Sustainability Innovation

OIM7529 Sustainability Innovation
1.5 Elective Credits

**Students who took this as MOB7529 cannot register for this course.**

Our economic systems are running on an enormous ecological deficit. However, there's some good news for entrepreneurial leaders everywhere; everything needs to be redesigned. What you get when you have new technologies, new user needs, new markets, and new business plans is new opportunities for sustainable development. With this mindset, the industrial and economic systems are in sustainability transformation from the industrial age to the climate change and social impact age.

In this new age, entrepreneurial leaders must understand the socio-ecological impacts of their businesses, and integrate sustainability risks and opportunities into discussions and decisions on risk, revenue, and business strategy. They must explore and develop innovations with sustainability priorities for their markets and industries. They must be able to evaluate value and impact at scale in the context of short- and long-term strategic decision making. Otherwise, their businesses will be inevitably extinct in the climate change and social impact age.

This course aims to prepare entrepreneurial leaders for critical sustainability transformation. Students will gain knowledge about the sustainability challenges (e.g., energy, transportation, waste, carbon management, agriculture, production and consumption) and practical skills for exploring sustainability innovations and accelerating the growth of sustainable businesses (e.g, net zero, zero-carbon tech, decarbonization, ESG, UN SDG). Students will 1) learn and employ integrated systems thinking to address social responsibility, ecological integrity, and value creation; 2) apply an innovation process framework to generate sustainability ideas and develop business strategies; and 3) assess the suitability, scalability, and sustainability of innovations for consumers/users, investors, and other stakeholders of interest.

Students who are interested in any of the following roles may find this course useful:

• An entrepreneur wanting to understand sustainability as a business opportunity
• An individual or corporate strategy group developing a sustainability strategy
• An individual or corporate strategy group seeking growth through sustainability innovations
• A leader wanting to develop a culture of sustainability and organizational change
• An R&D group aiming to integrate sustainability into its innovation process
• A financier deciding whether to invest in a sustainability-oriented entrepreneur

Prerequisite: NONE