This is Class 2 of the MOOC Specialization, Become a Sustainable Business Change Agent.
In this class you will learn more change agent skills and hear from people who have made changes in their organizations.
You will also learn more about green design and sustainability reporting.
The skills from this class will help improve products and services in your company or help the company issue its first, or an improved sustainability report.
This course is part of the Become a Sustainable Business Change Agent Specialization
More on Change and Sustainability
Offered By
Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
Week
11 hour to complete
Implementing Change: The basics
Introducing change in a organization is not simple. Initiatives you think are 'no brainers' can face opposition and more complex change requires careful planning. Your success in initiating change depends on your ability to understand and leverage the organizational forces that constrain and empower individual discretion. In this module you will learn that initiating change requires both leadership and effective management. You will learn how to identify the forces at work in the organization that can be tapped to drive change and the forces that maintain the status quo, restraining change to the new state. Finally, you will identify the ways that the roles people hold in organizations constrain their behavior in predictable ways...that you can use to anticipate opposition and identify potential allies.
5 videos (Total 34 min), 1 quiz
5 videos
Change Models- Three States; Driving and Resisting Change8m
Implementing Change- One Person's Experience5m
Implementing Change- A More Complex Example7m
Leveraging Roles and Role Expectations7m
1 practice exercise
Graded Quiz on "the basics" Good luck!16m
Week
22 hours to complete
Implementing Change: Practical Considerations
Organizations often don't act rationally, at least not from your position in the firm. That's because people in different parts of the organization are responsible for different things...and whose initiatives get implemented is a political process that requires you to gain support from people who are not directly affected by the change and avoid active opposition by people who have other projects and ideas that they think are more important than what you want to propose. In this module you will examine the political side of introducing change and examine the choices you have when introducing change. And, you will learn two tools for understanding, and leveraging, the political 'lay of the land' to gain the support needed to have your maintainability initiatives accepted where you work or live.
5 videos (Total 54 min), 2 readings, 1 quiz
5 videos
Process Choices: When others must be 'sold'10m
Gaining Support - Stakeholder Commitment Analysis10m
Gaining Support - Preference (Interest) Mapping9m
Change Politics: Examples to Analyze12m
2 readings
Interest Mapping Form - Blank10m
Commitment Chart - Blank10m
1 practice exercise
Graded Quiz: More on implementing change20m
Week
36 hours to complete
Green Design
IntroductionThis module introduces the key ideas of green design or design for the environment (DfE). The design phase of a product or building usually only absorbs a small fraction of the entire budget, but determines the product's or building's impact for years to come. Therefore, getting design right is crucial to achieving sustainability. Once your company has designed and developed a good product you need to convey that to consumers. We talk about labeling as one means of doing this. We also discuss problems with 'greenwashing' or over-stating a product's green attributes. In this module we introduce Life-Cycle Assessment (sometimes Life-Cycle Analysis or LCA). This is a powerful tool for identifying where a product's major impact comes from, which allows the company to redesign targeting those high impact areas. Next week we practice doing an LCA.
7 videos (Total 69 min), 3 readings, 3 quizzes
7 videos
Lesson2: Green Design and LCA (Life Cycle Assessment)10m
Lesson 3: Labels & Certification7m
Lesson 4: Advertising and Greenwashing9m
Lesson 5: Doing an LCA (Life Cycle Assessment)12m
Michelle Reott - The Importance of Design15m
Honors: LCA Assignment4m
3 readings
Green Design Resources10m
Slides from video lectures10m
Honors: LCA assignment10m
1 practice exercise
Green Design/LCA Quiz16m
Week
41 hour to complete
Sustainability Reporting
Sustainability reporting or CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) reporting is becoming commonplace among medium and large companies. Web-based reporting is fairly inexpensive and a good way to begin reporting, if your company doesn't already issue or post some type of report. This module discusses four reasons for doing CSR reporting, what makes a report credible to stakeholders, and mentions some of the reporting standards that your should consider using.The standards I discuss are GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), which is an overall template, CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) that specifically address carbon and water reporting, and SASB (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board), which identifies the key performance indicators (KPIs) for different industries. The three standards are not mutually exclusive, but fit together.The second video gives an overview of how reports are generally structured and describes what two experts look for when they read sustainability reports. Knowing what experts see as strengths and weaknesses will help you develop a better report. There are two short videos from GRI that gives an overview of its reporting framework. Roger Stace jobs us and gives his perspective on CSR reporting. There is a discussion of the quality of some CSR reports that are posted as READINGS. The reports we will discuss are VW, Carnival Cruises and H&M, the fast fashion clothing company.
5 videos (Total 32 min), 3 readings, 1 quiz
5 videos
Lesson 2: More on CSR Reporting8m
Roger Stace - An introduction to CSR reporting11m
GRI - Sustainability Reporting Starters Kit1m
GRI Reporting Standards2m
3 readings
Sustainability Reports for Discussion10m
Slides from Video Lectures10m
KPMG Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting 201510m
1 practice exercise
CSR Reporting Quiz14m
5.0
4 ReviewsTop Reviews
Another great course in the Sustainability Agent specialization. I recommend!
Great content! Very applicable to work i am doing in the industry
Instructors
John Byrd
Senior InstructorManaging for Sustainable & Finance
Kenneth Bettenhausen
ProfessorManagement
About University of Colorado System
The University of Colorado is a recognized leader in higher education on the national and global stage. We collaborate to meet the diverse needs of our students and communities. We promote innovation, encourage discovery and support the extension of knowledge in ways unique to the state of Colorado and beyond.
About the Become a Sustainable Business Change Agent Specialization
About the course
This specialization is for anyone who would like to improve how their company or organization impacts the environment, people and communities. We will introduce you to some of the key concepts and tools of sustainable business, then teach you how to be an effective change agent. By the end of the specialization you will have the skills to create an effective sustainability proposal and know who you have to convince, and what they need to be convinced.
The Classes
Class 1: First Steps in Making the Business Case for Sustainability
Identifying a good first project, writing an effective proposal, financial analysis & sustainable thinking.
Class 2: More on Change and Sustainability
Implementing change, green design, sustainability reporting, examples from practitioners/
Class 3: Sustainable Business: Big Issues, Big Changes
Climate change, carbon footprinting, Context-based sustainability and science-based targets, water and energy, workplace sustainability issues, and supply chain impacts.
Class 4: Comprehensive Case
The capstone class haps you put all the pieces together as you produce a complete proposal for change! This proposal can be based on a case we have written or for your organization, or both.
Frequently Asked Questions
When will I have access to the lectures and assignments?
Once you enroll for a Certificate, you’ll have access to all videos, quizzes, and programming assignments (if applicable). Peer review assignments can only be submitted and reviewed once your session has begun. If you choose to explore the course without purchasing, you may not be able to access certain assignments.
What will I get if I subscribe to this Specialization?
When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Specialization, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. Your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile. If you only want to read and view the course content, you can audit the course for free.
What is the refund policy?
Is financial aid available?
More questions? Visit the Learner Help Center.
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