Articles
Why Is Sustainability a Strategic Issue for Business?
Leena Lankoski
Strategic Sustainability for Business
-Executive Program co-created with UC Berkeley Executive Education
How do you integrate sustainability into a business strategy?
Sustainable development and corporate social responsibility impact your business; how is your company shaping the market? And why is sustainability a strategic goal for business?
Sustainable actions of a company start with engaged leaders who are aware of the resources needed. Sustainability is a competitive advantage socially, environmentally, and economically more now than ever before, and it is an important matter for senior executives and leaders in order to responsibly lead the company into the future while valuing company transparency and reputation. A sustainable innovation culture requires top management commitment and ambition to make a difference. Are you, as a leader, ready and prepared?
The Strategic Sustainability for Business program focuses on strengthening the link between sustainability and business strategy within the business environment. Leaders need to take action and manage the value chain of their business, ensuring that sustainability and business strategy are mutually complementary.
The program is a comprehensive introduction to sustainability strategy development and implementation within the business. During the program, you will increase your understanding of key strategic themes for future success through sustainability. You will network with experienced leaders and experts via inspiring group discussions and reflections, lectures, and business presentations.
“Every company needs a tailored strategic approach to sustainability, both to achieve best sustainability impacts and to achieve best business impacts.”
Dr. Leena Lankoski, Senior University Lecturer in Sustainability in Business, Aalto University School of Business
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Contact us for further information
World-class lectures and facilitated learning sessions designed to accelerate change in the organization
Bridging strategic thinking with sustainability to align business goals
Participants will engage in deep discussions and engaging exercises that open up new ways of thinking
Benefits
The Strategic Sustainability for Business program helps participants to gain a holistic view of sustainability from a strategic viewpoint. It also enlightens how to create value through sustainable strategies and strengthen the link between sustainability and strategy in the company. Participants will learn the impact of sustainability incorporated on a strategic level, and get tools for inspirational leadership towards the change.
Increase your understanding on key strategic themes for future success through sustainability
Rethink the value chain and build a clear vision for economic success and competitive advantage through sustainability
Drill down to potential new business models to adopt a greater innovation mindset and to drive transformation within the organization
Start developing your organisation's responsibility strategy or take your existing responsibility strategy work forward with new tools
Receive a certificate issued by both Aalto University Executive Education and UC Berkeley Executive Education
For
The Strategic Sustainability for Business program is designed for senior executives and managers responsible for strategic decisions, either directly or indirectly regarding the sustainable development strategy of the company, business or department.
The program is also beneficial for:
- Executives who are and/or need to change the conversation in their companies, industries, and communities about the impact their companies are making on climate change
- Senior Managers who are responsible for the corporate sustainability strategy and sustainable development
- Executives who want to develop their expertise in sustainable development and prepare for the future.
About UC Berkeley Executive Education
UC Berkeley Executive Education serves leaders and organizations who aspire to redefine the future of business. Their immersive learning experiences, led by renowned UC Berkeley and Haas School of Business faculty, equip global executives and their organizations with the vision, culture, and capabilities to thrive in an ever-changing world. Leveraging the best resources of the world’s No. 1 public university (Forbes) and the surrounding Silicon Valley business ecosystem, Berkeley Executive Education embraces the Haas School of Business mission to develop leaders who Question the Status Quo, exhibit Confidence Without Attitude, are Students Always, and think Beyond Themselves.
Berkeley Executive Education delivers over 150 programs annually, to a global audience, including Open Enrollment programs, Comprehensive programs, Custom Programs, and Online programs.
Sustainability is a core value of UC Berkeley and the University has been named as one of the greenest in the world. UC Berkeley intends to be a leader in environmental issues and to promote action and awareness through educational and research initiatives.
Read more: executive.berkeley.edu.
Contents and Schedule
The program consists of a blended setup of online and face-to-face sessions. The program includes a kick-off webinar, an introductory online course to the field and four full-day training days including wrap-up and post-program food for thoughts.
