Leading and Implementing Sustainable Green Business Strategies Curriculum Outline

Introduction to Green Business and Sustainability

Overview/Description
While the concepts of green business and sustainable enterprise are not new, they are becoming increasingly vital in todays business climate. Natural resources are being depleted at previously unheard of levels, organizations are faced with new challenges in resource and waste management, and consumers are becoming more curious about the origins and environmental footprint left by the products they consume. Companies willing to accept the challenge of going green and adopting green business practices stand to reap environmental, social, and economic rewards. Many companies currently facing the challenge have survived, and even thrived, to tell about it. This course introduces the concept of sustainability, including sustainability goals and types of sustainability. It outlines the factors that are driving the need for environmental sustainability and explores the social, economic, and environmental benefits of adopting green business practices. The challenges and risks involved with adopting and not adopting such practices are also covered.

Target Audience
Members of any organization considering adopting more sustainable enterprise practices and individuals looking to effect social change within their organization

Expected Duration (hours)
2.0

Lesson Objectives

Introduction to Green Business and Sustainability

Recognize the importance of taking personal responsibility for promoting sustainability in your organization

Recognize key concepts of sustainability

Identify examples of factors that would influence a companys decision to move toward sustainability

Identify the benefits of environmental sustainability

Recognize the benefits of being able to identify the risks and challenges of adopting sustainability strategies

Identify examples of opportunities presented by sustainability

Recognize risks of sustainability

Identify key concepts about the challenges of adopting sustainability practices

Course Number:
stgy_04_a01_bs_enus

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Green Business: Planning Sustainability Strategies

Overview/Description
Environmental sustainability holds a different meaning for every organization and every individual, and although its implemented in a multitude of ways across industries, there is little disagreement about the urgency and importance that surrounds it. An organization must be willing to commit a great deal of its resources – human, technological, and economic – in order to plan, implement, and maintain a realistic green business sustainability strategy. Within organizations, the emergence of strong leaders, carefully laid plans, and innovative processes can help facilitate success in achieving sustainability goals. This course outlines a method for assessing how much your organization promotes environmental sustainability in its current practices, showing how to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and risks in relation to adopting green business sustainability practices. It also explores how mandated and voluntary green standards and regulations provide organizations with a framework for developing green business sustainability strategies and help them to communicate their commitment to sustainability. It examines how to plan for sustainability, stressing the need for leadership to make people across the enterprise aware of, and get them to commit to, the principles and objectives of environmental sustainability. The course also outlines how organizations can develop an approach to becoming more green and discusses the kinds of goals that need to be set, pointing to how these goals can affect the innovation process and encourage the development of new technologies.

Target Audience
Individuals in leadership roles, directors, change agents and influencers, as well as members of any organization considering adopting more sustainable enterprise practices and individuals looking to effect social change within their organization

Expected Duration (hours)
2.0

Lesson Objectives

Green Business: Planning Sustainability Strategies

Recognize the benefits of assessing what sustainability means for your company

Evaluate an organizations strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and risks in relation to adopting sustainability practices

Identify the issues to consider when assessing where your organization currently stands relative to sustainability

Recognize how regulations and standards can help improve the sustainability efforts of businesses

Recognize the value of being involved in planning your companys direction related to sustainability

Identify examples of ways to lead the move toward sustainability

Recognize the considerations involved in developing an approach to sustainability

Recognize the importance of setting goals for sustainability

Distinguish between minimization and optimization goals

Course Number:
stgy_04_a02_bs_enus

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Green Business: Implementing Sustainability Strategies

Overview/Description
A plan for implementing a sustainability strategy stands a much greater chance of success if the essential players in an organization back it. Implementation of sustainability initiatives varies by organization and by sector, and because no steadfast procedural rules exist, these initiatives must be carefully planned. When implementing sustainability practices, you need to make sure those practices align with corporate strategy, and you need to establish some performance metrics to establish baselines and measure progress. Knowing the type of metrics youll be collecting can help you plan the methods youll use to report on your sustainability initiatives. These two considerations are as important as the physical implementation of the plan itself. This course covers ways to align corporate and sustainability strategies, as well as ways to measure your sustainability performance. It provides examples of how companies can implement sustainability strategies and discusses the importance of reporting sustainability results accurately. The way that companies market their sustainability efforts is also important to consider. Greenwashing a companys image to make it seem more sustainable can backfire and bring unwanted negative attention. This course addresses some of the challenges a company faces when deciding how to market its sustainability initiatives.

Target Audience
Individuals in leadership roles, directors, change agents and influencers, as well as members of any organization considering adopting more sustainable enterprise practices and individuals who want to effect social change within their organization

Expected Duration (hours)
2.0

Lesson Objectives

Green Business: Implementing Sustainability Strategies

Identify ways to implement sustainability practices

Align corporate strategy with relevant sustainability strategies

Recognize the benefits of evaluating the organizations performance related to achieving its sustainability goals

Identify ways to measure sustainability performance

Recognize the role of a performance evaluation system in the implementation of a sustainability strategy

Recognize examples of how to implement sustainability practices related to the environment

Recognize the benefits of ongoing reporting of environmental sustainability results

Match typical topic areas included in external sustainability reports with the descriptions of the types of information they should contain

Identify the contents of key elements included in a typical internal sustainability report

Recognize some of the challenges in marketing green businesses

Course Number:
stgy_04_a03_bs_enus

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