Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (18CG00001)
General information
Type: |
OB |
Curs: |
1 |
Period: |
S semester |
ECTS Credits: |
3 ECTS |
Teaching Staff:
| Group |
Teacher |
Department |
Language |
| |
Ignasi Martí Lanuza |
Ciencias Sociales |
ENG |
COURSE CONTRIBUTION TO PROGRAM
Today, organizations of all kinds are faced with the challenges of sustainability. Firms in particular often find themselves urged on by consumers, regulators, investors, and other stakeholders. These trends toward sustainability present both opportunities and risks for firms. For some, this shift offers real opportunities for new products and services, for reinventing old ones, for solving problems in new ways, and for reaping economic and reputation benefits from pursuing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies. Others, however, face real struggles with far from obvious solutions. At the core of these challenges is the fundamental question of how to reconcile free-market capitalism with the need for more sustainable business practices. Additionally, there are the strategic and tactical questions of how to move along the path towards sustainability. How can we translate these real-world challenges into future business opportunities? How can individuals, organizations, and society learn and undergo change at the pace needed to create a sustainable world?
Course Learning Objectives
The principal goal of this Sustainability and CSR course is to equip you with the concepts, frameworks and tools needed to effectively manage the challenge of sustainability in your future career. Specifically, the course pursues three overarching learning objectives:
1) To develop your systems thinking. We examine the environmental, economic, social, political, and organizational drivers of sustainability and CSR and see how they interact.
2) To assess strategies for sustainable business. We evaluate the business case for sustainability, both in the opportunities it presents and in its uncertainties and limitations. We also explore organizational hurdles to sustainability strategies and ways to overcome them.
3) To equip you with tools and frameworks to meaningfully reflect on your own choices, as a manager and entrepreneur in your future career and as a consumer, on how you want to lead, participate in, contribute to, or possibly resist the changes around sustainability and CSR.
Assessment criteria
Classroom participation: 30%
Individual assignments: 30%
Group assignment/final presentation: 40%
Your active participation in the discussion in class is integral to the design of this course. Class participation counts for 30% of your final grade. We expect you to be fully prepared, and to have read the cases and assigned readings and to fully participate in the discussion. We have designed this class as an integrated whole and expect regular attendance. If you are forced to miss class, please 1) alert the teaching assistant and the program management and 2) write a one-page response to the discussion questions for the day you miss (optional).
Timetable and sections
| Group |
Teacher |
Department |
| |
Ignasi Martí Lanuza |
Ciencias Sociales |
Timetable
From 2019/3/25 to 2019/4/9:
From Monday to Tuesday from 9:30 to 12:30.
From Monday to Tuesday from 14:00 to 17:00. (Except: 2019/3/26 and 2019/4/9)
Tuesday 2019/6/25 from 8:00 to 8:1.
