75584 - Green Strategy and Sustainable Innovation

Course contents

How can business sustainability be defined? Why most companies operating within today’s dominant business paradigm overlook long-term sustainability in the name of short-term profit maximization? What can companies do to become more environmentally friendly? Is a more ethical and humane way of doing business emerging from the current crisis of capitalism?

This course provides a multi-disciplinary perspective into the future evolution of business, according to what can be already observed in the present. Students will directly interact with companies at the forefront of sustainability, learning to adopt both a scientific and a pragmatic outlook on them. The course explores such topics as circular economy, biomimicry and frugal innovation, "slow" management, responsible sourcing, B-Corporations, integrated reporting.

Readings/Bibliography

We will read and comment scientific papers, articles from major economic magazines, and publicly available company materials. Students will reflect on the different challenges and opportunities associated to business sustainability, paying attention to the assumptions under which different stakeholders operate.

Assessment methods

Students' evaluation will be anchored to class participation. Each student will be asked to keep a course learning journal, to be discussed in a final one-to-one conversation with the teacher.

 

Teaching tools

Ten class sessions (3 hours each) will cover the following activities:
- frontal lectures, supported by slides and videos
- class debates, on specific topics or previously assigned papers
- conversations with guest speakers from innovative companies
- a company visit to directly experience the reality of a sustainability-oriented enterprise

Office hours

See the website of Filippo Dal Fiore