Professional course The Sustainable Organisation: Vision into practice

Content

Key topics covered include:

• Sustainable organisations in a global context
• Concepts and practices of organisational greening strategies, environmental management principles and sustainability politics
• Strategic sustainability frameworks and tools for organisations
• Externalities, business behaviour and pollution policies
• The resource context: oil, pricing and backstop technology; renewable resources and issues of access
• Valuation of environmental assets and assets beyond value
• Carbon and ecological footprinting

On successful completion of this course students should be able to:

• Be conversant with contemporary sociological and managementconcepts and debates around organisational behaviour, corporate sustainability and risk evaluation, and apply these critically to appraise the operation of businesses in the light of their stated social and environmental policies.
• Analyse the contextual pressures deriving from resource scarcity and ecosystem degradation and assess how these impact on operations and strategy.
• Employ various conceptual frameworks and project appraisal methods to assist strategy formulation and the design of metrics for assessing progress in strategy implementation.
• Conceive the broad impact of new sustainable technologies across many business sectors in terms of efficiency enhancement and market openings.

Learning and Teaching

The courses are taught through a mixture of face-to-face and independent learning, comprising weekly lectures, workshops and group discussion. 

The pattern of contact sessions (five continuous Fridays, all day) is highly accessible for those who wish to study part-time.

This is a highly participative course. Delivery methods are primarily experiential and participant centred, engaging you in practical exercises, personal study, and critical reflection upon the relationship between theory and practice.

Study time

The course is structured around five contact days, which take place on consecutive weeks.

Students undertake a significant amount of directed and independent study between and after the contact sessions. To complete the course and assessment (if taken), we recommend students allocate approximately 150 hours including taught sessions and personal study time. This is only a guideline and will depend on the participants' motivation and learning abilities.

Assessment

Participants who wish to receive credit for their learning can undertake the assessed project at the end of the course. On successful completion, the course credits may then be used towards one of our postgraduate qualifications in Sustainable Development in Practice

You may also use the credit towards one of UWE's postgraduate qualifications in Integrated Professional Development.

To achieve accreditation for this module, you will need to successfully complete an assessed project in which you critically apply a range of theoretical perspectives, analytical techniques and tools relevant to sustainable organisations.

Formative assessment will be carried out throughout the module by setting regular tasks for students that will assess their grasp of the material covered. Tasks will be reviewed as part of the sessions.