Curricula

Objectives

Sustainability & responsibility is much more than just sorting your trashes and taking them out to the right bins. Sustainable sourcing and production methods througout the supply chain are a must nowadays and corporate responsibility is the basic prerequisite for companies to exist. On this course you will learn how globally acknowledged responsibility initiatives, e.g. UN Global Compact, affect on corporate governance.

Course Competencies:
Competences to be promoted and assessed in this course include analysing skills, ability to consult and apply norms and codes related to sustainability and responsibility, awareness of societal, health and safety, environmental, economic and industrial implications and responsibility in decision making.

Learning outcomes in the course:
You will learn the significance of responsibility aspects in business. You know how to evaluate sustainability reporting and how environmental, financial and social responsibility are linked into business processes, logistics and strategic management of the companies. You acquire basic understanding of standards and legistlation related to sustainability and responsibility.

Content

Development phases of sustainable thinking in business context.
Currently perceived basic level of sustainability in corporations now and in the future.
Corporate social, financial and environmental responsibility.
UN Global Compact, ISO standards, legistlation.
Study of sustainable megatrends, values and ethics.

Learning materials and recommended literature

McKinnon, Alan. 2018. Decarbonizing logistics: Distributing goods in a low-carbon world. 1st edition. New York: Kogan Page.

Grant, David B., Trautrims, Alexander, Wong, Chee Yew. 2023. Sustainable logistics and supply chain management: Principes and practices for sustainable operations and management. Third edition. London: Kogan Page.

SFS-EN ISO environmental, health & safety and other applicable standards (incl. 14083).

The lecture material related to the course can be found in the course workspace. The course also uses other material related to the topics. This will be communicated in the course.

Teaching methods

For full-time students completion of the course includes contact lessons at campus, learning assignments and a more extensive project work. Some of the learning assignments are done individually, some in small groups, some require independent work.

Multi-modal students and other online learners (e.g. open university) study online. For specified student groups studying online, the course is implemented virtually, which includes self-study (independent learning tasks or group learning tasks).

The assignments are described in more detail in the course workspace.

The first assignment on this course is mandatory for all students and must be completed within 3 weeks from the beginning of the course. Students that have not completed this first assignment, will be removed from the course.

The implementation combines both Finnish and English curriculum students, thus used language is entirely in English.

Practical training and working life connections

Guest lectures on different topics of the course.

Exam dates and retake possibilities

There is no exam on this course.

Student workload

One credit corresponds to an average of 27 hours of work, which means that the load of five credits is approximately 135 hours.

Further information for students

Attendance on the course has an impact on grading (full-time students).

Evaluation scale

0-5

Evaluation criteria, satisfactory (1-2)

1 Sufficient:
The student demonstrates his / her competence in the subjects dealt with in the course, identifies the topics dealt with in the course and understands their importance in relation to sustainability and responsibility.

2 Satisfactory:
In addition to the above, the student can describe the topics covered in the course systematically and knows how to apply them.

Evaluation criteria, good (3-4)

3 Good:
In addition to the above, the student demonstrates the ability to justify the effects of different solutions and to make informed choices between options.

4 Very good:
In addition to the above, the student demonstrates the ability to apply what he or she has learned and to evaluate the solutions and their effects analytically.

Evaluation criteria, excellent (5)

5 Excellent:
In addition to the above, the student demonstrates an in-depth knowledge of the course topics and the ability to structure and analyze the effects of solutions in a broader context. Student also demonstrates the ability to apply all methods of the course correctly and innovatively in variable contexts.