Environmental Studies

Full course description

Interest in the concept of social and sustainable entrepreneurship has been sparked over the last two decades due to frustration with inefficient, ineffective and failed action of government and philanthropic bodies, as well as the socially destructive behaviour of many businesses. An explicit and central social/sustainable mission, innovation, creativity and a strong market orientation are the distinguishing features of social and sustainable entrepreneurship. Social and sustainable entrepreneurs are committed to furthering a social and/or sustainable mission, and rank social, environmental or cultural impact on a par with, or above, profit. At the intersection of business, government and not-for-profit organisations, these social and sustainable entrepreneurs are now visible and having an impact on a global scale.

This course will provide you the opportunity to learn how you can apply your knowledge and skills to address complex sustainability problems. This course is structured around experiential problem-based learning, providing you the opportunity to synthesise theory and practice as you develop an idea for your own social/sustainable enterprises. Topics will include: critically reviewing concepts; user centred-design of social and sustainable enterprises; frameworks for understanding and strategizing; understanding and reporting social and environmental impact; and cross-sector collaboration.

Course objectives

On the successful completion of this course you should be able to:

• Critically reflect on social and sustainable entrepreneurship theory and practice
• Identify and evaluate social and sustainable entrepreneurship opportunities
• Develop a strategy for a social/ sustainable enterprise
• Conduct primary research and analyse primary and secondary data in the field of social and sustainable entrepreneurship
• Prepare and present documentation to pitch a novel enterprise idea
• Learn to cope with the chaos and complexity of doing social and sustainable entrepreneurship in the real world.

Prerequisites

You need to have completed at least ONE of the following course: SSC2055 Entrepreneurship; SSC2036 Introduction to Business Administration OR SCI1016 Sustainable Development

This course introduces conceptual approaches for understanding the myriad relationships between human societies and their biophysical environments. It addresses three key questions. First, how are nature and society interconnected? Second, what theoretical and methodological approaches can be used to study nature-society relationships? Third, how can societal relationships with nature be improved in ways that are sustainable and just? These questions will be explored using different social theories, particularly from the interdisciplinary field of political ecology, which will be applied to contemporary environmental issues. Students will learn how to critically think, discuss, and write about complex nature-society interactions.

This course teaches students to think critically about human beings' interactions with and responsibility towards the broader global environment in the modern world. It contextualizes the moral and political questions arising out of this inquiry within the broader philosophical tradition, including its numerous critical discussions of the role of humankind in the natural world.

This course provides a solid and global understanding of contemporary developments and challenges in the field of energy. It provides insight and overview to the particularities of the oil and gas industry, climate developments, renewables, the electricity sector, energy efficiency, and international energy affairs. Resource management in major producing countries is outlined. Energy economics and regulation is discussed both for renewable and non-renewable resources, for the environment and the prospects for a greener economy.

This course presents an integrated approach to the processes that have driven environmental changes at various time scales during the Quaternary period. Discussed are the interactions between the oceans, ice sheets and continents, and the way in which climate change drives/affects Earth surface processes. The archives that preserve records of environmental change on Earth on time scales of millions of years to decades are examined. Causes for environmental change through time are scrutinized in a global context. In addition to covering the general change in Earths climate over a longer period, there as a focus on the last glaciation and the transition into the modern Holocene climate. The causes for environmental change are studied from a marine and a continental perspective. Also, a computer simulation component highlights the processes having driven past climate change in addition to assessing future climate states. Computer based practical sessions are an important part of the course and introduce techniques used in retrieving information on, and reconstructing, past environments from environmental archives (e.g. sediments, corals) and comparing data from different settings.