Sustainability Crash Course – SCC

A crash course on Environmental Sustainability for business administration and management

Contact information

Lead instructor: Emilio Sessa
Affiliation: Cervest

Email: sustainabilitycrashcourse@gmail.com

Course overview

Teaching hours: 8

Valid for 1 CFU (BSc in Ingegneria Ges6onale and MSc in Management Engineering)

Course content

As of now, sustainability is a trend-topic in the business landscape and its appeal has been supported by the stringent reporting regulations about carbon emissions and decarbonization. The bigger picture of this sees sustainability as a tool for companies (SMEs and corporations) to get aligned with this trend but more to follow the front-runners of diverse initiatives which are working as driving forces using the “leading by example” effect. Previously considered as a waste of money and capital, sustainability has proven to be a tool for companies to test their resilience against climate change and market shifts and the 2020 pandemic scenario has worked as a driving force which has boosted its implementation. This short course has not the arrogance to be exhaustive on the topic, conversely has the intent to show the latest use cases for companies and young professionals who decide to kick-start their career in this thriving and changing field.

Each day will have a different topic for a total of 4 days two hours each:

1)  Day one (Friday 28 April, 15:00-17:00, Aula O011): what is it sustainability - icebreaker – games and debate, introduction with general survey, what does it mean sustainability, the different dimensions of sustainability, what is it environmental sustainability, have you ever heard of GRI?...,

2)  Day two (Friday 5 May, 15:00-17:00, Aula O011): introduction to climate change – small debate and recent evidences. Why is it important for companies? The world of the buzz words in sustainability. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – how does it work for companies what is the ROI? The GHG protocol and the Paris Agreement- The TCFD

3) Day three (Friday 12 May, 15:00-17:00, Aula O011): carbon accounting and carbon Footprinting activities (how do we do?). Examples-> what do you need to look at when you are dealing with a company and its sustainability approach – let’s take a look at some GHG disclosures.

4) Day four (Friday 19 May, 15:00-17:00, Aula O011): Carbon and climate neutrality and race net to zero. What a company is interested in when approaching and communicating sustainability? What is it offsetting and insetting. Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) Carbon units and Carbon credits: the Clean Development Mechanim (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol.

The topic might undergo movements and addi]onal tweaks.
At the end of the exam there will be a specific test to run I will communicate on the first day what it will consist of. The style of the course is interac]ve (as much as possible) and solely in English.

At the end of the course I will provide a distilled deck summarizing the contents of the PPT with further information to have a proper deep-dive and decent scientific and technical references.