains more sustainable; designing new sustainable product and services and; moving into sustainable business models and collaborative schemes.

Corporate sustainability becomes a key factor in the top agenda of business leaders and multinational companies. Sustainability is having -and will continue to have- a material impact on how companies think and act. The evidence grows stronger every day. In a recent report 93% of 766 CEO's from more than 100 countries believe that Sustainability issues will be critical to the future success of their business. Many of them state that how they respond to the challenge of sustainability will profoundly affect the competitiveness, and perhaps even the survival, of their organizations. Sustainability can be considered a new business megatrend; global corporations develop sustainability strategies, redefine operations, processes and products, develop new ways of environmental reporting and appoint chief sustainability executives who promote sustainability as part of their core mission. Nevertheless, the present pace of change is still not addressing enough the intensifying global challenges, a transformational change is required and only the seeds of this new approach are starting to be seen today. Companies should go ahead, but ¿how we can approach this need?

COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES
The main aim of this course is to provide students with up-to-date knowledge, skills and capabilities to understand the new concept of Corporate Sustainbaility in a world in wiich humanity is facing huge Global Environmental Challenges. The course will show how Business are strategically responding these days creating sustainable value. Different specific objetives woudl be address:
a) facilitating knowledge development in a topic which is becoming highly strategicaltly today for firms, the interdependence between business and the environment and the development of the Corporate Sustainability concept of the 21st Century.
b) framing the development of a new language in business linked to the environmental variable,
c) knowing how firms are creating these days sustainable value by playing with two conceptual frameworks,
c) developing responsable social-ecological values in your career formation

1. SESSION 1: FROM GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES TO CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY. 1.1.- Welcome to the Anthropocene 1.2.- The Social-ecological Paradigm 1.3.- Natural Capital and the Ecological Footprint 1.4.- Corporate Sustainability: the evolution of the concept 1.5.- The Business IN Nature concept

2. SESSION 2: THE BUSINESS CASE FOR SUSTAINABILITY: HOW TO CREATE SUSTAINABLE VALUE 2.1.- Why companies engage? External and internal drivers. 2.2.- The Business Case for Sustainability and the concept of Sustainable Value 2.3.- Corporate Sustainability Strategies: a conceptual framework 2.4.- Broadening the boundaries of the company 2.5.- Rethinking the Corporate Value Chain: a conceptual framework Case Study: Kimpton Hotels

3. SESSION 3.- CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE BUSINESS RESPONSE 3.1.- Climate Change: the issue 3.2.- The Paris agreement and its implications 3.3.- Mitigation adn Adaptation Strategies 3.4.- Business exposures to Climate Change 3.5.- The Carbon Footprint

4. SESSION 4.- MANAGING ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS 4.1.- The Safe Strategy 4.2.- The Risk Analysis framework for Business. 4.3.- Environmental and Risk Management Systems. 4.4.- Costs of poor environmental risk managerial performance. Case Studies: Chevron Corporation and BP

5. SESSION 5: FROM EFFICIENCY TO EFFECTIVENESS: CLEAN-TECH INNOVATION 5.1.- The Efficient Strategy 5.2.- Eco-efficiency and the creation of Sustainable Value 5.3.- Preventimg Pollution and Clean Tech Innovation 5.4.- Corporate Reporting Case study. TOTAL-CCS

6. SESSION 6: GREENING THE SUPPLY CHAIN 6.1.- The Credible Strategy 6.2.- Green Supply Chain in Sustainable Operation Management. 6.2.- Interdependences with Ecosystem Services. 6.3.- Green Clubs. Case studies: IKEA and UNILEVER

7. SESSION 7: DESIGNING SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES 7.1.- The Innovative Strategy 7.2.- Designing Sustainbale Products and Services. 7.3.- Sustainability as the key driver of Innovation. 7.4.- Green products and its associated tools: the role of Eco-labelling Case study: PATAGONIA

8. SESSION 8: SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODELS 8.1.- The Transformational Strategy 8.2.- Radical Innovation and the transformational approach. 8.3.- Sustainable Business Models Case study: BETTER PLACE-TESLA

9. SESSION 9: GUIDELINESS FOR COMPANY ENGAGEMENT 9.1.- The creation of Sustainable Value by firms. 9.2.- Implementing an Environmentally Sustainable Strategy 9.4.- Business IN Nature Case studies: examples

10. SESSION 10.- GROUP PRESENTATIONS 10.1.- Group presentations 10.2.- Coclusions

The Global Environmental Challenges and the Business Response course is comprised of ten teaching sessions that prepare participants to address the most critical issues in the relationship between business and the environment. These sessions will drive through the competitive aspects of the corporate response to the green variable of sustainability as a response to the global environmental challenges. The course follows a Routledge textbook already in development ("Corporate Sustainability in the 21st Century: increasing the resilience of social and ecologicals sytems", Sardá R., Pogutz, S. & K. Ramakrishna)

The course consists of a combination of interactive lectures, case discussions and other materials. You are asked to read the material prepared for every class before attending (reading material and case studies); reflect on these readings and proactively look for additional material. During each session, the case studies and lectures will serve as the basis for the discussion of the main topics outlined in the files handout each week. In addition, for some of the case studies, students will be asked to develop a small (less than a page) essays that will respond assigned questions. A final individual essay will be asked at the end of the course for its conclusion.

Different lectures and case studies will be introduced during the course.

Group	Teacher	Department
	Rafael Sardá Borroy	Operaciones, Innovación y Data Sciences