Course Description

Examination of the relationships between business and the local and global environment. The premise is that business leaders must consider the social and environment context of their actions and practice. Study of principles of sustainable development will include discussion of how consideration of human and materials resources are needed for managing a business in today's world.

Prerequisites

BUS600 Foundations of Business: MBA Program

Learner Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, learners will be better able to:

1. Develop an understanding of the relationship between business practice and the local and global environment. (application)
2. Analyze business designs and practices for sustainable best practices leading to environmentally responsible products and services. (analysis)
3. Apply an understanding of environmental issues to business design, materials flows, and decision making processes. (application)
4. Synthesize a sustainable business model/plan for a component of or an entire business. (synthesis)
5. Assess the efficacy of environmental perspectives and their implementation in business. (evaluation)

Concentration Outcomes

The course is constructed around a synthesis of knowledge of concepts in environmental business management in face-to-face sessions alternating with application of the concepts to the selected concentration in a subsequent online course session. The synthesis of an environmental (green) business plan that will be presented during week 7 forms a backbone thread for the course.

DNA Integration

Integrating concepts of stewardship, environmental ethics, and environmental and social responsibility into business design and management forms the core of the course to develop an ethos of sustainable leadership for business leaders.

Program Interrelationship

The business ecosystem concept will be applied to many of the traditional areas of the business environment that form the content of the MBA program.  Interlinkages to collection/analysis of data in the development of an environmental audit, resource flow analysis, application to concepts in financial, human resources, accounting, marketing, legal, and ethical will pervade the course. The synthesis of an environmental (green) business plan that can be added to the capstone business plan is a major component of the course.

Course Topic Outline

• September 11: Course meets - Rethinking Business Management: Drivers and Incentives for the Greening of Business
• September 18 : Online session - Rethinking Business Management: Greener Models and Norms for Business
• September 25 : Course meets - Essential Ecological Concepts for Business Management: Setting for Sustainable Decision Making
• October 2: Online session - Valuing Concepts in Business Management: Environmental Economics, Ethics, and Stewardship
• October 9 : Course meets - Applicaton I: Rethinking Your Business Environmental Footprint
• October 16 : Online session - Application II: Rethinking Beyond Environmental Regulation & Recycyling
• October 23 : Course meets - Application III: Greening your business plan - sharing your findings and conclusions

Course Texts
	Esty, D. C. & A. S. Winston 2006. Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage. Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, CT.			Lovins, A., Lovins, H., Hawken, P., Reinhard, F., Shapiro, R., & Magretta, J. (2000). Harvard Business Review on Business and the Environment: Harvard Business School Press.
Case Studies & Going Deeper (Optional - for only those interested in going deeper)
	Hargroves, K. C., & Smith, M. H. (Eds.). (2005). The Natural Advantage of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation and Governance in the 21st Century: Earthscan.			Hawken, P., Lovins, A. B., & Lovins, L. H. (2000). Natural Capitalism: The Next Industrial Revolution: Little, Brown & Co.

Grade Scale

Letter Grade	Percentage Grade	Letter Grade	Percentage Grade
A	93-100 %	C+	77-80%
A-	90-93%	C	73-77%
B+	87-90%	C-	70-73%
B	83-87%	D+	67-70%
B-	80-83%	D	63-67%

Synopsis of Course Requirements

Course Component	% of grade	Description/Rubric
Participation	25%	Class participation: You will be expected to collaborate in our learning community, reading, attending, listening, participating, collaborating, and contributing during class sessions. (10 points per week 1, 3, 5, 7) Online Discussion Participation: You  will be expected to contribute a thoughtful/informative contribution to our online Environmental Business Discussion Forum (EBDF) at least three times (3X) during each "online" week. (10 points per week - Week 2, 4, 6) Posting during weeks we meet face-to-face is optional. Grading: 10 points - 3 meaningful EBDF posts and clear evidence of reading and participating. 9 points - 3 EBDF posts and evidence of reading and participating. 8 points - 2 EBDF posts and evidence of reading and participating 7 points - 1 EBDF post and evidence of reading and participating.
Weekly Assignments	50%	See Course Schedule for Assignments: Assignment Grading Rubric: 10 points (100% A+) - Excellent answer, thoughtful, clear use of multiple concepts, clear evidence of reading and incorporating ideas from the reading and class into a well developed, supported, and reasoned response. 9 points (90% A) - Thoughtful response with clear use of concepts developed in the course and clearly uses and refers to the ideas of others (readings etc.) to expand upon, support, or exemplify the development of your ideas, opinions, and theme. 8 points (80% B) - Thoughtful response with some concepts or reading evidence. 7 points (70% C) - Basic response with little depth (concepts) or reading evidence. Too short too develop an adequate response. <7 points - Inadequate response based solely on opinion or hearsay with no supporting concepts or evidence of learning/effort.
Concentration/Green Business Plan	25%	Development of Green Business Plan and Presentation of the plan during Week 7 class session. (See extended description and rubric below.)

