- Understanding the concepts of sustainable business and corporate responsibility
- Understanding the central tensions in corporate sustainability
- Identifying sustainability challenges and introducing strategic approaches to respond to them
- Understanding sustainability in different business functions and the management instruments available
- Developing critical thinking about how to deal with different stakeholders in advancing sustainability
- Recognizing how enterprises can innovate to develop more sustainable businesses.
This course focuses on the role of business in addressing the vast sustainable development challenges faced by the world. There is a complex relationship between business and sustainability, as business has historically been the source of many of these challenges (e.g. climate change, inequality, pollution), and yet business must also be part of the solution, given the size and scope of global business activities. Against this backdrop, there has been an undeniable shift in business attitudes towards sustainability, with corporations increasingly wanting to act sustainably. However, these companies are constrained by the competitive pressures that speak to the core of the sustainability challenge: on the one hand, a more sustainable company does good for the world, but on the other hand if done incorrectly, sustainability shifts undercut the financial viability of a company. Put another way, even the worlds most sustainable company does no good if it goes out of business.
With this in mind, the focus of this course is first on understanding the nature of this tension, and second on understanding how to develop business strategies that are simultaneously better for the environment, society, and a company s finances. To truly pursue the needed sustainability shift, companies must creatively address the needs of their diverse stakeholders so that they can find win-wins.
Overall, the course will cover expansive ground, including business strategy, supply chains, sustainability management and communication instruments, innovation for sustainability, and the circular economy. Simulations and cases will be used to highlight the underlying complexity.
Justine Loizeau
Hahn, Rüdiger. Sustainability management: Global perspectives on concepts, instruments, and stakeholders. Rüdiger Hahn, 2022.
A selection of articles. Required pre-readings for each lecture (1-3 articles / book chapters per lecture).
Contact teaching (70% lecture attendance requirement, or you cannot get credit for the final assignment)
Independent work and assignments
No prerequisites.
60% group/individual exercises, 40% individual exam
The teaching time and the location of the course can be found at Sisu information system
From the blue bar, click Lecture and open the Groups and teaching times tab to see the teaching time and the location of the course. Exam times can be seen by clicking Exam.
The teacher has four (4) weeks to grade the exam submissions starting from the exam date.
Equivalences to other courses: 21E16000 Sustainable Business and Consumption, A21E16001 Sustainability in Business
MyCourses online learning environment is a tool for both students and teachers for communication and managing everyday course work. You need an Aalto User ID to log in to the course's MyCourses workspace and participate in teaching.
Digital workspace of the course:
MyCourses
More details on completing the course will be available at MyCourses closer to the start of the course.
Registration for Open University courses is done via the link below:
Course registration
Registration for this course starts on 23.3.2026 at 9.00
Registration for this course ends on 13.4.2026 at 23.59
It is not possible to register before the registration period has started or after it has ended.
The number of participants is limited to 5.
This course is organized by the Aalto University School of Business.
The course fee is paid upon registration for each course at a time and it is binding. Familiarize yourself with registration and payment rules as well as other guidelines for students:
Registration, payments and rules
You can activate your Aalto User ID the day after the registration and you should activate it no later than the day before the start of the course.
Instructions for activating your Aalto user ID
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