English   Danish

2021/2022  BA-BHAAI1096U  Strategies for Sustainability

English Title
Strategies for Sustainability

Course information
Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Bachelor
Duration Summer
Start time of the course Summer
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Max. participants 100
Study board
Study Board for BSc in Economics and Business Administration
Course coordinator
  • Martin Skrydstrup - Department of Management, Society and Communication (MSC)
For academic questions related to the course, please contact the course coordinator Martin Skrydstrup (msk.msc@cbs.dk).
Main academic disciplines
  • Corporate governance
  • CSR and sustainability
  • Philosophy and ethics
Teaching methods
  • Face-to-face teaching
Last updated on 01/12/2021

Relevant links
Learning objectives
To achieve the grade 12, students should meet the following learning objectives with no or only minor mistakes or errors.
  • 1) Map different concepts of sustainability according to “stronger & weaker” and summarize their contestations in academic debates and public debacles
  • 2) Exemplify how concepts of sustainability relate and translate into strategies and vice versa
  • 3) Explain how impacts of sustainability strategies are measured and assessed across scales.
  • 4) Evaluate the risks and rewards of partnerships for sustainability strategies
Course prerequisites
Strategies for Sustainability is a capstone course for undergraduates, ie. recommended for 3rd year undergraduate students.
Prerequisites for registering for the exam (activities during the teaching period)
Number of compulsory activities which must be approved (see section 13 of the Programme Regulations): 1
Compulsory home assignments
Midterm Poster
Examination
Strategies for Sustainability:
Exam ECTS 7.5
Examination form Written sit-in exam on CBS' computers
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Assignment type Case based assignment
Duration 4 hours
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Summer and Summer
Aids Open book: all written and electronic aids, including internet access
Read more here about which exam aids the students are allowed to bring and will be given access to : Exam aids and IT application package
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
If the number of registered candidates for the make-up examination/re-take examination warrants that it may most appropriately be held as an oral examination, the programme office will inform the students that the make-up examination/re-take examination will be held as an oral examination instead.
The 1st retake is the same as the ordinary exam, and the 2nd retake is a 72-hour, maximum 10-pages home assignment.
Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

Strategies for Sustainability

Most agree that sustainability should be a license to operate for business in the Anthropocene, which goes well beyond industry compliance. However, to what extent should sustainability go beyond conventional growth strategies based on competitive advantages? Or to ask along the lines of Michael Porter: If the purpose of business, is not (still) business, what is it? What sustainability might mean and how private, public and civil organizations might achieve and prove it, is a strongly contested terrain. It follows, that to navigate and master this field as a professional, requires a critical understanding of the wide array of ways in which sustainability is conceived, defined, documented and performed.

 

Accordingly, the objective of this class is to equip students with a roadmap to navigate the contemporary landscape of sustainability strategies and their vehicles from product certification standards to digital transparency and from various strands of circular economies to carbon capture. We shall ask broadly how various sustainability strategies relate to the SDGs? And we shall take deep dives into how sustainability strategies of various organizations map onto larger debates between “weak vs. strong sustainability”, “transitions vs. transformations” and “eco-modernism vs. de-growth”.

 

 
Description of the teaching methods
This course features an integration of methods of instruction: Lectures, exercises and discussions, including student presentations and peer feedback, guest lecturers, film screenings, possibly blended learning content and an excursion to Auderødlejeren in Frederiksværk, which is the new flagship of Sustainia World (to be confirmed).

Through exercises, discussions and assignments, students can try various approaches to identify, assess, discuss and reflect on dilemmas in relation to a range of strategies for sustainability.
Feedback during the teaching period
Midterm poster session, where students are offered the opportunity to test their understanding of the course literature and how it can or cannot be applied to a given case.

Students will receive feedback in class on their case presentations.

Possibly peergrading.
Student workload
Preparation 148 hours
Lectures 38 hours
Midterm Poster Assignment 8 hours
Excursion 8 hours
Exam 4 hours
Further Information

Ordinary 6 weeks course

 

A generic test/assignment will be developed concerning “Nordic Nine”. It will be uploaded on Canvas at the end of May. Students are expected to access this assignment before classes begin. The assignment will not be reviewed in classes.

 

Course and exam timetable is/will be available on https://www.cbs.dk/uddannelse/international-summer-university-programme-isup/courses-and-exams

 

We reserve the right to cancel the course if we do not get enough applications. This will be communicated on https://www.cbs.dk/uddannelse/international-summer-university-programme-isup/courses-and-exams in start March.
Expected literature

Preliminary Literature

Heather M. Farley & Zachary A. Smith (2020) Sustainability: If It’s Everything, Is It Nothing? Routledge.

Hayley Stevenson (2018) Global Environmental Politics. Problems, Policy and Practice. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK.

John S. Dryzek et al (2003) Green States and Social Movements. Oxford University Press, OX, UK.

 

A number of cases on sustainability strategies drawn from Harvard Business Review:

Passion and Strategy:Novozymes' Embrace of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (2017)

Unilever’s New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability (2016)

Gotong Royong: Toward Sustainable Palm Oil (2016)

More to follow...
Last updated on 01/12/2021