 

Course Schedule (Topics, Readings & Assignments)

Numbers in parentheses refer to applicable course learning outcomes.

Week 1   Rethinking Business Management: Drivers and Incentives for the Greening of Business

Learner Outcomes (1, 2) Identifying trends indicative of changes in business relationship with the environment Understanding why these trends are  occurring. What are the drivers and incentives for change. Analyzing the inertia to changing business thinking and praxis Apraise the efficacy and implications of the trends for businesses

Readings Selected readings from the texts: Green to Gold Chapters Part I: Chapters 1 - 3 Harvard Business Review - pp 1 -34, A Road Map for Natural Capitalism Articles Woolworths announces the "Good Business Journey" More: http://www.developtechnology.com/web/content/view/20031/63/ Pirog, R. 2003. Checking the food odometer: Comparing food miles for local versus conventional produce sales to Iowa  institutions. http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/pubs/staff/files/food_travel072103.pdf Menon, A. and A. Menon. 1997. Enviropreneurial Marketing Strategy: The Emergence of Corporate Environmentalism as Market Strategy.  Journal of Marketing. 51(17): Schofer, E. and F. J. Granados. 2006. Environmentalism, Globalization and National Economies, 1980-2000. Social Forces 85(2):965-991 (Blackboard E Readings) Davis TH. 2007. The business of being green. Business Travel World :38(1)

Assignments (Complete prior to the first classs) Complete the readings above. Interview two individuals at your current workplace. Ask two questions Are you aware of environmental initiatives in our business workplace? If any, ask what they are. Do you think that businesses should incorporate environmental considerations into the mission and practice of the business?  Why or why not?  What types of considerations/examples? Bring a written summary of your two interviews to the fist class session Where is your company?  Riding the wave or not making ripples? Start with the written summary of your interviews and the information presented about eco-advantage and natural captitalism.  Where does your thinking and practice and your company's thinking and practice, and similar companies thinking and practice fit in the practice of environmental business? Design your materials from interview to thinking to conclusions into a short paper that you might present to someone in management at your place of work.  Submit this paper to the Week 1 Assignment in the Week 1 area of Blackboard.

 

Week 2 Rethinking Business Mangement: Greener Models and Norms for Business

Learner Outcomes Compare and contrast models traditional and emerging models used in the relationship of business management and environmental responsibility, like business ecosystem, sustainable development, TQM, TQEM, six sigma, nine sigma, natural capitalism, eco-effective, next industrial revolution, CERES, Hannover Principles (1, 2, 5)

Readings Selected readings from the texts: Green to Gold Part I  Chapters 4 - 5 Harvard Business Review pp 35 - 58, Bringing the Environment Down to Earth Video Resources: McDonough, W. & M. Braungart. The Next Industrial Revolution Earthome Productions. (Blackboard Video Link ) Earth and the American Dream (Blackboard Video Link) Articles: Freeman, R. E. , J. Pierce, and R. Dodd 1998. Shades of Green: Business, Ethics, and the Environment.  pp339 - 353 IN: L. Westra and P.H. Werhane. 1998. The Business of Consumption: Envrionmental Ethics and the Global Economy. Rowman & Littlefield, NY CERES Principles - http://www.ceres.org/coalitionandcompanies/principles.php McDonough, W. (2000). The Hannover Principles: Design for Sustainability, http://www.mcdonough.com/principles.pdf  Lean Manufacturing and the Environment: Six Sigma. http://www.epa.gov/lean/thinking/sixsigma.htm NineSigma: Accelerating the Innovation Cycle. http://www.ninesigma.com/ Total Quality Environmental Management (TQEM). http://www.bsdglobal.com/tools/systems_tqem.asp

Assignments Complete the readings above and watch the two video perspectives above. Analyze your current work environment and the current model for doing business.  What is the model that designs the way business is done.  How might that model be modified on both the downside and the upside to incorporate environmental strategy? Again gear what you write to mid to senior level management. Post your work to the Week 2 Forum linked from the Week 2 Blackboard by the time of class 2.  Then during the next couple of days review several (at least two) of the analyses of your classmates and respond back to them as if you were the senior level management, one positive and one negative.

