Syllabus
From National P2 Results Data System
Sustainability for the Business Manager
P2RIC are teaching a new course - Sustainability for the Business Manager. This will take place in the fall at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. For more information contact Paul McMeekin pmcmeekin@mail.unomaha.edu.
The researchers at P2RIC studied the field of Sustainability and have offered their take on the literature with an Extensive Literature Review and a Top Five both available.
For readability purposes the syllabus can be viewed using a bi-weekly timeframe:
Week Thirteen and Week Fourteen
Tentative Course Schedule
Week 1 - Introduction to the course
Instructor(s): Decker, Yoder
Topics • Introduction to the course goals and organization, lectures o Reinforce elements of academic misconduct • Context for the course: o Limits of Growth curves o Define sustainability o Growth of sustainability in marketing and public reporting • The Growth of the Green Market and the opportunity that exists for business to grow in a relatively new market.
Learning Objectives:
• Identify the need for sustainable business lies with limited an expanding population demand on limited resources • Introduce concepts which challenge traditional business management approach • Demonstrate the growing acceptance of sustainability as core business strategy
Preparatory Reading:
• P. 25, p.33; discussions about what is meant by sustainability; Field, B.C and Field, M.K (2002) Environmental Economics: An Introduction, 3rd Edition, McGraw-Hill Publishing, New York, NY
• Pp. 8-31, “Foreward” and “The Business Case for Sustainable Development”; Holliday, C.O., Schmidheiny S. and Watts P. (2002) Walking The Talk: The Business Case for Sustainable Development, Green Leaf Publishing, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., San Francisco, CA.
• Chapter 1, “The Next Industrial Revolution”; Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins, Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (Little, Brown and Co., 1999; available free of charge on the web in pdf & html formats at http://www.natcap.org/sitepages/pid20.php ).
• Chapter 6, “Early Signs of Decline”; Lester R. Brown, PLAN B2.0: Rescuing a Planet under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble (W.W. Norton, 2006, available free of charge in pdf & html formats at http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/PB2/Contents.htm ).
Week 2 – Environmental Economics
Instructor(s): Decker
Topics• The Environmental Problem • Review of market efficiency and welfare economics • Externalities • Common property • Public goods • The cost of pollution – by what measure? o Efficiency standard, safety standard, & ecological sustainability standard
Learning Objectives: • Identify the Environmental Problem and what this means for business now and in the future years • To identify key externalities in business operations and why these costs should be internalized. • Identify pollution and its costs, students will consider the various methods of measuring the cost of pollution.
Preparatory Reading:
• Text: Field & Field, p1-37 and p66-79
Week 3 – Environmental Analysis
Instructor(s): Decker
Topics • Impact analysis (measuring the externality) • Cost effectiveness • Benefit-cost analysis • Risk assessment & health risk assessment • Discounting • Real benefits and costs versus transfers
Learning Objectives:
• Identify situations that call for benefit-cost analysis and to be given the tools to conduct a benefit-cost analysis. • Students will be able to predict the future value of a commodity or good using the discounting method. • To give students the tools to conduct an impact analysis on a given externality.
Preparatory Reading:
• Text: Environmental Economics p137-174
Week 4 – Stakeholder Interests; Writing Case Studies
Instructor(s): Morris, Yoder
Topics • How to write a case study • Placing a value on the sustainability “value proposition” • Stakeholder analysis: the importance of considering all stakeholders in business decisions • How stakeholder value is created, maintained and destroyed • What are the regulatory drivers? • The virtue matrix – how company practice can become policy • Assign business cases to students
Learning Objectives:
• To understand the basics in writing a business case study. • To consider the external pressures upon a business originating from stakeholders. • To identify company practices that become common practice or law.
Preparatory Reading:
Text: Competitive Environmental Strategy pp31-51
Article – Martin, Roger L., (March 2002) The Virtue Matrix: Calculating the Return on Corporate Responsibility, Harvard Business Review
Walking the Talk pp58-81
Week 5 – Economic Solutions via Environmental Policy
Instructor(s): Decker
Topics • The traditional approach and welfare implications • Standards • Pigovian taxes • Tradable permits • Incentives to invest in new technology • Voluntary pollution control • Market considerations • Government sponsored programs and their efficacy • Broader stakeholder responses • Review of literature • Introduce cases in Holliday et al.
Learning Objectives:
• To identify pollution standards and how they can be enforced through various mechanisms such as taxes and permits. • To understand what incentives exist for corporations to invest in new technology. • To identify and understand the role of Government in the Environmental Problem.
