Sustainability in Economic Development

Successful completion of the course Economics

• Sustainability as a global challenge/goal
• Functional weaknesses of markets/market economies
• The 17 sustainability goals of the United Nations
• Consequences for corporate strategy
• Consequences for production and trade
• Consequences for traffic, transport and mobility
• Consequences for financial and capital markets
• Emission rights and emissions trading
• Supply chain legislation
• CSR and environmental reporting

In recent years, sustainable management and ethically and morally responsible corporate action have changed from a niche topic to one of the determinants for the strategic orientation of companies. Accelerated by the noticeable consequences of global warming, the increased differences in wealth and income due to globalisation and dramatic individual cases in production facilities outside the industrialised countries, international politics and the goods and financial markets are reacting. Companies need a clear orientation in questions of sustainability in all its dimensions.

The students know the 17 sustainability goals of the United Nations, their significance for individuals and for companies and have an overview of the status of the legislation derived from them in the EU and in Austria.

They can recognise the medium and long-term requirements of these sustainability goals for different sectors and for the different parts of a company's value creation and describe them in their own words. The students can describe examples of successful implementations and concepts that can be expanded in corporate practice in a well-founded manner.

The students know about the objective and functioning of emissions trading, they can transfer the intended incentives to entrepreneurial decisions and discuss possible solutions for affected business models. They also know the responsibility transferred to companies for the observance of elementary human and labour rights in the supply chain of a global sourcing company and are able to discuss solutions for affected business models.

The students can evaluate and interpret company reports on environmental and CSR aspects.

Interactive course with lecture, case studies, exercises in individual and group work

Written exam

None

Meuleman, Louis (2020): Metagovernance for Sustainability: A Framework for Implementing the Sustainable Development Goal, London/NewYork: Routledge.

Classes with compulsory attendance in individual teaching units (seminars) supplemented by asynchronous teaching units for the presentation of elementary basics, which are assumed as given knowledge