Syllabus

MAN4781 Sustainable Business Strategies

Instructor: / Dr. Lynn Grinnell
OfficePhone / 727 791-5934
OfficeHours / TWTh noon-5:00 pm
E-mail /
CourseCredits / 3 credits

Required Text

/ Stead, W. & Stead, J. (2014). Sustainable strategic management 2nd Ed. NY: M.E. Sharpe
/ Epstein, M. (2014). Making sustainability work, 2nd Ed. San Francisco, CA: Greenleaf Publishing
/ Esty, D. & Winston, A. (2011). Green to gold business playbook. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Course Description

Prerequisites: Admission to the four-year Sustainability Program and College of Technology and Management. This course is intended to provide an overview of concepts, tools, and techniques to build and operate a sustainable organization. Topics covered include the role of leadership in sustainability, organizational design issues, capital investment, costing, and risk management systems, incentives and rewards, measurement of social, environmental, and economic impacts, green marketing concepts, and internal and external reporting. 45 contact hours.

Course Objectives

  1. The student will apply concepts and principles of sustainability.
  2. The student analyze the role of leadership in creating sustainable businesses.
  3. The student will evaluate global implications in the design of sustainable organizations.
  4. The student will evaluate the role of performance evaluations and incentives in encouraging improvements in corporate processes and apply selected strategies.
  5. The student will apply measurement systems used in assessing sustainable organizations.
  6. The student will analyze environmental consumer behavior and apply green marketing concepts to address various green market segments.
  7. The student will create internal and external reporting systems used in creating transparency in organizational sustainability.

Weekly Activities

There are two phases to the learning process in this course.

Practice: Planning and Implementing a Sustainable Business

  • Individual Portfolio. Each week you will create several artifacts for your professional portfolio related to forming a new sustainable business.
  • Learning Community. Each week you will be sharing your individual portfolio to a team of learners. I will be there, too, and will give you detailed feedback so you can improve your submission before including it in your final ePortfolio.
  • Running a Real-World Non-Profit. As members running the first Florida undergraduate chapter of an international non-profit, Net Impact, you will be primary movers in planning and running the local non-profit chapter, including planning and participating in events, developing webinars, running workshops, and hand-on projects for sustainability management students and recent graduates. Some of the events require participation in real-time, but there is an online option for individuals who are out of area.
  • Planning. You will be responsible for finding volunteer opportunities, marketing events, and networking opportunities, and creating training webinars and workshops. (Activities should be planned for maximum participation by class members, including online options for those out of town or at work.)
  • Implementing. You will be actively participating in all of the activities you have planned. (Note: there will be online options for those not available; however, there are great benefits to be gained from participating in person, if you can.)
  • Reflection. Each week you will attach your contribution to the weekly planning and write a reflection on the process used and how you would do it in the future.

Assessments:

  • Final ePortfolio. Your final ePortfolio will be a collection of the artifacts you have created during the course, organized in a professional format. It can be downloaded for use after graduation and you may add other items to your portfolio so that it can used as powerful evidence of your abilities.

