RG
Interesting course, easy to follow with appropriate hands-on exercises (including some good tools for financial analysis). Thank you! Definitely enrolling for the whole specialisation!

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.

RG
Interesting course, easy to follow with appropriate hands-on exercises (including some good tools for financial analysis). Thank you! Definitely enrolling for the whole specialisation!
TF
Fantastic hands on and working with solutions that fit any sector of business
SD
It was a very detailed course, full of real-world and industry case studies. Highly recommended.
DA
Great project for applying many of the concepts explained in the previous courses!
GF
Interesting material in the course itself, but much of the optional reading was from pretty old sources. Those articles could use a refresh. Thanks.
DS
Very hands-on course. The professor almost anticipates questions that might arise and explains everything in great detail. Very clear, useful and applicable!
SA
Nice articulated course. The review system is kinda confusing and it should be mentioned clearly
AE
perfect course for practicing how to write a business case for a sustainability proposal
AT
As a beginner in understanding the Sustainability, the content in the course is highly useful.
AN
Great course - great course leader - able to fit it round my work.
EM
Happy to do this course, it will help me to establish the steps towards sustainability in my own company
SA
Very interesting course. Perfectly aligned with my M.Sc in Sustainable Development. Professor John and Professor Ken are very friendly and cooperative.
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I think it is a great course for anybody, who is new to sustainability and wants to shift his/her career in this field. I have obtained a lot of useful insights, which were really mind-opening and opened up new ways of thinking. I particularly enjoyed the peer-reviewed assessments, because they provided good practical base for us to adopt what we have learnt. I am not very sure, however, that I like the system that we had to rely on fellow-learners to correct our assessments at pre-determined times. However, I would like to say thanks for everybody who contributed to the realization of this course, and by all means to the senior instructor, John Byrd.
This was a very insightful course, ESG issues were simplified for a beginner like me. I have to commend the instructor John Byrd for his expertise. Thank you Coursera!
The course is both interesting and useful. The peer-graded assignment system rather tricky though.
The course is designed for beginners and has a lot of insightful information about how to start your first sustainability project. You might find it boring if you have already some experience in sustainability.
Additionally, the course contains several errors in the description of the assignments and some information is outdated which makes it difficult to complete the assignments. The tutors are slow in responses or do not give their feedback at all. Additionally, I found the B-Lab assessment is useless and it seems that it's just a promotion of BCorp.
It could be interesting to learn about it, but not to spend 45 minutes minimum on completing the questionnaire which nobody cares about. BCorp assessment should be a choice made by a company and not a compulsory test area.
These aspects made me decide not to continue the course series. I appreciate enormous work lecturers put into the program but encourage them to devote some time to it on a regular basis.
I hope my feedback will be helpful.
Great course, however I did not quiet get the fact that there are 4 courses in total to this specialization as I was confused by the mentioning of weeks and courses. Otherwise I would have started more courses simultaneously.
I recommend this course because in a very effective way links sustainability and finance concept, leading you to develop a business case for implementing sustainability investments thanks to the peer-assignments. I’ve learned about B-lab that could be also very useful to understand the sustainability improvement areas for your company. Moreover, I think it’s very important understanding the externality concept, as market failure.
Thank you for the high quality course! I enjoyed every video and especially every assignment! Calculating and making analysis was a very practical training. I am happy that I was a student of the course!
I totally appreciate the efforts of the authors. Thanks!
I am a sustainability professional and I learned a lot with this course! The instructors are awesome and the topics are very current.
Great course and relevant for many!
I come from a communications and marketing background with no prior experience in concepts of sustainability, business practice, and accounts. I am in the process of pivoting towards a career in sustainability and climate crisis management. This course is a deep dive into concepts of sustainability (from a planetary + business + citizen perspective of how we consume energy). It then moves on to showcase how businesses can become more successful if they incorporate sustainable energy practices across their vision/mission, operations, recruitment, and community impact areas. You do need about 1 - 1.5 hours everyday in order to watch the videos, read the additional articles, assess the information, and then apply the learnings in your assignment and quiz. The accounts/calculation and business assessment sections of the course were tough for someone like me with no background in math, finance, economics, however, the explanations and examples really helped understand these sections. In the end, the learning experience depends on how much you put into the course. There's not much in terms of community participation, so don't expect an active, engaged group of learners. This is a beginner's module in a 4-part course and I would recommend completing the rest of the modules as well. If you are looking to gain internship or entry level work in a company's sustainability department, doing the course will help you get familiar with all the right terminologies, concepts and ways of thinking about sustainability from a business owner's perspective and might get you brownie points at the interview.
Interesting material in the course itself, but much of the optional reading was from pretty old sources. Those articles could use a refresh. Thanks.
Great course. A few errors, but still worth passing it
The course content was okay. I would recommend looking at the rubric after you submit and modifying as needed, there are some that are incorrect/you might fail if you aren't careful to match the rubric. One had the wrong numbers (some were randomly rounded up while others weren't and some were wrong all together). In the last assignment it said to do A or B but the rubric marks both seperately and you need both sets of marks to pass.
El curso ofrece una introducción clara y bien estructurada a los principales enfoques del pensamiento sostenible, como el análisis del ciclo de vida, la economía circular, la resiliencia y el pensamiento sistémico. Ayuda a entender que la sostenibilidad no se limita al medio ambiente, sino que también incluye aspectos sociales, económicos y de gobernanza dentro de las organizaciones. Uno de los puntos más valiosos es cómo conecta conceptos teóricos con ejemplos prácticos de empresas reales, lo que facilita ver cómo se aplican estas ideas en la toma de decisiones. Además, herramientas como el B Impact Assessment permiten comprender de forma más concreta cómo se mide el impacto empresarial. En general, es un curso útil para desarrollar una visión más amplia sobre el rol de las empresas en la sociedad y la importancia de tomar decisiones considerando impactos a largo plazo.
Good selection of topics to start, very motivating to continue with further courses, good practical assignments (though, B lab last assignment potentially too difficult for the first module);some quiz questions in the second and last quiz may not have right answers, however, overall the test well the common sense of sustainability thinking.
The course was excellent! Very rich content, with important cases and insights, in addition to the practical activities being great, helping to fix the content studied in addition to stimulating critical thinking and creativity.
I am very satisfied with the course and very grateful to the tutors of this course.
Great introduction course. If you're a beginner it guides you through the relevant information and processes, if you have a good understanding of sustainability it acts to structure the information to be able to develop a structured approach to implementing the learnings in your own industry.
This was a great introduction to the concept of corporate sustainability. I especially appreciated the financial analysis module, which is essential when introducing a new initiative. The course was very easy to follow, and very informative.
The course is well done and explained. The exams are pretty easy and I think they are so to reinforce the learning. It seems to me that the angle is quite traditionals and business oriented and is not very progressive in my opinion.
The best part is the well-designed assignments which makes you fully understand in practice! My profession is sustainable design and I still find it useful to supplement my financial knowledge and energy use calculation!