 

Week 3 - Essential Ecological Concepts for Business Management: Setting for Sustainable Decision Making

Learner Outcomes Extending basic concepts of ecology and ecological principles to business management (1) biosphere, ecosystem, community, population, individual, environment diversity, stability, resilience consumers, producers, and the concept of place (niche) competition, predations, symbiosis, mutualism Understand resource level ecological concepts (1) consumption populations, resources, energy, inflows, outflows, wastes, efficiencies limiting factors, carrying capacity, models of growth Apply ecological resource  concepts to the business ecosystem  model (3, 4)

Readings Selected readings from the texts: Green to Gold Chapter 6 Harvard Business Review pp 59 - 104 Articles: Samper, C. (2003). The millennium ecosystem assessment: Science and policy for sustainable development. Bioscience, 53(12), 1148-1149. <BUL link>. Palmer, Margaret, Bernhardt, Emily, Chornesky, Elizabeth, Collins, Scott, Dobson, Andrew, Duke, Clifford, Gold, Barry, et al. 2004. Ecology for a Crowded Planet. Science 304(5675): 1251-1252. Pratima Bansal and Kendall Roth. 2000. Why companies go green: A model of ecological responsiveness. The Academy of Management Journal 43(4):717-36. Shrivastava P. 1995. The role of corporations in achieving ecological sustainability. The Academy of Management Review 20(4):936-60.

Assignments Complete the readings above. Select two ecological concepts that either impact your business or on which your business has an impact. How could you implement sustainable praxis for one of these cases that would be an easy sell, win-win and how would you implement a second that would be more ideological, but important from an ecological perspective that might not be a clear win-win implementation. Submit this to the Week 3 Assignment in the Week 3 area of Blackboard. Green Business Plan Initiation: Begin the development of a green business plan. Place your Topic and initial thoughts for your plan in the Green Business Plan Forum in Blackboard. Name your Plan Thread with your last name-business name (e.g. Kistler - Green Fish). As we go through the remainder of the class you will complete other components of this plan, culminating in  a written synthesis and presentation/discussion during the final session (4).

 

Week 4 - Valuing Concepts in Business Management: Environmental Economics, Ethics, and Stewardship

Learner Outcomes Application of priniciples of environmental economics to business management (1, 3) Application of concepts and principles of environmental ethics to business management (1, 3) Consider the role of faith based principles like stewardship in business management (5) Evaluate the role of environmental ethics and economics in business management (5) Assess and Evaluate how current norms and models might be transitioned to incorporate more ethical and environmental economy valuation to inspire a more eco-advantage culture (3, 4)

Readings Selected readings from the texts: Green to Gold Chapter 9 Harvard Business Review - pp 105 - 130, Beyond Greening, Strategies for a Sustainable World Video Resources: Keeping the Earth: Religious and Scientific Perspectives (Blackboard Video Link) Articles Bratton, S. P. (2003). The precautionary principle and the book of proverbs: Toward an ethic of ecological prudence in ocean management. Worldviews: Environment Culture Religion, 7(3), 253-273. <BUL link >. Bratton, S. P. (2004). Thinking like a mackerel. Ethics & the Environment, 9(1), 1-22. <BUL link >. Brown, L. R. (2002). Shaping an economy to sustain our FUTURE opportunity abounds in the new way of doing business. Mother Earth News, (191), 37. <BUL link >. Sonntag, V. (2000). Sustainability -- in light of competitiveness. Ecological Economics, 34(1), 101. <BUL link, BUS620 Course eReadings>. Turner, P., & Tschirhart, J. (1999). Green accounting and the welfare gap. Ecological Economics, 30(1), 161. <BUL link, BUS620 Course eReadings>.

Assignments Complete the Readings above Attempt to find a stated business ethic for several businesses or business component areas for your concentration area. Analyze one of these ethics statements in light of your understanding of environmental ethics, economics, and stewardship. (2) Develop an sustainable business ethic for your business or business component.  Consider how components like human resources, accounting, decision making, finance, technology, and organizational behavior along with "externalities" might be components of your ethic. (4, 5) Develop a model of  "just" management for a real or hypothetical business based upon concepts of environmental economics, ethics, and stewardship. Prioritize the principles that form the basis of your model. Consider why such practices and ethics have not formed the basis for normative valuing in business. Post your ethic, model, and synthesis in the Valuing Forum in Blackboard week 4 area.  Critique at least one other classmates model. (4, 5)

 

Week 5 - Application I: Rethinking Your Business Environmental Footprint

Learner Outcomes Understand resource level ecological concepts (1) consumption populations, resources, energy, inflows, outflows, wastes, efficiencies limiting factors, carrying capacity, models of growth Analyze and Evaluate business practice using resource flow analysis  (RFA) and ecological footprint analysis (EFA) (5) Differentiate sustainable from unsustainable resource processing in business and society (2)

