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Course information

Learning outcomes

•  Understanding the concepts of sustainable business and corporate responsibility

•   Understanding the central tensions in corporate sustainability

•   Identifying sustainability challenges and introducing strategic approaches to respond to them

•   Understanding sustainability in different business functions and the management instruments available

•   Developing critical thinking about how to deal with different stakeholders in advancing sustainability

•   Recognizing how enterprises can innovate to develop more sustainable businesses.

Content

This course focuses on the role of business in addressing the vast sustainable development challenges faced by the world.  There is a complex relationship between business and sustainability, as business has historically been the source of many of these challenges (e.g. climate change, inequality, pollution), and yet business must also be part of the solution, given the size and scope of global business activities.  Against this backdrop, there has been an undeniable shift in business attitudes towards sustainability, with corporations increasingly wanting to act sustainably. 

With this in mind, the focus of this course is first on understanding the nature of this tension, and second on understanding how business strategies can address ecological and social issues. To truly pursue the needed sustainability shift, companies must creatively address the needs of their diverse stakeholders.

Overall, the course will cover expansive ground, including business strategy, corporate activism and corporate political activity, supply chains, sustainability management and communication instruments, innovation for sustainability, and system change towards sustainability. 

Teacher

Heli Nissilä and Meri Frig

Study material

Hahn, Rüdiger. Sustainability management: Global perspectives on concepts, instruments, and stakeholders. Rüdiger Hahn, 2022

A selection of articles. Required pre-readings for each lecture (1-3 articles per lecture).

Workload
 

• Contact teaching 33h (70% lecture attendance requirement, or you cannot get credit for the final assignment)
• Independent work and assignments 123h

Prerequisites

No prerequisites

Evaluation

Final project (50%), Assignments (Group/Individual) (50%)

Teaching time and location

This course is taught at Otaniemi Campus. Attendace is mandatory (70% lecture attendance requirement, or you cannot get credit for the final assignment).

Please see the exact teaching schedule below. 

Further information

Equivalences to other courses: 
21E16000 Sustainable Business and Consumption
21E16001 Sustainability in Business

Online learning environment for the course  

MyCourses online learning environment is a tool for both students and teachers for communication and managing everyday course work. You need an Aalto User ID to log in to the course's MyCourses workspace and participate in teaching.

Digital workspace of the course:
MyCourses (link will be updated later)

More details on completing the course will be available at MyCourses closer to the start of the course.

Registration and course fee

Registration for Open University courses is done via the link below: 

Registration for this course starts on 8.6.2026 at 9.00  
Registration for this course ends on 16.8.2026 at 23.59

It is not possible to register before the registration period has started or after it has ended.

The course fee is paid upon registration for each course at a time and it is binding. Familiarize yourself with registration and payment rules as well as other guidelines for students:
Registration, payments and rules

If you are an attending degree student at Aalto University, it is possible for you to complete this course for free of charge during summer 2026. Registration is done normally in Sisu. Please make sure that you have the correct course code in your study plan before registering to the course. You can check the course code from the top of this page.
Instructions for course registration (for Aalto degree students)This course is organized by the Aalto University Open University.

Activating Aalto ID and Multifactor Authentication

You can activate your Aalto User ID the day after the registration and you should activate it no later than the day before the start of the course.
Instructions for activating your Aalto user ID

Once you have activated your Aalto user ID, also enable multifactor authentication. Some of Aalto University's services require multifactor authentication.

Instructions for using Multifactor Authentication