Faculty
Department of Operations Management

Course Coordinator
Dr Jan Mouritsen

Students should have had prior courses in one or more of the following: economics, management, strategy, marketing, finance, international business, or human resource management.

It would be difficult for business school students today to ignore climate change as a major business issue given its escalating global impact. The first comprehensive study of the human impact of global warming recently reported that climate change is responsible for 300,000 deaths a year and is seriously affecting 325 million people. This study prepared by Kofi Annan’s Global Humanitarian Forum think tank estimates that the associated economic losses amount to more than $125 billion a year, a figure that exceeds total world aid. However, history has often shown us that adversity can lead to opportunity and climate change is no exception, as this course will endeavor to clearly demonstrate.

By hosting the UN climate conference COP 15 (8-18 December 2009) the government of Denmark has placed climate change high on its political agenda. This conference aims to achieve global agreement on a framework for governing international efforts to reduce climate change. This course is designed to examine the COP 15 process and the key issues associated with the relationship between climate change and business focusing on one key question: Exactly what are the opportunities that climate change offers to business and how might they be realized?

This course will explore five strategic management themes through which companies can address climate change issues: by creating climate change task forces to integrate board oversight with executive level management; by becoming industry leaders in building arguments for greenhouse gas controls and the required government regulatory framework; by disclosing climate risks and opportunities in securities filings and other public documents; by providing detailed public accounts of greenhouse gas emissions; and by creating strategic plans intended to exploit commercial opportunities presented by climate change.

Classes will include a combination of mini-lectures, group case analyses and group discussions. A range of cases and examples will be examined to identify specific ways in which companies are creating value based on addressing the challenges posed by climate change. Students will be encouraged to actively share their viewpoints by drawing on their own experiences and information from other courses as well as the materials for this course. The class groups will post weekly blogs on the key discussion topic for each week. The quality of the sessions will be monitored through feedback at the conclusion of each session.

The aim of this course is to allow students to gain exposure to, and build expertise in, developing and deploying strategies designed to mitigate the impacts of climate change and, in so doing, to create corporate value. Students can expect to learn basic concepts and theories as well as to gain insights about best practices in the real world. By the end of the course the student should have a comprehensive understanding of the role of board oversight, management execution, public disclosure, emissions accounting and strategic opportunities associated with carbon dioxide emissions management.

Learning Objective 1: To discuss knowledgeably the challenges associated with climate change including key concepts, theories, models and frameworks that can be used in climate change analyses.

Learning Objective 2: To discuss knowledgably strategies to value creation aimed at addressing the challenges posed by climate change.

Learning Objective 3: To discuss knowledgeably practical applications of climate change-mitigating strategies taking costs and benefits into account.

To obtain a score of 12 in this course a student must master the three learning objectives to an exceptional level with lower scores awarded in accordance with reductions in the levels of mastery.

Individual oral examination based on a prepared assignment.

Dunn, Seth (2002), Down to business on climate change: An overview of corporate strategies,” GMI (Greener Management International), Vol. 39, Autumn, pp. 27-41.

Arrow, Kenneth J. (2007), Global climate change: A challenge to policy,” Economists’ Voice, June, pp. 1-5.

Dasgupta, Partha (2007), Commentary: The Stern Review‘s economics of climate change,” National Institute Economic Review, Vol. 199, pp.4-7.

Kolk, Ans and Pinkse, Jonatan (2004), “Market strategies for climate change,” European Management Journal, Vol. 22, No. 3, pp. 304-314.

Government of Denmark, Ministry of Energy, (2009), “The Danish example” – the way to an energy-efficient and energy-friendly economy.

Vietor, Richard H:K: and Seminerio, Juliana (2008), Note on the global wind industry. Harvard Business School Publishing.

Goleman, Daniel (2009), Ecological intelligence: How knowing the hidden impacts of what we buy can change everything. Broadway Business, Chapter 1 – The hidden price of what we buy.

Case studies:

The Electric Car: The major players. [Stanford Graduate School of Business 2008]: How the various players in the electric car industry are attempting to position themselves to become first movers and capture market share.

Enel: CSR and performance measurement. [SDA Bocconi School of Management 2008]: How this very large Italian-based energy conglomerate with a significant presence in Spain, France, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia and North America and Latin America and about 1.7 million shareholders has adopted a corporate social responsibility and performance measurement strategy to highlight environmental responsibility as well as social and economic responsibility in its extensive operations.

Environmental quality International in Siwa, [INSEAD & Rensselaer Polytechnic University 2009]: How environmental management principles were applied in a developing country context in Egypt to promote economic development at the same time as preserving a very valuable cultural heritage site.

Carrotmob – http://carrotmob.org: How organized consumer purchasing can change business as networks of consumers reward businesses making the most socially responsible decisions.