Readings Selected readings from the texts: Green to Gold Chapters 7 & 8 Harvard Business Review - pp 169 - 228 Articles Hardin, Garret (1968). The Tragedy of the Commons. Science 162:1243-1248. Rees, W. E. 1998. Reducing the Ecological Footprint of Consumption. pp. 113-130 IN: L. Westra and P.H. Werhane. 1998. The Business of Consumption: Envrionmental Ethics and the Global Economy. Rowman & Littlefield, NY Chambers, N. and K Lewis 2001. Ecological Footprinting Analysis - Towards a Sustainability Indicator for Business. ACCA Research Report No. 65, http://www.accaglobal.com/pubs/publicinterest/activities/research/research_archive/23906.pdf (executive summary) Bringezu, S., Sch¨tz, H., & Moll, S. (2003). Rationale for and interpretation of economy-wide materials flow analysis and derived indicators. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 7(2), 43-64. <BUL Link >. Lifset, R. (2000). Moving from mass to what matters. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 4(2), 1-3. <BUL Link >. Palmer, A. R. (1999). Ecological footprints: Evaluating sustainability. Environmental Geosciences, 6(4), 200-204. <BUL Link >.

Assignments Complete the readings above. Resource flows are the root of a business even in such areas as the knowledge sector. Resources are also all "linked" to other segments of the ecology and the economy. Why have we largely considered resources as a commons and as a result of combining the commons with the free marketplace have ended up with a tragedy of the commons largely due to a lack of understanding of ecological resource concepts. Complete either a resource flow analysis or an environmental footprint analysis for either your business or a business component . Include an analysis of how changes might be made to bring the resource flow more into line with ecological concepts and sustainable ideology of a finite commons and not a cowboy ethic. (1, 2, 5) Post your flow and analysis in the Week 5 Assignment Area in Week 5 Blackboard.

 

 

Week 6 Application II: Rethinking Beyond Environmental Regulation & Recycling

Learner Outcomes Understand basics and rationale of environmental compliance Examine why environmental initiatives fail or succeed Rethinking the way we do, make, move, and sell.

Readings Selected readings from the texts: Green to Gold Chapters 10 - 11 Harvard Business Review - pp 131-167 Green and Competitive Articles McDonough W. 1998. A Boat for Thoreau: A discourse on ecology, ethics, and the making of things. pp 297 - 318, IN: L. Westra and P.H. Werhane. 1998. The Business of Consumption: Envrionmental Ethics and the Global Economy. Rowman & Littlefield, NY Reinhardt, F. (1999). Market failure and the environmental policies of firms: Economic rationales for "beyond compliance" behavior. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 3(1), 9-21. <BUL link >. MPCA, Environmental Guide for Small Businesses in Minnesota, http://www.pca.state.mn.us/industry/sbeg/index.html Minnesota Technical Assistance Program, http://www.mntap.umn.edu/ EPA Small Business Gateway, Environmental Regulations and Laws, http://www.epa.gov/smallbusiness/regs.htm allbusiness.com  Environmental Regulations for Small Businesses, http://www.allbusiness.com/government/environmental-regulations/11898-1.html

Assignments (4, 5) Complete the readings above. Interview the environmental compliance officer (or closest to that position) AND/OR the purchasing manager (or closest to that position) for your business or business component. Share summaries of your interviews in the Week 6 Beyond Regulation forum in the folder for your concentration group.  As a concentration group, summarize the themes that emerged from your interviews and to move key players related to your concentration area beyond a compliance mentality to a more sustainable ideology. Collaborate with your concentration groups to select two or three representative readings that examine or synthesize ecological/environmental/environmental ethics/economics concepts/cases/examples in your concentration areas. Post these to the Week 7 Concentration Readings Forum in Blackboard Discussion Area.

 

Week 7 - Application III & Synthesis: Greening your business - sharing your findings and conclusions

Learner Outcomes Demonstate leadership in the following areas to: (1) evaluate via an environmental audit an existing business real or hypothetical business, (2) develop a sustainable business strategy to balance profit and environmental impacts, and (3) to validate how your proposed strategy provides the best business ecosystem solution. (3, 4, 5)

Readings Selected readings from the texts: Green to Gold Chapter 12 Articles **Note these readings will be submitted by the course participants at the end of week 6. See the Week 7 Concentration Readings Forum for the readings selected collaboratively by the concentration groups.

