Introduction to Sustainable Development & Corporate

Sustainability
2 Credit Core course PGDM (Part time, 2015-18)
XLRI Jamshedpur
Instructor: Dr. Tata L. Raghu Ram (Ph: 6653196; M: 9934360121); E-mail:
raghutata@xlri.ac.in
The strategist who is unconcerned by sustainability is akin to an architect who cares
not whether their building stands or falls James Mackenzie
Introduction
Sustainable Development (SD) has most commonly been interpreted to mean development that
integrates socio-environmental and equitable benefit sharing concerns into decision making
while contributing to inter and intra-generational human wellbeing. Various national and
international policy and regulatory frameworks have emerged to encourage adaptation of SD
practices. Historically, businesses have treated SD concerns as peripheral issues, outside the
realm of mainstream business decision making. Social responsibility and environmental
management have been framed as added costs driven primarily by guilt or regulation. Over the
last decade the understanding of business and sustainability interlinkages has undergone a
paradigm shift. Balancing the often conflicting stakeholder interests has emerged as a new
business challenge. As Porter and Kramer (2011) framed it, shared value creation (creating win
st
win outcomes for all stakeholders) has emerged the path forward for 21 century business
enterprises. In this context, to maximize a firms competitive advantage, managers should learn
to include SD concerns into the full range of business operations and strategic decision making.
Even more importantly, they need to be able to take advantage of the business opportunities
inherent in societys demands for SD.

In a nutshell, SD aims to achieve a balance between economic (Profit), social (People) and
environmental (Planet) objectives. Many enterprises are now actively seeking to pull these
together under a competitive strategy that captures this triple bottom line. There is a real
potential for competitive advantage to be increasingly rooted in such new capabilities as
resource optimization, designing for environment, , social responsiveness, stakeholder
engagement, going beyond compliance and gaining social consent to operate etc.

This course is designed to sensitize and equip students with skills to navigate the interface of
business and SD.

Course Objectives and Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students will be able to:
Develop an understanding of the emerging national/global Sustainable Development
trends and their relevance to business management.
Develop stakeholder sensitivity to be able to drive managerial decisions to create
 shared value for inter and intragenerational equity

Develop a familiarity with the various tools and frameworks that enable integration of
SD concerns into business decision making
*Reading material and references are incorporated in the session plan
Sessionwise schedule
Pedagogy
Each session will have 3 components:

1 Introduction and business relevance of the days topic by the instructor : 45 minutes
2 Group project presentation : 20 minutes
3 Discussion : 20 minutes

Course Evaluation
1. Live group project on sustainability: 25%
Choose a sustainability topic that is most relevant to your job profile and
in consultation with sustainability officer in your company. Critically
analyze the issue through research and submit a Detailed Project Report.
We will discuss more on this as we start interacting.

2. Attendance: 10% In addition to 10%, absence from class beyond 2 sessions (with
permission or otherwise), will attract 3 negative marks per session. Missing 5 sessions or
more will attract F grade. Leave of absence should be notified to the course instructor.

3. Group project and presentation: 25% (15% for writeup + 10% for
presentation)
From session 2 onwards, students in groups (4 or 5 students/group) will research
and present on a pre-assigned topic. In addition, each group will conduct a thorough
research on the topic and submit a 4 page writeup on the state of the art. At least 7
research articles/reports should be read and citations need to be provided along
with the writeup. This requires that the groups shall interact with me at least 5
days before their presentation to finalize the contents. Final presentation should be
shared with me and other students at least 24 hours before the class.

4. Endterm: 40%
Group Presentations
Each group will make a presentation for 20 minutes. Very thoroughly researched presentations
that go beyond the readings provided in the course kit is what is expected. Please note that half
hearted efforts will not do. It is up to the groups to demonstrate their scholarship and collective
wisdom to make the presentations lively, relevant and count.

Group 1: Relevance of Ecological footprint (at individual, firm, and societal levels) to business
decision making
Group 2: Life Cycle Assessment as a strategic decision making tool
Group 3: Deriving strategic advantage through Circular Economy
Group 4: Strategic advantages of Sustainable supply chain Management
Group 5: Corporate ecosystem services review: Addressing business risk arising from ecosystem
change
Group 6: Using sustainability as marketing strategies in B2C, B2B & B2G space
Group 7: Sustainability as a strategic financial decision making tool
Group 8: The challenge of embedding sustainability in organizations: The role of HRM and
leadership
Group 9: Emergence of Green economy as a concept and its relevance to corporate strategy

Group 10: Relevance of sustainability to strategy: emerging trends

Group 11: Driving competitive advantage through CSR

Group 12: Building National competitiveness through sustainability

Grading
The course will follow the grading norm as suggested in the student manual.

Important instructions:
No repeat quizzes/exams will be conducted.
The course instructor will have Zero tolerance towards plagiarism. All written
submissions and group projects/ppts shall pass through antiplagiarism software.
Plagiarism will attract F grade.
The course instructor will have Zero tolerance towards use of laptops, mobile phones,
sleeping in the class, reading some other courses material etc.
No student will be allowed into the class after attendance is taken.