Business Case For Corporate Sustainability

Sustainability pillars, CSR, TBL, ESG, shared value, risks, opportunities, S-ROI, SDGs, materiality, reporting, strategy

What you'll learn

Evolution of corporate sustainability concept

Three pillars of sustainability (economic, social and environmental)

Business case and measurement/quantification techniques for sustainability including ROI, SROI, S-ROI and ROSI

ESG risks and opportunities created by sustainability trends

Framework for the development of corporate sustainability strategy

Role of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in strategic management

Materiality assessment and the role of sustainability reporting in driving corporate sustainability

Sustainability certifications including B-Corp and environmental and social responsibility ISOs

Requirements

There are no special requirements for this course, anyone can learn about corporate sustainability

Description

The course "Business Case for Corporate Sustainability" has been created for:· leaders and professionals who are involved in definition and execution of sustainability strategy for their organisations,· anyone who faces the dilemma whether sustainability and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives are costs or investments.In this course not only we will explore the latest academic thought leadership on the subject of corporate sustainability, but we will look at the evolution of this concept from purely environmental concerns, to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Triple Bottom Line (TBL) approach, to the concept of the business value creation. You will learn about stakeholders' value, ESG risks, and opportunities that corporate sustainability creates for the businesses.This course will equip you with the tools and knowledge necessary to prepare and defend a business case for sustainability initiatives/projects, whether that is required for management sign off, approval by the board of directors, regulatory reporting, or for any business-as-usual activities (eg project management, progress monitoring and other stakeholders communications). It will also give you some food for thought regarding how the environmental and social costs and benefits are currently priced, and whether more attention should be paid to pricing negative and positive externalities.The course briefly covers the measurement techniques that could be used for building the business case, including the Return on Investment (ROI), Social Return on Investment (SROI) and Sustainable Return on Investment (S-ROI), including deeper dive into an example of such methodologies, called Return on Sustainable Investment (ROSI) developed by NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business.Finally, this course covers important considerations for an organisation's Sustainability Strategy development: how to integrate sustainability into business strategy, the role of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in shaping corporate sustainability strategy, materiality assessment and sustainability reporting. I have also included a brief overview of sustainability certifications including B-Corp and key environmental and social responsibility ISO standards for those who consider getting external validation for their businesses or products/services.I hope you will enjoy the course. Please note that the topic of Corporate Sustainability is a vast subject, which is impossible to cover in much technical detail in such a short course. But I would love to hear from you - please let me know what parts of the course are particularly useful, and where you suggest I could develop this course further. Feel free to contact me either here or through my LinkedIn profile.Kind regards,Julia MariasovaPS Please check out all my other courses which you can find on my profile page.  Just search "Julia Mariasova" or go to the bottom of this page and click my name under "INSTRUCTOR" title. 

Overview

Section 1: Welcome to the course!

Lecture 1 Introduction: The course agenda

Lecture 2 Before we start…

Section 2: The history of sustainability and definition of corporate sustainability

Lecture 3 General definition of sustainability and sustainable development

Lecture 4 The early history of sustainability: environmental concerns

Lecture 5 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Lecture 6 Triple Bottom Line (TBL) and 3 Pillars of Sustainability-People, Profit, Planet

Lecture 7 The building blocks of “Modern” Corporate Sustainability

Lecture 8 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors

Lecture 9 Creating Shared Value

Lecture 10 The purpose

Lecture 11 Definition of "Modern" Corporate Sustainability and key trends that define it

Section 3: The business case for corporate sustainability

Lecture 12 Definition of the business case for sustainable transformation

Lecture 13 Stakeholder perspective: Value creation for all stakeholders

Lecture 14 Opportunity perspective: Op Efficiencies, Business Resilience and Innovation

Lecture 15 Risk perspective: Managing Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) risks

Lecture 16 Section conclusion: Sustainability matters for organisations’ bottom line

Section 4: Measuring corporate sustainability (quantification, monetisation and KPIs)

Lecture 17 Return on Investment (ROI) for Sustainability Projects

Lecture 18 Beyond ROI, avoiding short-termism and pricing negative & positive externalities

Lecture 19 Social Return on Investment (SROI)

Lecture 20 Sustainable Return on Investment (S-ROI)

Lecture 21 Example of ROI Methodology: NYU Stern Return on Sustainable Investment (ROSI)

Lecture 22 Section conclusion: Measuring Sustainability

Section 5: Integrating Sustainability into Business Strategy and Decision-Making

Lecture 23 Developing and Implementing Sustainability Strategy

Lecture 24 Systems thinking and Strategic Development Goals (SDGs)

Lecture 25 Materiality Assessment& Sustainability Reporting (GRI, SASB, IFRS S1 & S2, ESRS)

Lecture 26 Sustainability certifications for business and products

Lecture 27 Section conclusion: Corporate Sustainability as a Strategic Management Tool

Section 6: Course wrap-up

Lecture 28 Conclusion: Corporate Sustainability as a Strategic Imperative

Lecture 29 THANK YOU! Course wrap-up

Leaders and professionals who are involved in definition and execution of sustainability strategy for their organisations,Sustainability and finance professionals starting to build business cases for sustainability projects,Anyone who faces the dilemma whether sustainability and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) inititiaves are costs or investments,Professionals looking to switch career to a sustainability field,Sustainability- and ESG-curious