Fall 2022 Undergrad Courses in Sustainable Business
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Stern undergraduate students concentrating in Sustainable Business examine the unique role of the private sector and gain a broad understanding of how embedding sustainability into core business strategy benefits financial performance and management practices. To learn more about the Concentration and its course requirements, click here.
To assist undergraduate students as they design their schedules, CSB has assembled the following list of Sustainable Business courses offered in the upcoming Fall 2022 semester.
Professor Whelan | MW 3:30-4:45pm | In-Person
This course is designed to assist students in developing the knowledge, skills, and perspective they need to understand and address environmental and social challenges in business, so that as leaders they reduce risk, create competitive advantage, and develop innovative services, products, and processes, all while building value for society and protecting the planet.
Professor Taparia | W 5:00 - 8:00 pm | In-Person
This course, rooted in stakeholder theory, is designed to provide a socially relevant academic experience in order to help students gain in-depth insights into economic and social value creation across a number of areas including poverty alleviation, energy, health and sustainability. Students will have the opportunity to find and test new ideas and solutions to social problems, create sustainable business models, identify funding options and alternatives, learn about evolving legal and governance structures, learn how to measure social impact and scale a social enterprise.
ECON-UB 225 Business and the Environment
Professor Moerenhout | W 3:00 - 6:00 pm | In-Person in Washington, DC
This course examines several environmental issues at local, national, and international levels, with a particular focus this year on energy and climate change, but also briefly on water and population. Drawing on the theories of externalities, market failure, and mechanism design, it explores the causes of these problems and some of the potential remedies, including government regulation, "cap-and-trade," and carbon taxes, as well as potential related business opportunities.
Professor Hollender | R 5:00 - 8:00 pm | In-Person
The course is designed and committed to equipping you to be more effective in that pursuit. This course will provide you with some of the fundamental capabilities required to become a social entrepreneur such as systems thinking, an understanding of the various frameworks that will allow you to more deeply understand and reconcile sustainability, capitalism, and the new economy, and build your knowledge to become conversant with how to leverage business for transformative societal and environmental change.
FINC-UB 75 Managing Climate, Cyber, Geopolitical, and Financial Risk
Professor Berner | MW 9:30 - 10:45 am | In-Person
Businesses and governments now face a growing and immediate array of nonfinancial risks, including climate-related, cyber and operational, and geopolitical risks. Precisely because these critical risks are hard to measure and analyze, firms are putting new resources – people and money– to work to anticipate, manage and mitigate them. To address cybersecurity risks, for example, JP Morgan alone has 3000 employees and spends $600 million annually. Firms are only starting to grapple with existential climate-related risks. And startups are mushrooming to provide assessments to businesses. This course will study these risks alongside financial risks. It will outline frameworks for measuring, assessing and analyzing them, and for actions needed to meet them.
Professor Statler | M 2:00 - 4:45pm | In-Person
This course is an experiential learning seminar involving project-based collaboration among students, faculty and nonprofit organizations in New York City. Its two objectives are to provide students with an occasion to put the lessons learned in the Social Impact Core Curriculum into practice as consultants; and to produce project outcomes that have meaning and value for participating stakeholders.
BSPA-UB 45 Sustainability Consulting in Costa Rica
Professor Kowol | T 3:30 - 4:45 pm | In-Person
Stern students will have the opportunity to work with small businesses in Costa Rica to help further develop their innovative sustainability programs. Pending the safety and feasibility of international travel, this course also will include an 8 day January 2023 trip to Costa Rica during which students will test their hypothesis on the ground with local partners and become immersed in Costa Rican culture.
BSPA-UB 51 Marketing for Impact: Strategies for Sustainable Business (P)
Professors Taparia and Bemporad | R 5:00 - 8:00pm | In-Person
The American corporate landscape is under assault. The average lifespan for a company in the S&P 500 is shorter than ever, approval ratings for corporations are lower than ever, and consumers are increasingly skeptical of advertising and corporate social responsibility messages that attempt to divert attention from unethical business practices. The ideas of stakeholder theory and shared value are gaining ground and increasingly being seen as necessary constructs for corporations. As part of this, the field of marketing is also undergoing significant change. This course will attempt to explore this “new normal,” study the evolution of the consumer, and explore what brands, both old and new, are doing and might do to succeed in the years to come.
