Corporations can no longer ignore the impact of increasing formal (regulatory) and informal (community) expectations relating to their impact on society and the natural environment. As a result, implementing sustainability has become an increasingly important strategic intent of corporations. This course examines the scope and reasons behind these expectations, and evaluates the impact on corporations operating in a dynamic competitive environment in a capitalist economy. The course takes the perspective of an individual corporation that wants to: examine both its internal and external environments to determine the range of sustainability issues that it faces, including climate change and the path to net zero; develop strategies for sustainable practices that enhance its competitive position; make a case to a range of stakeholders, including owners, for the adoption of those sustainable practices.

This course aims to promote an understanding, within the context of a capitalist economy, of:

• the importance to each individual corporate entity of corporate sustainability;
• the inter-relationship between the natural environmental, social, and economic aspects of corporate sustainability;
• key drivers and inhibitors, both external and internal to the corporation, of the natural environmental and social aspects of corporate sustainability;
• the impact that climate change has on organisations operations and strategy;
• the roles of social and natural environmental risk, and product and process innovation, in developing corporate sustainability; and
• theoretical and practical constraints on the development of a business case for corporate sustainability;

and provide an overview of:

• the principal ‘toolkits' currently used by practitioners to recognise and appropriately resolve natural environmental and social sustainability issues in pursuing sustainable business strategy; and
• current best practice in corporate sustainability.