Sustainable Capitalism

Upon successful completion of this course the student should be able to:

• identify and critically discuss global contemporary challenges in business and society, this includes knowledge of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and an understanding of how these relate to business operations
• analyse the role of capitalism, both the benefits capitalism has brought humanity, and the costs
• discuss the purpose of the corporation, including social responsibility, and ethical implications of sustainability challenges
• analyse how the emergence of new business models in the economy are related to issues of resource scarcity, circular economy and environmental regulation
• investigate how businesses can contribute to solving key environmental and social challenges, including climate change and resource scarcity
• know how to apply theories of sustainability, circular economy and sustainable business models to business practise
• discuss the role of markets, public policy and regulations in solving key sustainability challenges
• analyse the difficult trade-off between future economic growth and sustainability
• analyse and present cases of how business respond to sustainability challenges

We start this course by describing the major challenges in society today, including the degradation of the earth’s ecosystem and the increasing threat of climate change. The introductory part of the course ends with an in-depth discussion of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Then we ask the question: How did we end up here? We trace the historical roots of capitalism and provide the students with the knowledge to better understand current sustainability challenges in economics and business. Going forward, how can businesses be a force for good? What is the moral responsibility of business? Is business ethics important for a sustainable future? In latter part of the course, the main goal is to investigate how businesses and governments can solve these global challenges. Key topics are corporate social responsibility, circular economy, sustainable business models, responsible investments, environmental and ecological economics, green growth, and regulations.

To help the students to master the material there will be a mix of lectures and seminars. Students must be prepared to work in groups. Estimated workload is 405 hours.