Sustainability: Management and Innovation

Overview courses

• Grand challenges for sustainability

  “Sustainable development is development that seeks to meet the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability to meet those of the future” (Brundtland report). This course examines the main global developments that call for more sustainable policies, businesses, products and behaviours.

• Shared value creation

  This course examines firms as embedded in society and a web of stakeholders. We move away from firms focused on profit-maximization only, towards companies that create shared values so that societal and natural values are incorporated into business goals.

• Sustainable Business Processes

  Sustainability has to be operationalized through production and distribution methods and technologies. This course offers methods to evaluate and improve business processes from a triple bottom line perspective (including quantitative assessment methods for "People", "Planet", "Profit") and from a system dynamics perspective.

• Organizing sustainable innovation

  This course explores the development of new products, services, and business models that capture business opportunities and contribute to sustainable development. This involves the development of technology-based innovations, but also new forms of organizing (e.g. ‘sharing economy’), and interactions with stakeholders.

• Marketing sustainable innovations

  The final element in the value chain is to bring sustainable products and services to the market. The course offers a hands-on experience in which you are challenged to combine the insights gained in previous courses, into an attractive marketing plan that takes all stakeholders into account.

• Internship

  It is possible to replace two of the courses for an internship that will be supervised by one of the lecturers of the courses. The courses to be replaced are one out of the two courses "Organizing sustainable innovation" and "Sustainable business processes" (both in period 2) in combination with "Marketing sustainable innovations" (in period 3). Internships should be aligned with a topic addressed in the minor and should be initiated by students. Proposals for an internship need approval from the minor coordinator.