Building a Sustainable Business

Building a Sustainable Business [8 hour]

This unit provides an overview of the factors that can make a business sustainable, and explains how these can be incorporated into the management of an organisation. It will give you an understanding of how the economic, environmental and societal impacts of a organisation's activities can be monitored and measured, and an outline of some of the practical ways in which a business can anticipate and reduce these impacts, both strategically and operationally. 

The unit reviews issues such as openness and transparency; licence to operate; corporate social responsibility [CSR]; supply chains, partnerships and stakeholder interests; sustainability indicators; methodologies to evaluate and assess environmental and societal impacts (including ecological, carbon and water footprints) and approaches to environmental and sustainability reporting and auditing.

Key points covered in the unit include:

• Sustainability - concepts and practices in business
• Ethical and societal impacts of business and forces for change
• The Triple Bottom Line - the precautionary principle, product stewardship, polluter pays, ethical probity
• Openness, transparency, corporate social responsibility, partnerships and supply chain issues
• A licence to operate and corporate governance
• Environmental and sustainability reporting and auditing
• Sustainability indicators including ecological/carbon/water footprints

Download the Unit Handbook from the panel on the right.

Provisional start dates for this unit:

w/c 14^th May 2012
w/c 15^th October 2012

The cost of the unit is £352.50 (all inclusive). The unit has a learning time equivalent to 8 hours spread over 5 weeks.

To register for the unit please email Tom Owen or call 020 7831 3110.

Staffordshire University reserve the right to cancel any start date if there are insufficient registrants. No refunds can be made less than 14 days prior to the commencement of the unit although substitutions can be made at any time.