June 6th – June 10th
Deadline for the single course enrolment: June, 1st
Module Learning Objectives and Skill Acquisition
This module introduces the main issues in corporate approaches to climate change. How can companies address global warming, both in terms of mitigating climate change damages and adapting to them strategically?
The first half of the module explores the relationship between climate change and the private sector. The lectures will focus on the themes of sustainability, green management, and climate risks. The second half of the module applies these concepts to a number of case studies. The main learning objectives are to understand the most relevant ways for companies to become more sustainable and the main obstacles to the process. By the end of the module students should be able to apply these concepts to actual companies in different sectors of the economy.
Detailed Teaching Agenda
Part I: Sustainable business management: why and how
| Lecture topic | Lecturer | Hours |
| Companies and climate change - challenges and opportunities | CR | 1 |
| What is sustainability and why should companies care? Are private companies the main culprit for climate change? Markets and externalities | CR | 2 |
| Does it pay to be green? Empirical evidence | CR | 2 |
| Environmental risk management and stranded assets | CR | 2 |
| Green business strategies (eco-efficiency, environmental cost leadership, beyond - compliance leadership and eco-branding) | CR | 2 |
| The dark side: greenwashing and lobbying for climate change | CR | 2 |
| Spotlight on the energy sector, rural electrification and climate change | CR | 2 |
Part II: Case studies on sustainable management
| Lecture topic | Lecturer | Hours |
| Student-led case studies from different sectors (agriculture, consumer goods, textiles, automotive, luxury goods, services, electronics) | CR | 5 |
| Sustainability assessment (Nativa Lab) | LR | 2 |
Involved stakeholders
Nativa Lab will provide an overview of their assessment methods and their experience supporting companies in the process of achieving the certification of Bcorps. Nativa was the first Benefit Corporation in Europe and the first Certified B Corporation in Italy. It is the country partner of B Lab – the main provider worldwide for this form of sustainability certification [TBC].
Assessment and grading
Each student will be assigned one company/market for a case study in the second half of the course. The case study should consider the various elements studied during the first part of the course (green strategy, marketing, value proposition and other elements of business model canvas, risk management, SWOT analysis). Each student will make a short presentation of 5 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of discussion in which other students selected at random will ask questions acting as potential investors in the company. The evaluation is based both on the presentation and on the comments during the discussion, as well as peer grading.
ECTS: 2
Hours of lecture: 20