Green Business: Planning Sustainability Strategies

Overview/Description
Environmental sustainability holds a different meaning for every organization and every individual, and although it's implemented in a multitude of ways across industries, there is little disagreement about the urgency and importance that surrounds it. An organization must be willing to commit a great deal of its resources – human, technological, and economic – in order to plan, implement, and maintain a realistic green business sustainability strategy. Within organizations, the emergence of strong leaders, carefully laid plans, and innovative processes can help facilitate success in achieving sustainability goals. This course outlines a method for assessing how much your organization promotes environmental sustainability in its current practices, showing how to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and risks in relation to adopting green business sustainability practices. It also explores how mandated and voluntary green standards and regulations provide organizations with a framework for developing green business sustainability strategies and help them to communicate their commitment to sustainability. It examines how to plan for sustainability, stressing the need for leadership to make people across the enterprise aware of, and get them to commit to, the principles and objectives of environmental sustainability. The course also outlines how organizations can develop an approach to becoming more green and discusses the kinds of goals that need to be set, pointing to how these goals can affect the innovation process and encourage the development of new technologies.

Target Audience
Individuals in leadership roles, directors, change agents and influencers, as well as members of any organization considering adopting more sustainable enterprise practices and individuals looking to effect social change within their organization

Expected Duration (hours)
2.0

Lesson Objectives

Green Business: Planning Sustainability Strategies

recognize the benefits of assessing what sustainability means for your company

evaluate an organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and risks in relation to adopting sustainability practices

identify the issues to consider when assessing where your organization currently stands relative to sustainability

recognize how regulations and standards can help improve the sustainability efforts of businesses

recognize the value of being involved in planning your company's direction related to sustainability

identify examples of ways to lead the move toward sustainability

recognize the considerations involved in developing an approach to sustainability

recognize the importance of setting goals for sustainability

distinguish between minimization and optimization goals