Corporate Social Responsibility and SustainabilityAdv Dip Pro Dev

Environmental Economics and Investment

Environmental Economics and Investment is a Level 7 module which is core to MSc Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability. It is one of the optional Economics modules studied on other courses.

The Environmental Economics and Investment module considers in depth the issues faced by governments and businesses in the face of climate change and other global trends in relation to the environment and the economy. It extends their understanding of the complex and critical relations between man and nature in the processes of economic reproduction.

The module assesses the standard economic principles in their use as tools to investigate the causes, consequences and the possible solutions to problems of environmental degradation and climate change. The three major themes in the module are (i) the determination of the ‘optimum’ levels of environmental resource usage (ii) the analyses of alternative ways of attaining those targets and (iii) the impact of these actions on business decision making.

The crucial notion of 'sustainability' is a key to the investigation. So are the proximate and underlying causes of environmental problems. The main aim of the module is to introduce students to the established economists’ way of analysing environmental problems, and to explore the evolving methodologies prompted by the environmental crisis now upon us.

Note: If there are not sufficient student numbers to make a module viable, the School reserves the right to cancel such a module. If the School cancels a module it will use its reasonable endeavours to provide a suitable alternative.

Fundamentals of CSR and Sustainability

The field of corporate social responsibility has practically transformed our world and reoriented the way corporate entities conduct and perceive their operational activities. Corporate managers and those who represent corporate entities are expected to always behave ethically. Modern societies now expect that solutions to our social and environmental problems cannot only be the prerogative of nation governments, businesses of the 21st century have a lot to contribute when finding solutions to these problems. The demands modern stakeholders put before corporate entities have continued to increase; tomorrow’s managers need to know how to meet these demands. Some scholars have in fact argued that corporate social responsibility has drawn our attention to some of the excesses which globalisation has brought unto the corporate scene in the 21st century. We have seen some unacceptable practices which have accompanied globalisation and consequently made the job of CSR and what it advocates much more difficult. Many things have been made a lot more challenging for everyone because of this. We cannot ignore the adverse impacts of these excesses. There are several unacceptable practices in the form of injustices and human rights abuses, extreme poverty in several nation states both - emerging and even some advanced nations, environmental degradation, some irresponsible and reckless practices by some corporate leaders and terrorism on a very large scale. In recent years, a number of social, economic and environmental problems have continued to cause concern to us all, for example, climate change, waste management and irresponsible use of our depletable resources just to mention a few. Sustainable Development is a buzzword in CSR; both corporate and individual citizens still need to demonstrate that we are serious in executing what sustainable development means to us, what it requires from us all and how the needs of future generations of all inhabitants of this planet would be sustainably met; these are issues tomorrow’s managers would need to know how to embed in corporate strategies. This module aims to lay the foundation on how modern managers should address these and other CSR related issues.

Note: If there are not sufficient student numbers to make a module viable, the School reserves the right to cancel such a module. If the School cancels a module it will use its reasonable endeavours to provide a suitable alternative.