Fundamental Concepts of Sustainable Business

Course aim

This course provides a rigorous introduction to the fundamental concepts, and the arenas of theory and practice, of sustainable business. It provides students with a theoretical framework for approaching current sustainability challenges in the global business environment and its implications for management theory and practice.

Course content

This course provides a rigorous historical and conceptual analysis of sustainability as it applies to business enterprise. It analyses the way in which the concept of sustainability has developed in the literature over the past four decades; the parallel emergence of sustainability challenges in the global business environment, including issues of energy, water, biodiversity, climate change, social impacts and the carbon constrained economy; the theoretical challenges mounted by sustainability concepts to theories of the firm, with a particular focus on the concepts and values associated with ‘externalities’ and ‘corporate social responsibility’; the evolution of community and business attitudes to sustainability, embedded in the concept of the ‘license to operate’ in the developed world, particularly Australia, Europe and the United States over the past four decades; sustainability trends in India and China; the impacts of sustainability concepts on the core functions of business, including strategy development, marketing, finance and accounting, operations, and organisational development, and the multidisciplinary theoretical foundations of the principles and practice of sustainable business.

Textbook(s)

Nil

Prerequisite(s)

Nil

Corequisite(s)

Nil

Teaching method

Note: These components may or may not be scheduled in every study period. Please refer to the timetable for further details.

Assessment

Group project: written paper and class presentation, Individual written project, Online responses posted to selected questions, Responses in class small group work and class discussions

Fees

EFTSL*: 0.125
Commonwealth Supported program (Band 3)
To determine the fee for this course as part of a Commonwealth Supported program, go to:
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Fee-paying program for domestic and international students
International students and students undertaking this course as part of a postgraduate fee paying program must refer to the relevant program home page to determine the cost for undertaking this course.

Non-award enrolment
Non-award tuition fees are set by the university. To determine the cost of this course, go to:
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Not all courses are available on all of the above bases, and students must check to ensure that they are permitted to enrol in a particular course.

* Equivalent Full Time Study Load. Please note: all EFTSL values are published and calculated at ten decimal places. Values are displayed to three decimal places for ease of interpretation.