CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY - 2023/4

Module Overview

The course evaluates and discusses the way environmental and social concerns have affected organisations in the private sector, and how such organisations have affected the content, shape and direction of the public debate. Particular emphasis will be paid to corporate sustainability strategies, the distribution and organisation of roles within an organisation, the contribution of different departments, as well as the industrial perspective towards industrial ecology and sustainable consumption.

Module provider

Sustainability, Civil & Env Engineering

Module Leader

WEHRMEYER Walter (Sust & CEE)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

Indicative content includes:

- Introduction to the Module

- Introducing corporate sustainability

- Corporate Policies and Strategies

- Cleaner Production, Materials Use and Waste Management

- Risk and The Genesis of Industrial Accidents

- Embedding Sustainability: Management Systems?

- Industrial Ecology

- Socially Responsible Investment

- Product-based Supply Chain Management

- Environmental Reporting and Stakeholder Management

- Transitions Outlook: What are companies for?

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

The assessments are choices from given lists. The alternative assessment (for resits) is a difference choice from the initial list

Assessment Strategy

The summative assessment for this module consists of:

• 1000 word pre-module reflective essay to receive feedback and an indicative mark on their understanding of the pre-readings. Students are asked to pick two topics from a given list.


• A 2500 word post-module reflective essay or company report. Students can either pick from a list of topics or identify, and seek prior approval for, their own topic. This is often done to reflect personal preferences, employment opportunities for part-time students (and future full-timers), develop further confidence in a favoured part of the module or to challenge one’s thinking. Students are encouraged to develop their own views on the topic at hand, as well as develop their abilities to present their views in a cogent manner, informed by relevant literature.

• In-class discussion and in-class presentation feedback


• There is an ungraded group assessment (developing a 5-minute video on how a national public challenge can be addressed) for which formative feedback will be provided. This Programmatic Change Challenge is designed to allow students to think radical and develop cogent transition plans to address a particular environmental or social challenge. Feedback on the Programmatic Change Challenge is in the form of peer review in plenary, as well as the award of a prize for the best video.


• Feedback will also be provided as part of the seminars and tutorials (peer and from the module organiser), as well as in the formative and summative assessment.

Module aims

• To provide students with a critical understanding of contemporary corporate sustainability and environmentalism
• To understand and conceptualise business practices toward environmental protection
• To understand how and why companies and organisations implement corporate sustainability strategies
• To critically assess corporate sustainability in a practical context.
• To understand the varying levels of corporate sustainability that are applied by different organisations
• To develop both essay and report writing skills on a corporate sustainability related topic

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategies are designed to: The module adopts a case-based learning strategy that presents, after a lecture on the material, a case (often using videos) that offers direct application of the learnt concepts and ideas. Emphasis is given to fostering opinions and ideas on the material to apply the learning material in a direct, practical and business-relevant manner.

The learning and teaching methods include lectures, seminar discussions, practical applications, and company case studies. The full lectures will be held live with short pre-recorded summaries provided as part of the pre-module preparation. A particular feature is the presentation style of industry case studies. Practitioners will be asked to not prepare a monologue that will be followed by polite questions, but to shortly present their company, and then ask specific questions to the students, who are then prepare their answers in small groups. A subsequent plenary allows the sharing of the ideas with the presenter, as well as direct feedback from the presenter and peers in the class.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: ENGM305

Other information

The Centre for Environment and Sustainability is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability, and Resourcefulness and Resilience, in line with Surrey's Curriculum Framework. This module is designed to allow students to develop knowledge, skills and capabilities in the following areas:

Sustainability - This module explores the importance of Corporate Sustainability to businesses, especially in a world that is underpinned by many unsustainable practices. This module helps students realise the importance of the triple bottom line of economy, society and the environment for businesses to be truly sustainable. The unit may help students realise that it is possible to achieve gains in all three sections and gives real-life examples of this occurring.

Digital capabilities - The module requires students to produce a video presentation on the topic of Corporate Sustainability to be shown in class at the end of the week. Students are allowed the freedom to produce the video any way they please. It allows students to develop videography and editing skills as well as role-play.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2023/4 academic year.