Sustainable Business Management

2026/2027

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

3

ECTS credits

Delivered at:

Department of Strategic and International Management

Course type:

Compulsory course

When:

2 year, 2 module

Instructor

Rawlins, Tom

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The Master's course "Sustainable Business Management" provides a rigorous, advanced management framework designed to equip future executives, consultants, and strategic risk analysts with the specialized competencies needed to steer contemporary organizations through volatile regulatory and socioeconomic environments [INDEX, INDEX]. Moving completely away from abstract individual decision models, this course approaches sustainability as a core paradigm of competitive advantage, boardroom governance, and fiduciary liability [INDEX]. The curriculum challenges historical parameters of organizational target-setting by contrasting conventional shareholder primacy with principle-based, strategic stakeholder value creation [INDEX, INDEX].Structured across three intensive, problem-based strategic modules, the curriculum focuses on the practical integration and operationalization of sustainability across enterprise-wide business architectures [INDEX]. In the first block, students master the technical methodologies of Double Materiality assessments and evaluate how corporate governance structures and board oversight mechanisms incorporate sustainability factors into executive performance targets [INDEX]. The second block examines the systemic embedding of sustainability principles across core functional business areas, training students to optimize capital allocation via green finance instruments, manage circular product lifecycles, and execute strict carbon accounting protocols spanning Scope 1, 2, and 3 value-chain emissions [INDEX]. The final block deep-dives into strategic risk governance, treating environmental, social, and compliance factors as critical liabilities to be integrated directly into standard Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) boardroom frameworks [INDEX]. Special emphasis is placed on strategic risk diagnostics and data governance compliance protocols, enabling future managers to audit corporate greenwashing and safeguard organizational market trust in the digital age [INDEX].Through a balanced combination of advanced lectures, highly interactive panel debates, and a continuous team research track, students cultivate a systemic, boardroom-ready mindset, preparing them to effectively navigate, justify, and defend complex socio-ecological and financial trade-offs

Learning Objectives

• Challenge Traditional Financial Management Primacy: To provide future executives with an advanced conceptual understanding of corporate sustainability models, contrasting historical profit-maximization metrics with modern stakeholder value creation platforms
• Deconstruct Complex Value Tensions and Materiality: To train students to perform empirical industry-level Double Materiality assessments, navigating the operational friction between environmental compliance costs and short-term economic returns using standardized reporting indices (GRI, SASB)
• Operationalize Functional Sustainability Strategy: To equip students with practical methodologies for embedding ESG criteria directly into an organization's core functional departments—specifically focusing on green finance instruments, circular supply-chain design, and lifecycle transparency
• Integrate ESG into Enterprise Risk Governance: To build the managerial capacity to treat environmental, social, and compliance factors as critical enterprise liabilities, integrating them directly into standard Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) frameworks
• Prevent Sustainability Gaps and Greenwashing: To develop robust strategic diagnostic skills, enabling future managers to formulate internal data governance guidelines that detect greenwashing warning signs and safeguard ethical reporting transparency

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Extract Empirical Sustainability Data: Locate, navigate, and extract relevant operational metrics from publicly available corporate sustainability reports, ESG registries, and national dashboards.
• Formulate Defensible Strategic Justifications: Prepare evidence-based positions individually to confidently defend research methodologies, data limitations, and operational trade-offs during spontaneous cross-examinations.
• Deconstruct corporate strategies using Freeman's stakeholder framework to identify hidden stakeholder risks.
• Evaluate how historical definitions of sustainability modify long-term corporate target-setting.
• Differentiate between ends-directed stakeholder management and principle-based stakeholder relationships
• Evaluate how corporate governance structures and board oversight mechanisms incorporate sustainability factors into executive performance targets
• Deconstruct corporate strategies using Freeman's stakeholder framework to identify hidden stakeholder risks and strategic long-term vulnerabilities
• Execute an industry-level Double Materiality assessment to prioritize material ESG topics based on both financial impact and socio-environmental significance
• Differentiate between ends-directed stakeholder management (tactical/compliance) and principle-based stakeholder relationships (strategic value creation)
• Formulate operational ESG criteria and sustainable procurement policies across an organization’s downstream and upstream value chain
• Differentiate between Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions to structurally manage and audit an organization's aggregate environmental footprint
• Analyze green finance instruments (e.g., green bonds, sustainability-linked loans) to optimize capital structure and evaluate cost of capital adjustments.
• Integrate circular economy frameworks and closed-loop lifecycle infrastructure into core operational logistics and product-design workflows

Course Contents

• Foundations of Corporate Strategy, Governance, and Stakeholder Value
• Functional ESG Integration: Finance, Operations, and Marketing
• Managerial Decision-Making For Sustainable Development Under Moral Uncertainty

Assessment Elements

• Lecture Attendence
  Lecture Attendance is checked at the beginning of each lecture 'para' manually or electronically - students must regsiter their attendance prior to the beginning of the para. A grade out of ten is calculated according to the number of para attended - 6 para = 10 ; 5 para = 8 ; 4 para = 6 ; 3 para = 4 ; 2 para = 2 ; 0 para = 0
• First Seminars
  Independent study is presented and evaluated in the seminars - teams are formed randomly up to maximum five students per group
• Final Exam
  The final exam consists of twenty multiple choice questions worth one point for each correct answer and four open questions with five points available per answer. The exam uses pen and paper.
• Second Seminars
  Presentation and Defence of independent study and reflection on peers' defense.- teams are formed randomly up to maximum five students per group
• Third Seminars
  Defense of the result of independent study - - teams are formed randomly up to maximum five students per group

Interim Assessment

• 2026/2027 2nd module
  0.17 * Second Seminars + 0.17 * First Seminars + 0.16 * Third Seminars + 0.1 * Lecture Attendence + 0.4 * Final Exam

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Andrea CardoniEvgeniia Kiseleva (2023) Sustainable Governance : Concept, Metrics and Contexts 9783031374913,9783031374920
• Michel Dion, R. Edward Freeman, Sergiy D. Dmytriyev. Humanizing Business: What Humanities Can Say to Business. 53. 1st ed.Springer Nature; 2022
• Sustainability management : global perspectives on concepts, instruments, and stakeholders, Hahn, R., 2022
• Sustainable governance : concept, metrics and contexts, Cardoni, A., 2023

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Corporate sustainability : managing responsible business in a globalised world, , 2023
• International management behavior : global and sustainable leadership, Lane, H. W., 2019
• R. Edward Freeman’s Selected Works on Stakeholder Theory and Business Ethics, Sergiy D. Dmytriyev, R. Edward Freeman, Springer Cham, 978-3-031-04564-6 Published: 20 September 2023
• Sustainable futures : an agenda for action, Kaplinsky, R., 2021
• Sustainable hedonism : a thriving life that does not cost the earth, Lelkes, O., 2021

Authors

• Roulins Tomas Edvard