ADVANCED STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

概要

Recently, we see more extreme, sometimes catastrophic events in many parts of the world. Scientists demonstrate better evidence indicating the link between our economic activities and the environmental degradation. We are beginning to realize that environmental issues are no longer negligible in business operations. Negligence of the issues may result in serious economic loss for a company. On the other hand, many companies have begun to recognize environmental management as a way forward to generate profitable opportunities. Toyota made a major investment to produce hybrid cars before its competitors. As you witness now, the hybrid cars have been sold well in the international market. Another example can be observed in the chemical industry. DuPont placed research and development efforts in producing alternative chemical to the ozone-depleting CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) in the 1980s. The company successfully developed alternative chemical to CFCs and altered its strategic position on international regulation (Montreal Protocol) to ban CFCs. This course introduces essential concepts of strategic environmental management as well as leading practices of environmental management. To begin with, we will review essential theoretical approaches in strategic environmental management. Through the review, we will be able to gain conceptual foundation on this subject. We will use several case studies to help us understand environmental management in practice. We will then explore the linkages between concepts and practices. Some questions that we will address in this course are following: 1) What are the leading examples of environmental management among companies? 2) How are the companies dealing with global environmental sustainability issues such as SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), ESG (Environment, Social, Governance), and climate change? 3) What are the drivers for the companies to formulate environmental strategy and management? Are they external and/or internal drivers? Are there any pressures from the external environment for the companies to cope with sustainability such as regulatory, social, market and technological pressures? 4) How do investors consider the companies that have better environmental strategy and management? Do they consider it as part of company’s intangible values? How does environmental strategy and management relate to competitiveness of the companies in the global market? 5) How do the companies deal with environmental issues through their global supply chain? This course is open for any students who are interested in environmental management. If you are interested in learning about business implications of global warming, for example, this would a course of your interest. If you are interested in exploring the roles in the main business functions such as marketing and finance in environmental management, this would be a course of your interest too.

目標

The goal of this course is to build a conceptual foundation on environmental management. It is expected at the end of the course that you have sufficient knowledge on environmental management to discuss environmental management of a company of your interest, identify the major environmental problems in the industry sector of your interest and evaluate the performance of company’s environmental management against its competitors etc.

授業外の学習

The students taking this course are expected to work on the following assignments outside of classroom. 1) To read the reading materials and answer questions assigned for each reading material individually (2 hours a week) 2) To meet with research project members, discuss and research on a selected research topic, and prepare for progress and final presentations with them (2 hours a week)

所要時間: At least 190 minutes per lecture.