Block Seminar: Sustainability in the 21st Century: Rethinking the Corporate Value Chain (2235.YR.000705.1)

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

Studying environmental issues applied to companies' perspective constitute a good way to develop business analytic skills in a historical momentum in which those issues are becoming more and more important for human societies. Basic knowledge of introduction to business should be 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

Corporate sustainability needs a rethink. We have entered the human-influenced Anthropocene age, and we are witnessing accelerating changes in earth system processes. Businesses' current initiatives, such as product innovation and pollution reduction, are not enough to combat the intensifying social-ecological challenges that face us.

The "Sustainability in the 21st Century: rethinking the Corporate Value Chain? Seminar is thought to introduce students to the new sustainability concepts of the 21st Century. The course is intended to change the way in which future managers may see Corporate Sustainability in practice. Corporate Sustainability has been typically defined by the concept of the triple bottom line (profit, people, and planet) rose to measure the financial, social, and environmental performance of the corporation over a period of time. Nevertheless, today we are facing a set of evidence; planetary boundaries, the great acceleration, regimen shifts, crossing tipping points, social-ecological systemic crisis? that evidence the reality that we also need to accelerate the response to these challenges, a deep change in our way to produce and to consume need to be immediately developed.

The "Sustainability in the 21st Century: rethinking the Corporate Value Chain? Seminar wants to pass the message that we have tremendous problems in front of us but these problems opens also enormous opportunities for business, and as Yvo de Boer pointed out when he resigned as Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC after the Climate COP Conference in Copenhaguen, a business should come up with the solutions for those problems. Some of these problems created the greatest market failures and correcting these failures will consequently produce substantial risks and opportunities for corporations worldwide being, at the same time, the only way to proceed.

The main learning objectives are:
* Understanding Corporate Sustainability and the concept of "Business in Nature? with the complexity of the sustainability challenges
* Understanding the main implications for business strategy
* Understanding the risks/opportunities related to sustainability management along the value chain
* Acquire basic knowledge of the main tools to manage environmental and sustainability issues
* Providing exposure to practical cases and presentations by leading companies and NGOs in this area

During the Block Seminar and after, you will have the possibility to use a book we wrote two years ago "Corporate Sustainability in the 21st Century: increasing the resilience to social-ecological systems? (Sardá & Pogutz, 2019) Routledge-Taylor & Francis. you will find a link to the e-book at the beginning of the Moodle. You can use the book in digital format for one year and to download freely some of its pages; to do this, first you need to download the free program Adobe Digital Editions if do you not have it yet. The book will help you to reinforce the theoretical components of this course. A good introduction to the course would be to read the preface of the book, really easy to read, and in this way let you know that you can work with it.

Students will be required to go through the ENEL case study before the Block Seminar, the ENEL case will be introduced digitally. This case will be discussed in class on Wednesday. You will find instructions on the course web page (ESADE Moodle).

1. Session 1.- Sustainability in the 21st Century: Introducing the ¿Business In Nature ¿concept (Rafael Sardá)

2. Session 2.- Environmental Conflicts in the World Economy (Adam Budnikowski)

3. Session 3.- Sustainability in the 21st Century: Rethinking the CVC (Rafael Sardá)

4. Session 4.- The transition phase (Sandor Kerekes)

5. Session 5.- Climate and Energy (Marc O,. Betzûgge)

6. Session 6.- Rethinking the value chain (Rafael Sardá)

7. Session 7.- Seastainable Ventures presentation (Ignasi Ferrer)

8. Session 8.- tbc (COMPANY SESSION)

9. Session 9.- ENEL case Study and ENEL presentation (Maria Cristina Papetti

10. Session 10.- Group project presentations and conclusions

The course will consist of a combination of lectures, case discussions and exercises, and a major group project as a major component of the course. Four groups of students will be formed at the beginning of the Block Seminar and they will be working together during the seminar.

The students will also be required to complete a Learning reflection paper which will be due two weeks after the course (September 27th, 2023) and has to be uploaded into the Moodle platform. Writing the 2-4 pages' reflection on your CEMS Seminar learning experience will lead you to actively reflect on your changes in thinking throughout the CEMS Block Seminar. This exercise is designed to promote and reinforce your learning. It should not require too much time. You might want to write about what your initial expectations were and to what extent they were met (i.e. what you learned, what you had hoped to learn, and what you still need to learn).
Class

ASSESSMENT BREAKDOWN

All information given during the course will be uploaded to the Moodle platform. In preparation for the course, you will need to read two different materials
- A Nature Journal editorial (March 2022) "Limits to growth? It's time to end a 50-year argument? (Nature editorial, March 2022). You will find this paper at Moodle Session 1
- The online ENEL case study (Bocconi University Innovations in Learning and Teaching). Read the information and watch their videos. The link and password will be uploaded into the Moodle platform

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