FNS-M08.1_SASI_Module1-Decarbonization and climate strategies for organizations_2022-23

This course aims at analyzing and understanding the issues faced by firms implementing sustainable development strategies. In general, firms implement sustainable strategies for two reasons: either they do so in a “corporate responsibility” perspective, because managers think it is the right thing to do (this is called the “normative case”), or they do so strategically, because they believe they can create a competitive advantage out of making their business more sustainable (called the “business case”).Sustainability can therefore shift from being a constraint to becoming a business opportunity. However, whatever the motivation is, sustainable strategies will inevitably create a tension between the traditional profit maximization objective and the new socio-environmental objectives. The more innovative the sustainable business model, the more significant the tension between economic and socioenvironmental objectives.This course explores different ways to manage this tension by discussing case studies that highlight different stages in companies: creating a new business, or a new business unit/ business model, or transforming the whole organization. The underlying questions addressed during the course are:- whether it is possible for firms to create a sustainable competitive advantage through corporate social responsibility;- how to do it.The perspective of this course is that of a general manager whose responsibility is to maximize the overall performance of the firm or the performance of a business unit within the firm, while improving the sustainability of the firm’s activities, creating a new sustainable business model, or transforming the whole organization. To achieve these objectives, general managers must analyze the drivers of the firm’s current performance and identify external challenges and pressures that may affect this performance. On this basis, their job is then to find ways to better leverage the firm’s internal resources in order to sustainably improve performance and help the firm reinvent itself through sustainability. The course will thus explore how sustainability can be a driver for innovation and renewal.