Nowadays, the sustainability performance of companies has a massive impact on their success. This lecture uses concrete practical examples from companies to show how a sustainability strategy is derived, developed and anchored and implemented in the company's processes. Based on competitive positioning, sustainable product and production processes are developed that secure competitive advantages for the company and thus contribute to long-term corporate success. The learning content is applied and deepened using specific examples from various industrial sectors.
An essential element of the ESMIA lecture is a 4-day excursion to selected, highly innovative companies from the energy, chemicals, mobility, circular economy and metal production sectors. This gives students an insight into the corporate practice of environmental and sustainability management. In discussions with company managers, factors that are decisive for the successful implementation of sustainability management in the company are discussed. Further information on this will be provided during the lecture.
Learning Objectives
The aim of the ESMiA lecture is to provide a sound introduction to the environmental and sustainability management of companies. Various methods and tools for developing a company-specific sustainability strategy are presented and applied using practical examples. These include trend and requirements analyses from various stakeholder perspectives such as customers, NGOs and politics as well as a competitive analysis. The lecture provides an overview of various management and analysis methods such as materiality analysis to identify sustainability focus topics. Based on this, sustainability goals are derived and measures to achieve these goals are defined. In the final step, methods and processes for monitoring success are presented.
Students learn methods for identifying relevant environmental aspects in the life cycle of a product and deriving corresponding targets. After completing the module, students will be able to systematically analyze companies for risks and formulate appropriate environmental and sustainability strategies in order to manage sustainability in the company in a targeted manner. The practical application of this knowledge takes place in a team project accompanying the lecture.
Basic concepts of sustainability and environmental science are introduced to build a global understanding of the main challenges related to sustainable development. Relevant topics such as climate change, population growth, biodiversity, air and water quality and the concept of planetary boundaries are introduced. An overview of the framework of environmental law is given, with a focus on environmental management. Based on the topics presented, requirements for companies to implement sustainability strategies are formulated. The two central pillars are governance and leadership, i.e. existing regulations, laws and standards such as ISO 26000 (guidelines for social responsibility) or ISO 14001 (environmental management) as well as possible unique selling points for differentiation from the competition. In order to systematically examine these requirements for a specific company, various methods are presented with materiality analysis as the central instrument. This results in concrete indicators and measures for product policy, environmental communication, corporate social responsibility or external certifications. In the team project, case studies are analyzed in order to link the theory presented with corporate practice.
Docent: Hon.-Prof. Dr. Stephan Krinke
Semester: summer semester
Lecture start: 10.04.2025, CIM Seminarraum, Langer Kamp 19b, 38106 Braunschweig
Final presentation of teamproject: 03.06.2025
Registration: Please register for the exam using the TUconnect portal
Exam date: tbd
Exam type: Written exam, exam +
Credit points: 5
The lecture will be held in English.