Tentative Schedule

Week / Topic / Activities / Points / Due Dates
1 / Sustainable strategic planning / Readings: Green to Gold, Ch 1, 18, 19, 20;Making Sustainability WorkCh. 1 & pp 51-57;Sustainable Strategic ManagementCh. 1 & pp 131-143, Ch 7 pp 214-221; Supplemental Readings
Instructional WebEx/Class session/Team time / Sun, 9 pm + recorded
Sustainable Business Planning: Individual Portfolio: Post
Presentation / 15
10 / Post by Friday;
Present Fri/Sat
Assessment.Net Impact activity
Reflection. / 10
10 / Fri;
Sun
2 / Sustainable internal strategies / Readings: Green to Gold, Ch. 3, 4;Making Sustainability WorkCh. 3 & 5;Sustainable Strategic Managementpp 221-225, 240; Supplemental Readings
Instructional WebEx/Class session/Team time / Sat, 5 pm+ recorded
Sustainable Business Planning: Individual Portfolio: Post
Presentation / 15
10 / Post by Friday;
Present Fri/Sat
Assessment.Net Impact activity
Reflection. / 10
10 / Fri;
Sun
3 / Sustainable environmental scans / Readings: Making Sustainability Workpp 268-271;Sustainable Strategic ManagementCh 2 & 3, Green to Gold, Ch 5, 7 & 19, review 18; Supplemental Readings
Instructional WebEx/Class session/Team time / Sat, 5 pm + recorded
Sustainable Business Planning: Individual Portfolio: Post
Presentation / 15
10 / Post by Friday;
Present Fri/Sat
Assessment.Net Impact activity
Reflection. / 10
10 / Fri;
Sun
4 / Sustainability Project Management / Readings: Supplemental Readings
Instructional WebEx/Class session/Team time / Sat, 5 pm/ recorded
Sustainable Business Planning: Individual Portfolio: Post
Presentation / 15
10 / Post by Friday;
Present Fri/Sat
Assessment.Net Impact activity
Reflection. / 10
10 / Fri;
Sun
5 / Sustainable Choices in Budget Development / Readings:Green to GoldCh 17, Making Sustainability Workpp 96-110, and Supplemental Readings
Instructional WebEx/Class session/Team time / Sat, 5 pm/ recorded
Sustainable Business Planning: Individual Portfolio: Post
Presentation / 15
10 / Post by Friday;
Present Fri/Sat
Assessment.Net Impact activity
Reflection. / 10
10 / Fri;
Sun
6 / Sustainable marketing strategies / Readings: Sustainable Strategic Managementp. 164-168;Making Sustainability Workp. 211-214;Green to Gold, Ch. 15; Supplemental Readings
Instructional WebEx/Class session/Team time / Sat, 5 pm/ recorded
Sustainable Business Planning: Individual Portfolio: Post
Presentation / 15
10 / Post by Friday;
Present Fri/Sat
Assessment.Net Impact activity
Reflection. / 10
10 / Fri;
Sun
7 / Risk management / Readings:Making Sustainability Work, Ch. 4, pp 105-117, 157-162, 183,Green to Gold, Ch 16, and Supplemental Readings.
Instructional WebEx/Class session/Team time / Sat, 5 pm/ recorded
Sustainable Business Planning: Individual Portfolio: Post
Presentation / 15
10 / Post by Friday;
Present Fri/Sat
Assessment.Net Impact activity
Reflection. / 10
10 / Fri;
Sun
8 / Culminating activities / Assessment: Final Individual Portfolio / 100 / Tue, 11:55 pm

Grading Policy

Points for each activity

Activity / Points
Seven Individual Portfolio assignments @25 points apiece / 175
Seven Assessments @ 20 points apiece / 140
One final Individual Portfolio / 100
Total possible points / 415

Grading

  • 90-100% = A
  • 80-89% = B
  • 70-79% = C
  • 60-69% = D
  • 0-59% = F

Deadlines.Students must submit all of the assignments for each week by the deadline no later than 11:55PM (EST)or the time of the virtual presentations. This course operates on a “mastery” learning approach, meaning that most assignments are submitted twice – once for an initial grade and feedback, and a second time for a final grade with greater weight. Students are required to present their work weekly in a learning community virtual session in order to get feedback. Failure to do so will result in loss of weekly presentation points. (Video submissions are not a suitable substitute since the primary purpose of the learning community is feedback.)

Teams. A significant portion of your grade comes from teamwork. As a real committee for the SPC chapter of Net Impact, an international non-profit, you will be developing and implementing real-world communication projects and sustainability projects. Teams should set up a weekly virtual meeting time or other means convenient for all members to help coordinate these real-world projects. Communication between virtual meetings needs to be prompt and supportive, using discussion boards or email, as the team determines. Ongoing peer review of team participation is 10% of the final grade.

Incompletes.Incompletes will not be granted unless the student has completed at least 80% of the course. Read the Incomplete Grades and Procedures policy for more information.

Course Requirements

Time Commitment. This is a three-credit course over eight weeks rather than the 16 weeks in traditional courses. In order to meet accreditation standards, students should expect to spend between 13 to 15 hours per week, on average, on course activities and assignments. Spending less time would be insufficient for success in this course.

Hardware and Software Requirements. Students should have regular access to a computer that is connected to the Internet. Students are also required to have a webcam. It is strongly recommended that students have a broadband (high-speed) Internet connection such as DSL or cable modem. When taking online quizzes and exams or viewing online video, students should have an Internet connection that is stable and will not drop their connection. Students without a stable, high-speed Internet connection should consider making arrangements to take online quizzes and exams at one of the SPC libraries or a similar facility where stable, high-speed Internet connection is available. Internet Explorer is the preferred browser to use to access course materials. Because of the use of teams in many classes, we require a common format for all students to share documents. Students are required to submit assignments and share team documents in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) formats. No other formats (such as .RTF, .WPS, etc.) will be accepted.

Academic Integrity

Academic honesty and plagiarism falls under theAcademic Honesty Policyof the college. The College of Business has a Zero tolerance policy for academic dishonesty and if the student is in violation, a zero will be given for that assignment, and the student’s name will be submitted to the Dean for future tracking. Additional violations can result in a failing grade for the course (or in future courses, even for initial violations). **Understand that not properly giving credit to the sources used in your work, even when paraphrasing, is considered plagiarism and can result in a "0" for that assignment**.

Miscellaneous

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