To assist undergraduate students as they design their schedules, CSB has assembled the following list of Sustainable Business courses offered in the upcoming Fall 2022 semester.
Foundational Course (Required for Specialization)
BSPA-GB.2305: Sustainability for Competitive AdvantageProfessor Whelan | MW 3:30-4:45pm | In-Person
This course is designed to assist students in developing the knowledge, skills, and perspective they need to understand and address environmental and social challenges in business, so that as leaders they reduce risk, create competitive advantage, and develop innovative services, products, and processes, all while building value for society and protecting the planet.
Issue Area
BSPA-UB 41 Social EntrepreneurshipProfessor Taparia | W 5:00 - 8:00 pm | In-Person
This course, rooted in stakeholder theory, is designed to provide a socially relevant academic experience in order to help students gain in-depth insights into economic and social value creation across a number of areas including poverty alleviation, energy, health and sustainability. Students will have the opportunity to find and test new ideas and solutions to social problems, create sustainable business models, identify funding options and alternatives, learn about evolving legal and governance structures, learn how to measure social impact and scale a social enterprise.
ECON-UB 225 Business and the Environment
Professor Moerenhout | W 3:00 - 6:00 pm | In-Person in Washington, DC
This course examines several environmental issues at local, national, and international levels, with a particular focus this year on energy and climate change, but also briefly on water and population. Drawing on the theories of externalities, market failure, and mechanism design, it explores the causes of these problems and some of the potential remedies, including government regulation, "cap-and-trade," and carbon taxes, as well as potential related business opportunities.
Discipline
BSPA-UB 44 Innovations and Strategies for Building a Progressive Social EnterpriseProfessor Hollender | R 5:00 - 8:00 pm | In-Person
The course is designed and committed to equipping you to be more effective in that pursuit. This course will provide you with some of the fundamental capabilities required to become a social entrepreneur such as systems thinking, an understanding of the various frameworks that will allow you to more deeply understand and reconcile sustainability, capitalism, and the new economy, and build your knowledge to become conversant with how to leverage business for transformative societal and environmental change.
FINC-UB 75 Managing Climate, Cyber, Geopolitical, and Financial Risk
Professor Berner | MW 9:30 - 10:45 am | In-Person
Businesses and governments now face a growing and immediate array of nonfinancial risks, including climate-related, cyber and operational, and geopolitical risks. Precisely because these critical risks are hard to measure and analyze, firms are putting new resources – people and money– to work to anticipate, manage and mitigate them. To address cybersecurity risks, for example, JP Morgan alone has 3000 employees and spends $600 million annually. Firms are only starting to grapple with existential climate-related risks. And startups are mushrooming to provide assessments to businesses. This course will study these risks alongside financial risks. It will outline frameworks for measuring, assessing and analyzing them, and for actions needed to meet them.
Practicum
BSPA-UB 103 Social Impact ConsultingProfessor Statler | M 2:00 - 4:45pm | In-Person
This course is an experiential learning seminar involving project-based collaboration among students, faculty and nonprofit organizations in New York City. Its two objectives are to provide students with an occasion to put the lessons learned in the Social Impact Core Curriculum into practice as consultants; and to produce project outcomes that have meaning and value for participating stakeholders.
BSPA-UB 45 Sustainability Consulting in Costa Rica
Professor Kowol | T 3:30 - 4:45 pm | In-Person
Stern students will have the opportunity to work with small businesses in Costa Rica to help further develop their innovative sustainability programs. Pending the safety and feasibility of international travel, this course also will include an 8 day January 2023 trip to Costa Rica during which students will test their hypothesis on the ground with local partners and become immersed in Costa Rican culture.
BSPA-UB 51 Marketing for Impact: Strategies for Sustainable Business (P)
Professors Taparia and Bemporad | R 5:00 - 8:00pm | In-Person
The American corporate landscape is under assault. The average lifespan for a company in the S&P 500 is shorter than ever, approval ratings for corporations are lower than ever, and consumers are increasingly skeptical of advertising and corporate social responsibility messages that attempt to divert attention from unethical business practices. The ideas of stakeholder theory and shared value are gaining ground and increasingly being seen as necessary constructs for corporations. As part of this, the field of marketing is also undergoing significant change. This course will attempt to explore this “new normal,” study the evolution of the consumer, and explore what brands, both old and new, are doing and might do to succeed in the years to come.