Sustainability Management and Innovation MSc

This module explores the challenges and opportunities that societal and environmental issues create for organisations as exemplified by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Students will explore sustainable management in all its dimensions, learning from real life examples, focusing on examining key problems and developing innovative solutions in order to lead their organisations towards sustainable change that aligns businesses long-term goals with the broader expectations of society in a globalised, connected world. To help students understand the systematic and organisational role of sustainability in any organisation, the module will give an overview of major sustainability issues, practices according to the following 3 dimensions: environmental, social and financial.

This module will cover key sustainability marketing concepts such as green marketing and green brands, how to create value for the customer, and designing products and services using different sustainability tools such as product life-cycle analysis. Sustainable marketing strategy development will be studied in the context of the triple bottom line that places equal weight on economic, environmental and social stewardship.

The module aims to develop students’ understanding of how new opportunities are offered for business innovation and sustainability in emerging and existing sectors and the strategic challenges in exploiting these emerging opportunities in order to transform them into sustainable economic strategies. How can digital start-ups build strategies to win against traditional bricks-and-mortar incumbents?

Sustainability, corporate social responsibility and ethics have an internal as well as an external focus. The internal focus includes organisational and management behaviours, health, safety and well-being, ethical and responsible leadership and the management of diversity and inclusion. Changing business models to become more socially and environmentally sustainable requires closer alignment of organisational behaviours with corporate social and environmental priorities. This puts strong emphasis on change management competencies and leadership approaches that foster development of adaptive organisational cultures and readiness for change. Leadership of such transformational change is the main focus of the module.

This module is focused on organisations’ eco-systems and the necessity for companies to build partnerships and collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders in order to deliver sustainability goals. Particular emphasis is placed on sustainable supply chains and green logistics and procurement. The first part of the module provides the context for integration and collaboration between firms, and explains how firms employ strategic partnerships and other forms of co-operation and control to overcome internal resources constraints, access new technologies and, more importantly, in a sustainability context, to redefine industries and components of supply-demand networks. The second part of the module addresses sustainable supply chains and particularities and principals of their management as key areas where firms can address sustainability issues and leverage change. The third part of the module focuses on the specific elements of supply chain management, covering green public procurement, environmental and socially responsible purchasing policies and organisational issues associated with implementation of these.

Innovative thinking, creative problem solving, and integrative research approaches are at the heart of this experiential and application-oriented module. The module supports students in developing knowledge and key competencies to investigate and report on issues in current sustainability management and practice. The module will also ensure that students have an advanced understanding of how to select effective research strategies and designs, and how to collect and analyse qualitative and quantitative data to evaluate the research outcomes. The module offers two routes that students could opt for. Route 1: a sound academic research project, and Route 2: a work-based and consultancy-type project supported by critical understanding of research techniques. For those students opting for the consultancy-type project, they will be required to undertake a practical sustainability project in collaboration with a UK-based organisation. Students are expected to analyse a sustainability issue working with a company of their choice and make clear and rigorous recommendations drawn from the research carried out. The project allows for different levels of interaction with companies, ranging from interviews with senior managers to an (uncredited) internship which would form the basis of the research project. The module team provides guidance to students to work with a host organisation relevant to students’ career aspirations.

This module provides the methods and frameworks in order to measure and report on an organisation’s carbon emissions, usage of natural resources and energy to GRI standards. The module will also cover the strategic importance, place and role of sustainability reporting.

One of the educational aims of the MSc in Sustainability Management and Innovation is to enable students to gain an understanding of the challenges facing businesses and managers in different contexts. In particular, it is important that sustainability-minded managers of the future understand the implications of different economic, political, social and ecological environments on sustainability strategies and solutions. There are immense benefits to be achieved by taking students out of the UK context and studying for a short period in a different country. This module will provide the opportunity to explore business and sustainability in a contrasting economy. The learning will take place through formal lectures from Westminster faculty, local faculty and guest speakers, and through direct observation and experiential learning in local businesses and local urban and rural contexts.