Assignments (3. 4. 5) Present to the class using appropriate technology and resources your completed sustainable business plan. Post your presentation to your Green Business Plan Forum Thread in Blackboard Submit your final business plan and your validation of how your proposed strategy provides the best business ecosystem solution. Post your final plan analysis to your Green Business Plan Forum Thread in Blackboard.

 

Course Project: Developing a Green Business Plan

Learner Outcomes Demonstate leadership in a business or business component area by applying ecological business and sustainabilty concepts in the development of a sustainable management business plan in the participants area of concentration. Evaluate via an environmental management audit an existing business real or hypothetical business or component of a business. Develop a sustainable business strategy to balance profit and environmental impacts Validate how your proposed strategy provides the best business ecosystem solution.  Project Summary Your green business plan should incorporate the following components. The incorporation of sustainable ideology into the business mission statement or ethic A comprehensive environmental impact management audit of the business process and  resource flows. A management strategy to implement sustainable principles to the greatest extent possible into philosophy, management, processes, procedures, and operations. A strategy to communicate implemented sustainable practices to employees, stakeholders/shareholder, and customers/clients. Adequate reference resources and supporting documentation to justify both the philosophy and the implementation of the plan. Project Rubric Important Project Components Evaluation Criterion Strongly Agree (10) Agree (9) Disagree (8) Strongly Disagree (7) Sustainable ideology is clearly incorporated  into the business mission statement         Environmental impact management audit of the business process and  resource flows is comprehensive in scope, considering all internal and external components.         Management strategy  clearly incorporates sustainable principles to the greatest extent possible into philosophy, management, processes, procedures, and operations.         Strategy to communicate implemented sustainable practices to employees, stakeholders/shareholder, and customers/clients is effectively developed.         Adequate reference resources and supporting documentation are present, correctly formatted, and pertinent to justify both the philosophy and the implementation of the plan.         Plan is effectively communicated orally to course participants during the final course session.         Plan is effectively communicated via written or other form of documentation appropriate to the business and in keeping with the proposed sustainable practices.         Totals         Percent Grade

 

 

Course Policies, Expectations, & Methodologies

Policy	Description
Account & email	You must have a valid Bethel Community Account for this course. (https://directory.bethel.edu/account ) You must either consistently check your Bethel email account (webmail http://webmail.bethel.edu/) or set the account to forward to an account you check consistently. (https://directory.bethel.edu/account - Change Where My Bethel Email is Delivered)
Participation	Participation is required. You should be be spending no less than 12 hours/week on this course outside of the allocated 4 hours/week "in-class". Completing the reading, participating in the on-line discussion on a consistent basis, collaborating with your classmates, working on your concentration, and completing all assignments in a timely manner are all participation components.
Assignments	I expect all assignments to be completed and submitted by the deadline for the assignment.
Honesty	The Bethel policies on academic honesty and computer integrity apply to this course. These policies are available at http://bethelnet.bethel.edu/cas-faculty/Policies/
Accessibility	Participants who wish to request disability-related accommodations for a course should talk with the instructor as soon as possible at the beginning of the course. Most accommodations are arranged through the office of Disability Services. For more information visit the Disability Services website at http://www.bethel.edu/disability/.
Respect	Diversity is an integral component of the created order and this is what makes life as a human so interesting. In an online environment, diversity will show up mainly in diversity of ideas and technical capabilities. Everyone in the class should feel willing and able to contribute their ideas and abilities to the course and everyone else should respect those ideas and abilities even if they may disagree or have different abilities. Standard netiquette should be used equivalent to what you would use in face to face conversations, discussions, and classrooms.
Problems	Any problems or complaints that you have either about the course or the instructor should be handled in the following manner. (1) Communicate your concern clearly to the instructor as a first step. (2) If you are not satisfied with the instructor's resolution of your concern, talk to Dr. Mary Whitman, Director of the MBA Program . (3) If you are still not satisfied, then you should make an appointment to communicate your concerns to Dr. Carl Polding, Dean of the Graduate School. If this procedure is not followed, the rights and freedoms of both the instructor and student are potentially violated.
Help	Bethel Information Technology Services staffs a help desk that can be reached via phone (651-638-6500) and email (stu-helpdesk@bethel.edu). Bethel Information Commons provides help with Blackboard, other software and course technology in the University Library or by phone (651-638-6500 #3), e-mail (infocom@bethel.edu), and instant messaging (bethelinfocom). Information about your Bethel Account (set up and preferences) can be found at https://directory.bethel.edu/account. Help for common Blackboard questions can be found using the help button in Blackboard (http://www.bethel.edu/its/blackboard). Contact your instructor: email: r-kistler@bethel.edu; Phone: 651-638-6313; instant messaging (mbabus620)