Leading the Circular and Sustainable Business is the third and final course in the specialization, Applied Sustainability for Technical Managers.
This course focuses on the business case for sustainability. It begins by defining a sustainable business, one that is inclusive of all stakeholders and how new organizational structures support the sustainable enterprise, enabling the business to go beyond corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. The course highlights sustainable operations and supply chains, recognizing sustainable products need to be manufactured using environmentally and socially responsible practices. Companies are increasingly marketing products as "green", and the course discusses truthful advertising, greenwashing, and the value of 3rd-party certifications. Sustainable finance is introduced through the lens of the Triple Bottom Line (TBL), using the Environmental P&L to illustrate a company’s environmental costs.
ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) is increasingly important today, and companies are communicating their progress through Sustainability reports. The course explores how to read a sustainability report, as well as methodologies to generate them, including GRI and CSRD.
The course closes with a discussion of Sustainability Leadership, from starting your own business to effectively communicating with upper management. This course is about empowerment, providing you with the knowledge and tools to be more sustainable in your daily life, in the community where you live, and in the company where you work.
This course was developed in collaboration with Siemens Digital Industries Software and is part of the "Design for the Circular Economy" collection. Learners who complete and pass the course can receive an industry-recognized digital badge.
The “Design for the Circular Economy” microcredential and graduate certificate are developed around the educational goals of providing technical, business, and leadership knowledge and skills that inspire the transformation towards a more circular economy. This includes gaining technical knowledge to apply circular economy principles in product design, minimizing waste and maximizing impact; developing business acumen to implement innovative circular economic models that prioritize sustainability and resilience; and acquiring leadership strategies to communicate effectively and inspire change within an organization.
This course can be taken for academic credit as part of CU Boulder’s Master of Engineering in Engineering Management (ME-EM) degree offered on the Coursera platform. The ME-EM is designed to help engineers, scientists, and technical professionals move into leadership and management roles in the engineering and technical sectors. With performance-based admissions and no application process, the ME-EM is ideal for individuals with a broad range of undergraduate education and/or professional experience. Learn more about the ME-EM program at https://www.coursera.org/degrees/me-engineering-management-boulder.
Leading the Circular and Sustainable Business
University of Colorado Boulder and Siemens via Coursera
Overview
Syllabus
- Defining the Sustainable Business
- Welcome to Leading the Circular and Sustainable Business! This first module introduces the concepts behind managing and leading a sustainable enterprise, whether it is a for-profit or non-profit entity. It begins with the transition taking place among forward-looking companies, from a traditional shareholder perspective to one that is more inclusive of all stakeholders. There is mounting evidence that sustainability makes good business sense, and while it takes time, companies can shift towards becoming more sustainable. There are new legal organizational structures that support the more sustainable enterprise, enabling the business to go far beyond corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.
- Sustainable Operations, Supply Chains and Marketing
- Sustainable products need to be manufactured using environmentally and socially responsible practices throughout the supply chain. This module examines how this can be done within a manufacturing operation, and how that extends to a company's upstream supply chain. The module then examines how companies are increasingly marketing their products as "green", and therefore we examine what constitutes truly eco- and socio-friendly products from marketing defined as greenwashing. Moreover, "greenhushing" is a relatively new term that is used to create a more sustainable product, but may not be marketed that way for fear of being criticized as "not green enough". Marketing with the use of 3rd party certifications is a more objective approach. You'll learn more about this and other types of sustainable certification processes.
- Finance and Triple Bottom Line Accounting
- In this module, we transition to sustainable finance and accounting principles, including the concept of the Triple Bottom Line (TBL). We then discuss the role of environmental services as a means of introducing the concept of negative externalities and the financial risks associated with them. That leads to a discussion of natural capital and triple-bottom-line accounting. The case study of Puma and the Environmental P&L is used to show how environmental costs can be calculated, with students left to assess Novo Nordisk's Environmental P&L as an exercise. Other emerging accounting protocols are discussed, including methodologies proposed by the Sustainable Accounting Standards Board (SASB). Finally, we examine financial measures to mitigate carbon emissions, including carbon markets, carbon taxes, and cap-and-trade mechanisms.
- Sustainability Reporting and ESG
- More companies are embracing sustainability as integral to their corporate strategy, and are communicating their results through annual sustainability reports. This module discusses the motivation behind sustainability reporting, embodied in a company's commitment to ESG: Environmental, Social, and Governance. This module begins with ESG, what it is, and why it is important. We then explore sustainability reports and learn how to interpret what's in them. Next, we discuss the methodologies most companies use today to generate those reports, such as the Global Reporting Initiative and the new European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. Finally, the module covers the impact of investors on adopting more sustainable business practices not so much to better humanity and the planet, but as a means to reduce financial risk. Finally, we return to the topic of ESG and how its metrics are driving investor and consumer behavior alike.
- Be the Change: Sustainability Leadership
- We are often overwhelmed at the changes necessary to become more sustainable - in our own lives and in the companies we work for. This final module of the course (and specialization) discusses Sustainability Leadership Skills. We begin by exploring Social Entrepreneurship as one way to become a sustainability leader, highlighting several companies that were launched with sustainability as a foundation. We then transition to the relatively new role of Chief Sustainability Officer, or CSO, and what this C-suite position is all about. Although, becoming a sustainability leader can happen in any position within an organization, so we discuss ways to become an agent of change, focusing on how to effectively communicate about sustainability with upper management. Of course, being a sustainability leader where we work is only part of the goal of living more sustainably. With that in mind, we discuss ways to incorporate sustainability in daily life, from what we eat to what we wear to what we buy. That gives us the confidence to participate in making our communities more sustainable. This module is about empowerment, enabling individuals like you to take responsibility for the actions necessary to create the sustainable future we all want.
Taught by
Michael J. Readey, Ph.D.
