
Impact of the business on natural capital
Business dependency on natural capital
Impact and dependency business model on natural capital
Triple bottom line (TBL): people, planet and prosperity
How to measure TBL
Shared value strategy in business
Three ways to create shared value
Sustainability as a driver for innovation
Sustainability initiatives for innovation
Circular business model
Circularity principles
The concept of product life cycle
Life cycle thinking tool
Circularity strategies
Circularity matrix tool
Sustainable consumption and production (SCP)
Key SCP principles
The concept of decoupling growth from material use and pollution
Sustainable manufacturing at
- Product level
- Process level
- System level
Building a sustainable manufacturing system
- Research phase
- Development phase
- Implementation phase
Measuring sustainable performance (TBL)
- Environmental performance
- Social performance
- Economic performance
ESG Framework
Market and non-market conditions
Why is ESG important?
Environmental criteria
Social criteria
Governance criteria
Environmental factors
Impact of environmental issues on business
- Physical risk
- Human risk
- Transitional risk
Social factors
Impact of social factors on business
Governance factors
Impact of governance factors on business
Stakeholders, who are they?
Managing stakeholder expectations
- Investors
- Supply chain partners
- Customers
- Employees
- Communities & civil society
What is materiality?
Materiality in ESG
Why is materiality assessment important in ESG?
The link between ESG and SDGs
How to conduct a materiality assessment?
Key steps in the materiality assessment
Materiality matrix
Stakeholder Analysis
- Stakeholder identification and stakeholder mapping
- Stakeholder matrix and analysis
What is stakeholder engagement in ESG?
Stakeholder engagement on ESG issues
Stakeholder engagement strategies and plan
Who is the community?
What is community engagement?
How community engagement aligns with the ESG framework
Social concerns in community engagement
Critical role of community engagement
Community engagement principles
Strategies for community engagement in achieving sustainable business objectives
Best practices addressing ESG issues
Value preservation and value creation
New ways to create value using ESG initiatives
Global goals and principles
Reporting frameworks
ESG ratings and indices
Regulations
Part 1 - An overview of reporting frameworks
GRI framework
* GRI Standards
- Universal Standards
- Sector Standards
- Topic Standards
SASB framework
* SASB Standards
- Industry-specific disclosure topics and related accounting metrics
- Technical protocol for compiling data
- Activity metrics for normalization
TCFD framework
* Core Elements
- Governance
- Strategy
- Risk management
- Metrics and targets
ESG Performance
ESG Ratings and Scores
Who does ESG ratings for companies ?
Observed Impacts of Climate Change
- on ecosystems
- on human systems
Climate Action
What is net zero?
Why is net zero important?
What is carbon accounting?
Key components of carbon accounting
Scope and boundaries in carbon accounting
- Scope 1 emission
- Scope 2 emission
- Scope 3 emission
Benefits of carbon accounting in business
How to integrate carbon accounting into business practices?
Greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint
- Why is carbon footprint important?
- What is CO2 equivalent (CO2e)?
Sources of emission
- Scope 1 emissions
- Scope 2 emissions
- Scope 3 emissions
How to measure carbon footprint?
- Step 1: Determine the reporting timeframe
- Step2: Drawing the organizational boundary
- Step3: Determine the emission sources
- Step 4: Quantification - emission calculation
- Step 5: Aggregating all emission estimates
The key steps of carbon footprint calculation
- Appropriate reporting timeframe
- Define the organisational boundary
- Identify all the emissions sources
- Calculating the company’s GHG emissions: emission factors and calculation formulas
Common mistakes in carbon footprint estimation
Introduction to GHG emission calculators
Activity data
Quantification: a practical calculation (using a GHG emission calculator)
- Scope 1 emission
- Scope 2 emission
- Scope 3 emission
What is it: science-based net zero targets?
SBTi’s Corporate Net-Zero Standard and Key Requirements
SBTi’s Framework of Corporate Net-Zero Standard
- Near-term science-based targets
- Long-term science-based targets
- Beyond value chain mitigation
- Neutralization of residual emissions
What is carbon offsetting?
What is carbon reduction?
Carbon reduction strategies
Carbon reduction strategies
Carbon offsetting strategies:
Non-nature-based projects
Carbon offsetting strategies:
Nature-based solutions
Why nature-based solutions important for carbon reduction
What is the water footprint?
Importance of water footprint in business
Key aspects of water stewardship
Why water stewardship is significant in business today?
Water scarcity
Understanding the importance of water conservation in business
What is Water resilience?
