C9979 - SUSTAINABLE PERFORMANCE AND INNOVATION MANAGEMENT

Learning outcomes

This course equips students with the tools and frameworks to measure, manage, and improve sustainable performance in firms and industrial ecosystems. It covers metrics, assessment methods, and analytical approaches for evaluating environmental and innovation outcomes. Students learn how sustainability-oriented innovations are designed, implemented, and governed in organisational contexts. The course integrates quantitative assessment, strategic management, and case-based analysis of real industrial transitions.By the end of the course students should: 1. Analyze and apply sustainability performance metrics to evaluate the environmental and economic impacts of engineering processes, products, and systems. 2. Design and justify measurement systems that integrate sustainability indicators and innovation performance in engineering decision-making. 3. Assess and manage sustainability-oriented innovation using frameworks for strategy, governance, and organizational capabilities. 4. Critically evaluate real industrial cases to identify drivers, barriers, and managerial implications for sustainable performance and innovation management.

Course contents

The course equips students with concepts and analytical tools for understanding sustainability transitions applied to engineering problems. The course is structured around three main building blocks: (1) Sustainability transitions and sustainability-oriented innovations; (2) Measuring sustainable performance; and (3) Managing projects in industrial settings. It combines quantitative assessment, strategic and innovation management, and the analysis of engineering systems.

The first part of the course introduces sustainability, planetary boundaries, and the transition of industrial systems. Students examine socio-technical transitions, including transition pathways, technological niches, incumbent organizations, path dependency, and technological lock-in. The course then addresses sustainability-oriented innovation at process, product, and systemic levels. Particular attention is devoted to post-growth, sufficiency, selective downscaling, and rebound effects, as well as to sustainable and circular business models and their implications for value creation, delivery, and capture.

The second part focuses on sustainable performance measurement. It covers stakeholder analysis, materiality, sustainability strategy, strategy maps, and the design of integrated performance-measurement systems. Students learn to define environmental, economic, and innovation indicators, establish baselines and targets, assess data quality, assign measurement responsibilities, and recognize the possible behavioural effects of indicators. Screening life-cycle assessment, carbon measurement, and dashboard design are introduced as tools for supporting engineering and managerial decisions.

The third part addresses project management for sustainable innovation. Topics include project definition, scope, work-breakdown structures, scheduling, and resources allocation. Students also examine stakeholder engagement, technical and market uncertainty, risk and opportunity management, stage-gate decisions, benefits realization, and the development of transition and implementation roadmaps.

Throughout the course, students work in teams on a fictional company case grounded in a real industrial sustainability transition. The case integrates market, technological, environmental, financial, organizational, and project-management information. Students are required to assess alternative transition pathways, develop a sustainable business model and performance-measurement system, conduct a quantitative environmental and economic analysis, and prepare an implementation and governance plan.

Readings/Bibliography

The course is based primarily on academic journal articles. Required readings will be made available to students through the course platform (Virtuale).

Teaching methods

The course comprises approximately 50% of lectures and 50% case analysis and project work.

Lectures introduce the main theories, frameworks, and analytical methods and include discussion of assigned academic readings and worked industrial examples.

Project activities are developed progressively during the course through structured workshops, quantitative exercises, peer feedback, and meetings with the instructor. Students work in teams on a common industrial challenge. Intermediate milestones allow students to receive formative feedback before submitting the final project.

Assessment methods

The final grade is based on:

• an individual written examination based on open-ended questions, accounting for 50 per cent of the final grade;
• a team capstone project, accounting for 50 per cent of the final grade.

Assessment considers conceptual accuracy, appropriate use of academic evidence, transparency of assumptions, quantitative rigour, feasibility of the proposed recommendations, and clarity of written and oral communication.

Teaching tools

Teaching materials include lecture slides, academic articles, case-study documents. Students will also use spreadsheet and data-visualization software to analyse market, operational, environmental, financial, and project data.

Office hours

See the website of Matteo Mura