Blue Economy (2235.YR.014750.1)

General information

Type:	OPT	Curs:	1	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	3 ECTS

Teaching Staff:

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Year 1	Rafael Sardá Borroy	Operaciones, Innovación y Data Sciences	ENG

The course has been designed to provide skills and competencies for future leaders to address the necessities of the traditional global ocean economy in the move to the Blue Economy. 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 is required.

The course contributed to the student's education by:
1. Introducing the students to the Corporate Sustainability concept of the 21st Century
2. Developing sustainable and responsible social-ecological values in your career formation
3. Raising innovative aspects in Business
4. Effective teamwork

Course Overview

Oceans are our planet's largest life support system. About 70% of the planet's surface is covered by water, and 97% of this water is found in the oceans. In addition, ocean currents govern the world's weather and its dependent biomes. The air we breathe, the water we drink, and even some of the food we eat come directly from the ocean. We are highly dependent on this life support system and we need to take care of it. The future health of human populations depends on the Ocean's healthy state; however, the demand for ocean resources will grow, and as land-based sources decline, so expectations for the ocean as an engine of human development for food, materials, and space will increase. Preserving the health of marine and coastal ecosystems is paramount because of the many irreplaceable benefits they provide.

The Traditional Global Ocean Economy, measured in terms of the contribution of its sectors into economic output and employment is significant. The value of the Global Ocean Economy in 2017 (the year for which we have a complete set of comparable data) was around $2.6 trillion calculated in gross value added, or approximately 3.3% of the world gross domestic product (GDP), making the ocean the world's seventh-largest economy. It generated estimated annual revenues of $5.2 trillion and employment for 168 million people. However, most of the activities behind this Traditional Global Ocean Economy are threatened by a myriad of human direct and indirect pressures that put in danger the functional resilience of the entire Ocean and its associated earth components and indirectly most of the activities carried out on it.

We need to radically diminish these pressures to have clean waters, rebuild marine life, and provide the long-term conditions for resilient and functional oceans. To achieve this, we need to undertake significant changes in policies, institutions, and practices that are not currently underway. Our aspirational goal is to move the Traditional Global Ocean Economy into a Blue Economy "A sustainable ocean economy (the so-called ?blue economy') will only emerge when economic activity is in line with ocean ecosystems' long-term capacity to support this activity and remain resilient and healthy?. In this way, business need also to be transformed and new business models developed accordingly.

The present decade must be a period of radical transformation because what we do now will be crucial for the future of the oceans' health. It will also be crucial for the future of our planet. We believe this course is essential because it introduces what needs to be done, what type of business transformation, and new practices we need to create to maintain our livelihoods and wellbeing in our relationship with the Ocean. The course is in line with the new Sustainability Plan of ESADE, it follows the present tendencies seen for new Corporate Sustainability frameworks and can be a contribution to the desired Sustainable Development.

Learning Outcomes

Different specific objectives would be:
1. To describe the Blue Economy concept and its relation with Sustainable Development
2. To frame the development of a new language in a business linked to the environmental variable and the used business tools
3. To recognize the importance of sustainably managing the marine resources
4. To present a sectorial assessment of Ocean sectors, their economic outputs, and the business risks and opportunities
5. To understand the need for change and to identify business opportunities
6. To facilitate the movement of the industries (leadership, change strategies, alliances?)
7. To design new ways in which entrepreneurs can create innovative business opportunities

1. Session 1. Towards the Blue Economy 1.1.- Welcome to the Anthropocene 1.2.- Blue Economy: the concept 1.3.- Social-Ecological Systems: an accounting framework 1.4.- Corporate Sustainability 3.0 and the ¿Business In Nature¿ concept

2. Session 2.- The Traditional use of the Oceans and the Blue Acceleration .1.- Blue Economy; frame of reference. The reason why 2.2.- Components of the Blue Economy 2.3.- Triggers & Barriers- challenges of blue economy

3. Session 3.- The Sustainable Management of Marine Resources 2.1.- The Oceans: frames of reference 2.2.- The SDGs and SGD14 ¿Life below water¿ 2.3.- Planetary Boundaries and the Oceans 2.4.- Regulatory aspects: The Good Environmental Status concept 2.5.- Sustainable Management of Marine Resources: what it means,

4. Session 4.- A Gobal Strategy for the Oceans 4.1.- Governance for the Planet; a life dignity for all 4.2.- The Governance of the Oceans: UN Convention on the Law of Sea 4.3.- An Ocean agenda 4.4.- Global Strategy: creating the conditions for a sustainable blue economy

5. Session 5.- Business for Ocean Sustainability 5.1.- A DPSWR Assessment for the Blue Economy 5.2.- Awareness vs. Activation 5.3.- Rethinking the Value Chain 5.4.- The Ocean Disclosure Initiative

6. Session 6.- New Industries and new Business Models for the Blue Economy 6.1.- Marine Natural Capital & ecosystem services 6.2.- Technology meets sustainability - Blue Tech time 6.3.- New industries built on sustainability- changing paradigm 6.4.- Case study: startups to follow (KB)

7. Session 7.- Impact Investment for the Oceans 7.1.- Impact investment: definition & comparison with other investments 7.2.- Investment process 7.3.- Theory of change & impact monitoring 7.4.- Financing instruments for Impact Investment 7.5- The exit strategy 7.6- Conversation with Impact Investment fund -Ship2b Ventures

8. Session 8.- Entrepreneurship in the Blue Economy 8.1.- The Ecosystem: Investors, Venture builders, Accelerators, Incubators 8.2.- Startups to follow ¿ nature-based solution in motion 8.3.- Case study: Ocean Ecostructures

9. Session 9.- Group project presentations and conclusions

The course consists of a combination of interactive lectures, case discussions, and other materials. Invited speakers from different organizations will be also lecturing in class. 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. The course follows also a recent Routledge book (Taylor & Francis Publ.) "Corporate Sustainability in the 21st Century: increasing the resilience of social-ecological systems" (Sardá & Pogutz, 2019). You will have a copy of this book in the course. In this book, we are introducing and discussing a new conceptual framework for Corporate Sustainability "Business In Nature, a concept that should guide the business and, of course, the business of the Blue Economy, towards having a positive impact on the economy and society and to increase the resilience of social-ecological systems and of organizations.

We believe that the Blue Economy is one of the highest challenges we have for the future. There is a challenge to make human activities compatible with sustainable development; in this challenge, the Oceans have been largely hidden when they are basically the engine that moves all Earth System Processes. It is time to redress the dangerous tendency of degradation around it and we believe that now, we can contribute to it.

Different lectures and case studies will be introduced during the course, as well as conversations with leading managers
Some general info can be obtained in:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/esade/2021/04/15/planet-ocean-why-is-the-blue-economy-so-important/
https://www.1ocean.org/business_for_ocean_sustainability_second_edition/

Group	Teacher	Department
Year 1	Rafael Sardá Borroy	Operaciones, Innovación y Data Sciences