Why do we need water resilience in business?
Dimensions of resilience
Introduction to Water Resilience Assessment Framework (WRAF)
- Step 1: Visualize the water system
- Step 2: Develop resilience strategy
- Step 3: Test the impact of resilience actions
- Step 4: Evaluate the resilience strategy
Stakeholder engagement
Implementation of WRAF
Water conservation strategies onsite
Water conservation strategies in the supply chain
Water conservation strategies at the water system level
Water-saving technologies
Best practices for water-saving in business
How does water conservation in business help to reduce environmental impact and create value?
Businesses worldwide have recognized the uncertainty associated with global challenges such as climate change, water scarcity, social inequality, etc.,
Socio-ecological problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, natural resource degradation and global inequality have been worsening and not improved for the last several decades. With this volatile, complex, and global uncertainty, businesses and their employees must understand key environmental and societal risks and opportunities associated with long-term value creation. Businesses worldwide operate in a rapidly changing global ecosystem with increasingly demanding environmental and social standards. Companies have recognized the urgent need to respond to global challenges by changing their business model, operations, and practices and enhancing the skills of their employees. Companies doing good in society are also doing better in their business in long-term value creation.
The global community demands ESG, value preservation and sustainable value creation for all stakeholders and building business resilience with responsible investment.
The Biennial ESG Global Survey in 2025 reveals that institutional investors are driven towards sustainability management in business. 70% of them prioritized their commitment to low-carbon transition strategies compared to the earlier period, and 51% of private capital managers use active ownership to further ESG & sustainability goals (BNP Paribas, 2025). The focus on sustainability, as measured by ESG, is how companies can create value for all stakeholders, including the financial return for their shareholders through long-term value preservation. The flourishing businesses of the future proactively respond to today's global challenges, create sustainable value, and deliver net-positive impacts to society and the natural environment. Therefore, future executives and managers who lead these organizations must understand how these socio-ecological factors affect their business.
If your organization already has a sustainability program or is planning to develop impactful initiatives, this course will help you understand sustainability management in business, and enhance your skills to lead your sustainability and ESG initiatives.
The ability to deliver products and services sustainability and meet the needs of today without sacrificing the needs of future generations presents one of the most extensive business opportunities to create value for businesses. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide strong drives to transform business organizations to seize these opportunities. Young executives and professionals in the global workforce must play a significant role in achieving SDGs. Their capabilities to describe, analyze, plan, manage, and communicate how value is created and captured while maintaining or regenerating natural, social, and economic capital beyond its organizational boundaries is more important to build the resilience of the business ecosystem than ever before. A new set of skills and knowledge is critical to creating impacts on organizational-level outcomes such as social, environmental, and economic performance and system-level outcomes such as business resilience for successful companies.
This course was designed to assist you in developing your knowledge, skills, and perspectives on sustainability management in business to lead your sustainability and ESG initiatives. In this online course, you will explore the concept of sustainability and value chain, fundamentals of sustainability management, shared value creation, systems thinking and circular business model, sustainable designs strategies, responsible consumption, and production, measuring the sustainability performance, opportunities and challenges, environment, social and governance (ESG), sustainability reporting, net zero goals, science based targets and carbon management. This course will enable you to enhance your skills and unlock your full potential in creating sustainable value, managing ESG, building business resilience and making the world a better future.
In this course, all Role Plays were built manually using Udemy's AI-powered Roleplay feature.
What previous students say about the course:
It is wonderful. The videos used are excellent, and it is easy to understand. The lectures have provided in-depth knowledge about various concepts in sustainability. The measuring tools with formulas are really helpful. Thank you.
So far, this is the most informative course on sustainability that I've seen. Straight, concise, no fluff. Great job!
Very comprehensive and excellent learning experience for me. Managed to learn a lot. Thank you, Dr.Haritha W, for the valuable course.
Interesting and full of insights content. Good delivery, linked to resources and exercises. An insightful introduction on the subject.
I learnt a lot of new concepts and the ease with which the presenter made one understand how important sustainability via management is very good. I will be encouraging my colleagues to do the course -very rewarding.
The course has been able to broaden my knowledge on sustainability practices in business.
Amazing learning experience.
Very comprehensive and simple to understand.
Exceptional. The build up was good for the learning process.
I am learning a lot of new stuff. The presenter is quite knowledgeable and his presentation is impactful.
Loved the class, such a user friendly platform to every students who needs to improve their skills.
Excellent course.