Organizational Sustainability

Catalog description

This course is an introduction to Organizational Sustainability in its broader sense and is primarily designed for the Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Sustainability major and minor and those students interested in this area. For the organization, sustainability means the capacity to survive (to sustain itself) while contributing to the survival (the sustenance) of the various environments in which it finds itself, be these social, biological, economic, ecological, or other. The course offers a framework for understanding sustainability and introduces the concept of the triple-bottom line whereby corporate social responsibility and environmental protection are necessary conditions for business success in addition to profitability. It is not enough to fulfill only one or two of these three necessary conditions: organizations should be structured so all three are mutually reinforcing. The main objective of the course is to provide students with a broad context enabling them to develop the capacity for critical thinking and the skills necessary to understand the importance of sustainability. CAS students may take with permission of Chair.