In the 21st century, corporations cannot ignore the impact of increasing formal (regulatory) and informal (community) expectations relating to economic, social, and environmental sustainability. This course examines the scope of these expectations, explores the reasons behind these expectations, and evaluates the impact of these expectations 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; develop strategies for sustainable practices that enhance its competitive position; make a business case to a range of its stakeholders, including owners, for the adoption of those sustainable practices; and understand the principal barriers to the implementation of those 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 environmental, social, and economic aspects of corporate sustainability;
- key drivers and inhibitors, both external and internal to the corporation, of the environmental and social aspects of corporate sustainability;
- the roles of social and 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 environmental and social sustainability issues in business; and
- current best practice in corporate sustainability.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
- identify and analyse, within the context of economic sustainability, issues within a corporation that relate to its natural environmental and social sustainability;
- make a case to a range of stakeholders, including managers, boards, and owners for addressing specific corporate sustainability issues; and
- develop appropriate policies and plans to address these issues.
Other Information
This course is designed for MBA cohort students, though other eligible postgraduate students are welcome to enrol in this course. If you are not an MBA student please consider that this course will have a high proportion of MBA students who will be drawing upon their extensive management and professional experience in seminar discussion and course assessment.
See the course outline on the College courses page. Outlines are uploaded as they become available.
Indicative Assessment
- Individual assignments (30%), Seminar participation (10%), Individual report and presentation (30%), Final examination (30%) (30) [LO null]
The ANU uses Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. While the use of Turnitin is not mandatory, the ANU highly recommends Turnitin is used by both teaching staff and students. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the ANU Online website.
Workload
Students taking this course are expected to commit at least 10 hours per week to completing the work. This will include 3 hours per week in class and at least 7 hours a week on average (including non-teaching weeks) on course reading, research, writing and assignment work.
Inherent Requirements
Not applicable
Fees
Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.
If you are a domestic graduate coursework or international student you will be required to pay tuition fees. Tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.
- Student Contribution Band:
- 3
- Unit value:
- 6 units
If you are an undergraduate student and have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). You can find your student contribution amount for each course at Fees. Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.
| Units | EFTSL |
|---|---|
| 6.00 | 0.12500 |
Course fees
- Domestic fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2019 | $4320 |
- International fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2019 | $5700 |
Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links
ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.
Class summaries, if available, can be accessed by clicking on the View link for the relevant class number.
First Semester
| Class number | Class start date | Last day to enrol | Census date | Class end date | Mode Of Delivery | Class Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MBA | ||||||
| 4184 | 25 Feb 2019 | 04 Mar 2019 | 31 Mar 2019 | 31 May 2019 | In Person | View |
