Course 2025-2026 a.y.

The course contents are organized into three modules.

1)    WHAT – Understanding the Foundations of Corporate Sustainability. This module introduces the scientific, ecological, and policy frameworks that shape the sustainability agenda. Key topics include:

• Anthropocene, Planetary Boundaries, and Social-Ecological Systems
• Climate Change, Ecosystem Services, and Biodiversity Loss
• Environmental Policies, Regulations, and Economic Instruments to address the ecological crisis
• Foundations of Corporate Sustainability and the emerging Business in Nature framework

2)    WHY – Understanding Why Companies Engage in Sustainability. This module analyzes the forces driving corporate sustainability adoption and the strategic value it creates. Topics include:

• Corporate Sustainability Drivers (regulatory shifts, market forces, finance, technology)
• Sustainability Leadership and organizational culture
• The Business Case for Sustainability, innovation, resilience, and competitive advantage

3)    HOW – Understanding How Companies Implement Sustainability. This module focuses on managerial tools, strategies, and practices for integrating sustainability into business operations. Topics include:

• Sustainability strategies and governance mechanisms
• Sustainable innovation and sustainable business models
• Tools and practices for integrating sustainability into strategy
• Decarbonization and net-zero pathways
• Circular strategies and circular business models
• Biodiversity, ecosystem impacts, and nature-positive approaches

• Gain foundational knowledge of planetary boundaries, climate change, biodiversity, and ecosystem services.
• Explain the role of ecosystem services in supporting business continuity and assess how ecosystem degradation affects corporate resilience and shape corporate risks and opportunities.
• Identify the key forces driving corporate sustainability, including regulatory trends, market dynamics, financial pressures, and leadership values.
• Explain how sustainability contributes to value creation, competitive advantage, and long-term resilience.
• Become familiar with major policy and reporting frameworks (EU Green Deal, CSRD/ESRS, carbon pricing, TNFD/SBTN).

• Analyze a company’s sustainability strategy and evaluate its strengths, risks, and gaps.
• Evaluate how ecosystem impacts and dependencies influence business resilience, and integrate ecosystem-service considerations into strategic planning.
• Apply tools such as carbon assessment, materiality analysis, decarbonization pathways, and circularity principles.
• Integrate sustainability into strategic decision-making and business model design.
• Develop or assess a sustainability-oriented business plan.
• Interpret climate and biodiversity data and sustainability reports and assess their implications for corporate performance.
• Use insights from cases and company presentations to formulate sound managerial recommendations.

• Lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Company visits
• Collaborative Works / Assignments
• Interaction/Gamification

The course employs a variety of teaching methods to promote active and applied learning. Guest speakers from natural sciences and leading companies share insights on best sustainability practices, offering students direct exposure to real-world expertise. The course also includes a group business project developed with a consulting firm, where students address an actual sustainability challenge that requires teamwork and structured problem-solving. This project culminates in a final presentation and a company visit, reinforcing the link between classroom learning and managerial practice. Case studies and short incidents are also used throughout the course to connect theory with decision-making. By analyzing data, interpreting information, and evaluating business responses, students apply conceptual frameworks to concrete situations, strengthening both analytical skills and their understanding of the complex interactions between business, nature, and society. Finally, the course also integrates a new digital simulation developed at SDA Bocconi that guides students in designing a decarbonization strategy for a brewery company. Through this interactive tool, students experiment with strategic options, assess trade-offs, and learn how different levers influence emissions pathways, costs, and long-term competitiveness.

• Written exam (30%). The written exam is based on open-ended questions. Questions will test the students’ learning of the theories, concepts and tools illustrated and analysed in class. Student will be required to show that they can illustrate some basic theories and concepts, and that they can analyse sustainability problems at business level.
• Field project assignment (50%). Students will be required to realize a group field project. The assignment is organized as a consultant project, where students will be required by a client to provide some solutions to a sustainability business challenge (e.g. circular business models, sustainable supply chain, green product design). Students will be asked to apply some of the concepts and tools discussed in class to the case of a real organization, trying to apply some managerial solutions in order to improve the environmental sustainability of the business. Students will have to present in front of external advisors both the “proof of concept” and the final version of the project. Students will need to show ability to effectively support and defend the results achieved.
• Class participation (20% of the exam) aims to test the students’ ability to make thoughtful contributions based on the literature that advance the discussion, and their ability to think critically and interact in a constructive way with other classmates.

• Written exam (100%). The written exam for non attending students is based on open-ended questions and/or multiple choice. Questions test the students’ understanding of the theories and tools illustrated in the teaching materials and assess their ability to analyse and apply these theories and concepts to case studies or real practical examples.

• Selection of papers, cases, and slides provided to students at the beginning and throughout the course.
• Selected chapters from: R. SARDA', S. POGUTZ, Corporate Sustainability in the 21st Century. Increasing the Resilience of Social-Ecological Systems. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2019.

• Selection of papers, cases, and slides provided to students at the beginning and throughout the course.
• R. SARDA', S. POGUTZ, Corporate Sustainability in the 21st Century. Increasing the Resilience of Social-Ecological Systems. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2019.