Preparatory Reading:
• Text: Field & Field p183-189 and 233-257
Week 6 – How to Play the Game; Which Game?
Instructor(s): Decker, Yoder
Topics
• Ecological footprint • Tragedy of the Commons o Easter Island • Prisoners dilemma & consumerism • Communication – How to talk to audiences
Learning Objectives:
• Students will produce their own ecological footprint, though this they will understand the role each individual can play in reducing the reliance on non-renewable commodities. • To understand what the tragedy of the commons and the prisoners dilemma are and to give an example of where they can be used. • To be able to talk to various sections of society, with different mindsets, about a single topic and having all viewpoints satisfied with the outcome.
Preparatory Reading:
•
Week 7 – System Constraints
Instructor(s): Yoder
Topics
• Systems thinking • Leverage points • Interconnectedness & triple bottom line • Ethanol, corn-growers & business decisions in Nebraska & Iowa
Learning Objectives:
• To understand how thinking is affected by the systems in which we live and to change the way we think we must change the system through a series of leverage points. • Introduce the triple bottom line of economic, natural and social capital. • To highlight the ethical dilemma Nebraskans and Iowans face with regards to ethanol production.
Preparatory Reading:
Week 8
Topics
• Mid-Term Exam
Learning Objectives:
Preparatory Reading:
Week 9 – NGO’s and Non-Financial measurements
Instructor(s): Yoder
Topics
• Drivers of change from society • Global Reporting Initiative Evaluating non-financial performance measurement • How do you measure sustainability? • Mid-term exam review
Learning Objectives:
• To highlight the drivers of change that come from different sections of society • To highlight and evaluate different methods of measuring sustainability • Prepare students for mid-term exam
Preparatory Reading:
Text: Walking the Talk pp150-173
Hoffman, Andrew, J., (2000) Competitive Environmental Strategy – A Guide to the Changing Business Landscape, Island Press pp 105-126
Chtterji & Levine, (2006) Breaking Down the Wall of Codes: Evaluating Non-Financial
Week 10 – The Growth in the “Green Market”
Instructor(s): Yoder
Topics
• “Green Movement”- What this means for business. Opportunities and trends in a growth market. • Making markets work for all. • Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility
Students are expected to access the Green Living – US September 2006 report produced by Mintel. This is available at http://academic.mintel.com
Learning Objectives:
• Identify the growing trend of “going green” in the consumer world and how business can incorporate this into their strategy. • Demonstrate how markets work and how marks can be embraced to drive change in society. • Highlight the link between competitive advantage and CSR and why companies should take a strategic view of sustainability.
Preparatory Reading:
Walking the Talk pp 241-266
Porter, Michael E. & Kramer, Mark R. (2006) Strategy Society – The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility, Harvard Business Review, Dec 2006.
Hawken et al (1999) Natural Capitalism Creating the next Industrial Revolution, Rocky Mountain Institute – Chapter 13 Making Markets Work
http://www.natcap.org/images/other/NCchapter13.pdf
Week 11 – Technology & Systems Impacts
Instructor(s): Yoder
Topics • Technology and innovation: the importance of new technologies o Jevons Parodox o Technology & the Revenge of Unintended Consequences • Diffusion of Innovations
Learning Objectives:
• To understand what Jevons Paradox is. • To highlight the debate about innovating our way out of the Environmental Problem • To understand key issues in the advancements of technology and the consequences innovation holds.
Preparatory Reading:
Text: Walking the Talk pp 193-217
Week 12 – International Perspective
Instructor(s): Yoder
Topics Part One • CSR on an international scale • Developing countries us 100 years ago? • A new industrial revolution? China, India and Brazil
Learning Objectives
• To allow students to understand that the international economy faces different problems to our own • Evaluate approaches that can be made to allow developing nations to be sustainable and grow their economy
Preparatory Reading:
Text: Hopkins, Michael, (1999), The Planetary Bargain – Corporate Social Responsibility Comes of Age, St Martin’s Press pp 172-190
Week 12 – Global Warming and Insurance
Instructor(s): Guest
Topics Part 2 • Case Study 1 – Tim Wagner or Insurance Company (Swiss Re)
Learning Objectives:
Preparatory Reading:
Week 13 –
Instructor(s): Guest
Topics • Case Study 2
Learning Objectives:
Preparatory Reading:
Week 14
Instructor(s): Guest
Topics • Case Study 3
Learning Objectives:
Preparatory Reading:
Week 15
Instructor(s): Students
Topics • Group Presentations • Exam Review
Learning Objectives:
Preparatory Reading:
Week 16
Topics: Final Exam
