Lesson 4 Overview

Lesson 4 Overview

Summary

Where we have been doing some amount of tablesetting or precursor in the first three Lessons, this week we will begin into what I consider the beating heart of modern Sustainability: Understanding realities versus fabrications.

The reason I place so much emphasis here is that having a well-informed and nuanced understanding is what will allow you to find opportunity if developing a new offering.  Conversely, if you are in an organization in the Corporate Sustainability function, you will be able to understand how your program actually delivers, how it can be improved, how it can better deliver on the organization's VMV, and potential weaknesses.

I say this in all seriousness: Without the ability to research and understand the actual performance of a sustainability program, one is nothing more than a 'Public Relations Parrot,' broadcasting sustainability words and stories without any real caring for the actual underlying performance or improvement.  And frankly, my hope by this point in the course is that I have helped to show you the range of ways CSRs can warp and hide realities.

Now, we will learn how to very specifically prosecute our own research in service of understanding Sustainability.  We will be able to differentiate 'hidden gems' of sustainability from those which are essentially over-hyped PR efforts. 

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

• critically evaluate sustainability filings and stated strategies through the lens of an organization's stated mission, vision, and values;
• articulate the role GRI plays–and does not play–in an organization's sustainability reporting;
• analyze filings through omission, indicator, narrative, and commission analyses;
• propose public sustainability filings as a platform for innovation and competitive advantage;
• discern what the major filings do–and do not–require an organization to do to comply.

Lesson Roadmap

Questions?

If you have any questions, please send them to my axj153@psu.edu Faculty email. I will check daily to respond. If your question is one that is relevant to the entire class, I may respond to the entire class rather than individually.