By the end of the course, students are expected to be able to • Define corporate sustainability as an interlinked socio-economic-environmental problem spanning technological and managerial issues; • Know the core regulations and obligatory standards for environmental and social corporate sustainability; • Understand the evolution of different voluntary standards and ecolabels and their heterogeneity across different industries; • Evaluate corporate decarbonization strategies, net zero targets, and their interdependence with carbon offset markets; • Identify greenwashing and the incentives for and against it; • Recognise the main building blocks of sustainability reporting and the methodologies to apply the reporting process to build a sustainability strategy. • Plan a life cycle assessment of a product or technological system • Interpret the principles of Environmental Life Cycle Assessment quantitatively, including carbon and water footprints • Critically analyse sustainability claims of products, services and organisations on the basis of the environmental assessment methods adopted • Demonstrate knowledge of key concepts, models and frameworks relevant to responsible purchasing and sustainable supplier selection and evaluation • Demonstrate a theoretical understanding of how sustainable supply chain management fits within the overall architecture and strategy of an organization and a critical awareness of the contribution of sustainable supply chain management to the creation and delivery of sustainable products and services • Evaluate the responsibilities and relations between the supply chains, and their internal and external stakeholders, in regard to environmental and social sustainability • Develop solutions to lower the environmental impact of logistics • Classify the main circular approaches according to the 9R framework and their implications on reverse logistics • Define a circular business case, by utilising circular business model innovation

An understanding of economic and business processes affecting corporate strategy and supply chain management, and of statistics or econometrics is an advantage, but is not a requirement.

• Companies and corporate sustainability. Megatrends, definitions, sustainability as a source of new costs, risks, and opportunities. Does it pay to be green? [3h] • Policy trends in the EU and beyond: Green Deal, Circular economy Action Plan, Sustainable Products Initiative, current and future regulations [3h] • Voluntary sustainability standards, ecolabels, management standards. [3h] • Material data declarations, and sustainability reports. [3h] • Decarbonization strategies, net zero and carbon offsetting [3h] - Introduction to group project: analysis of a core corporate sustainability issue [3h] • ESG finance: green bonds, sustainability-linked bonds and other financial instruments [3h] • New business models for circular economy practices (product as service, industrial symbiosis, reverse logistics, etc.) [3h] • Social sustainability [3h] • Green business strategies and sustainable leadership [3h] • Life-Cycle Assessment [6h] • Measuring and Reporting Sustainability at the product level and at the organisational level to avoid the risk of greenwashing [3h] • Sustainable Scorecards & Sustainable Supplier Selection and Evaluation [2h] • Sustainable Supply Chain Management [12h] • Sustainable Logistics [9h] • Circular Economy, Circular Supply Chains & Circular Business Models [6h] • Exercises in class to acquire the necessary skills to prepare the groupwork: literature reviews, practices of applied LCA, reading corporate sustainability reports, presentations of groupwork.

Throughout the semester, a high level of participation is solicited from the students, who will work on a set of group projects that are presented and discussed in class. Case studies and practical examples are frequently discussed during the lectures in parallel to the theory, thus students are expected to participate in applied learning activities during the classroom. Flipped learning approach is also occasionally adopted for instance students may be required to scout the industry's sustainability practices before looking at specific company case studies or to read case studies material ahead of in-class discussion.

Suggested textbooks: • Demartini and Taticchi (Eds) “Corporate Sustainability in Practice: A Guide for Strategy Development and Implementation”, Springer, 2021.. • Hauschild, Rosenbaum and Olsen (2018), “Life Cycle Assessment: Theory and Practice”, Springer • Sarkis and Dou (2018), “Green Supply Chain Management: a Concise Introduction”, Routledge • Bouchery, Corbett, Fransoo and Tan (2017), “Sustainable Supply Chains: A Research-Based Textbook on Operations and Strategy” • Further reading materials will be provided on the online portal

Lecture slides;

Exam: Group project; Computer-based written test in class using POLITO platform;

At the end of the year, one hour written exam in class with PC, using the university's platform. The exam consists of 12 multiple choice questions. Each correct answer provides 2 points, each wrong answer provides a -0.5 penalty. No textbooks or manuals allowed. The groupwork consists of three parts that will be individually presented. -The first will be case study (either a single company or multiple companies), in which the students will discuss the business tools developed in class, identifying technological, managerial and sustainability challenges and opportunities; - The second will be a literature review of a key sustainability issue; - The last part will be a sustainable logistics exercise to evaluate sustainable supply chain redesign. Participation in each groupwork yields an additional 1 point. Completing all of the three groupworks provides 1 further bonus point (max total points for groupwork participation = 4). Top performing groups will receive up to 2 extra bonus points in each groupwork (max total points for groupwork performance =6). In total, a student can earn up to 10 points from participating in the groupworks. Participation in groupwork is voluntary. Students who wish to participate in groupworks, however, are required to attend all groupwrok sessions in class. Any grade greater than 30 corresponds to "30 e lode". The grading criteria are based on the expected learning outcomes, both at a theoretical level (exam) and applied practically in the groupwork. The written exam will ascertain the understanding of the main material covered in class. The groupwork will evaluate the student's capacity to identify greenwashing, new business opportunities, challenges and innovations also at the supply chain level and critical issues identified in the literature and in data collection processes, together with the ability to combine these concepts with soft skills (teamwork, presentation and report writing skills, sustainable and inclusive leadership).

In addition to the message sent by the online system, students with disabilities or Specific Learning Disorders (SLD) are invited to directly inform the professor in charge of the course about the special arrangements for the exam that have been agreed with the Special Needs Unit. The professor has to be informed at least one week before the beginning of the examination session in order to provide students with the most suitable arrangements for each specific type of exam.