SUSTAINABLE/GREEN BUSINESS. Take BMGT 1371 in Fall 2024! Learn about sustainable business practices and the latest in green business! No prerequisite.
The purpose of this course is to provide an understanding of how Sustainable Business Practices can increase profits while using concepts from Corporate Social Responsibility and more. Sustainable/Green Business: Principles, Practices, Opportunities is a study of sustainability and its implications for business. The course will stress how businesses can save energy and water, reduce waste, embrace lean manufacturing, reduce risk, and yet save money at the same time. Students will learn how some visionary companies are realizing the advantages of including environmental management in their strategies. You will be able to pursue your own interests via a project of your choice.
Textbook: The Green to Gold Business Playbook - by Esty and Simmons. ISBN 978-0470590751 (you can typically get this book for under $8)
Learn how leading companies like IKEA, 3M, Herman Miller Furniture, Interface (carpet maker) and others are using environmental management to lower costs and compete in the marketplace. UT's business school has an entire department now in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) so start learning now about something that will be woven into most businesses this decade. The course is an approved elective in the Management Associates Degree and Certificate plans.
MORE GREEN BUSINESS INFO:
GREEN JOB GUIDEBOOK - Published by the Environmental Defense Fund
Austin Energy Green Building Program - remodeling your home? Do it green.
Plastics Reduction Project - new local group doing amazing things to reduce the amount of plastics used and produced
Hazardous Waste Disposal in Austin - this is where you can take old AAA batteries, paint, pesticides, lawn chemicals, etc.
Sustainability:
Restaurant/Café Sustainability Checklist (Example courtesy Bay Area Green Business Program)
Office/Retail Sustainability Checklist (Example courtesy Bay Area Green Business Program)
Small Manufacturer Sustainability Checklist (Example courtesy Bay Area Green Business Program)
Sustainability Primer, The Natural Step – Canada www.naturalstep.org/en/canada/download-form
GreenSeal™ Products and Services www.greenseal.org
Renewable energy:
Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air, David MacKay www.withouthotair.com
Climate change (apolitical):
Ecological Impacts of Climate Change (2009)
Understanding and Relating to Climate Change (2008)
National Academy of Sciences www.nas.edu/climatechange
Book Recommendations: The following titles span the range from books mostly concerned with the mechanics of business sustainability to those more concerned with the relations between humans and the remainder of the natural world. (Check back from time-to-time as the list will grow. Thanks to David Kollen for compiling most of this list.)
The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability, James Speth
The Natural Step for Business: Wealth, Ecology and the Evolutionary Corporation, Brian Nattrass and Mary Altomare
Green Intentions: Creating a Green Value Stream to Compete and Win, Brett Wills
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins
The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability, Paul Hawken
Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future, Bill McKibben
Earth: The Sequel: The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming, Fred Krupp and Miriam Horn
Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, Lester Brown (download free pdf @ http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/PB3/pb3book.pdf
The End of the Line: How Overfishing is Changing the World and What We Eat, Charles Clover (Film release 2nd half 2009)
With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change, Fred Pearce
Biomimicry: Innovations Inspired by Nature, Janine Benyus
Encounters with the Archdruid, John McPhee
The Future of Life, Edward O. Wilson (Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and world-renowned biologist)
Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered, Bill Devall and George Sessions
The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature, David Suzuki
A special thanks to David Kollen for originally developing this course!!!