During the program, you will work on a sustainability strategy workbook designed for this program, explicitly for your company. The workbook will follow you throughout the program and the goal is for you to have concrete action steps for your organization to apply.
The program combines practical knowledge and real cases with top names in the area from academia and the business world.
Program structure
Sustainability Strategy Workbook
Work on how to integrate sustainability to the core of your organization with the guidance by faculty
Four face-to-face training days
Intensive face-to-face sessions and inspirational networking with instructor and peers
Post-program period
Future steps to reach targets for further support
Schedule
Instructors
Alex Budak
Lecturer, Management of Organizations, UC Berkeley Haas School of Business
Alex Budak is a faculty member at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business where he created and teaches the transformative course, “Becoming a Changemaker.” Regularly one of Haas’ highest rated offerings, Alex’s changemaker course brings together his experience as an entrepreneur, academic and advisor to changemakers around the world. Outside of teaching, Alex also serves as Executive Director of the Berkeley Haas Global Access Program.
Before joining UC Berkeley, he co-founded StartSomeGood.com, which has helped over 1,000 changemakers in 50 countries raise over $10 Million USD. He’s written about leadership for FastCompany and the Guardian and his work as a changemaker and educator has been featured in publications including Forbes and the Washington Post.
A Silicon Valley native, Budak spent three years living in Stockholm, Sweden where he served as Country Director at Reach for Change, running its social innovation incubator. Through this role, he traveled throughout the Nordics giving talks on leadership and innovation and encouraging the development of a Nordic social entrepreneurship model and movement.
He received a Master of Public Policy degree from Georgetown University and a BA from UCLA. UCLA honored him as its Recent Graduate of the Year in 2017 and he’s been named a “top 100 visionary leader" by Real Leaders Magazine and a top under-40 North American leader by Friends of Europe.
Leena Lankoski
D.Sc.(Tech), MBA
Senior University Lecturer (Sustainability in Business), Aalto University School of Business
Dr. Leena Lankoski is an expert in corporate responsibility and sustainability.
She is currently working as a Senior University Lecturer in Sustainability in Business at Aalto University School of Business. She also holds a Title of Docent in Corporate Responsibility at the University of Helsinki and is a Visiting Scholar at INSEAD, France.
Leena Lankoski has been working with questions of corporate responsibility and sustainability for almost 30 years in Finland and elsewhere, both as an environmental consultant, at the United Nations, and lately in the academia. During her years in the field Leena has looked at questions at the interface between business and society from a number of perspectives, ranging from strategies and competitiveness issues for single firms and sectors to macro-level and policy questions in a globalized economy. Her academic research spans across several topics such as the relationship between a firm’s sustainability performance and financial performance, the different meanings that ‘sustainability’ can take in a business context, behavioural and organizational change for sustainability, and sustainability and ethics in a digital economy. She has taught corporate responsibility and sustainability for university students at all levels as well as for executive audiences for 20 years.
Dr. Lankoski holds a D.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and Management from Aalto University and an MBA from Cass Business School, London.
Fabián Sepúlveda
Fabián Sepúlveda is a Senior Advisor at Aalto University Executive Education. He is actively involved in Finland’s entrepreneurial ecosystem as a startup coach and Lean Launchpad® trainer, and helps organizations understand and execute Lean Startup methodologies and customer development.
Sepúlveda has more than 20 years of experience in engineering, management consulting and investment banking at companies such as Lucent Technologies, A.T. Kearney, and J.P. Morgan.
He teaches Venture Formation and other courses at the Aalto Ventures Program and Aalto University Executive Education. He cofounded eyescubed, a startup in automotive technology, and also cofounded Courage Ventures Advisory, which provides entrepreneurship training and development to leading private and public organizations. He is also a cofounding Partner of Courage Ventures Management, a fund investing in health & wellness, education, and environment verticals.
Sepúlveda has a PhD in International Business (Entrepreneurship) from Aalto University, an MBA in Finance and Financial Management Services from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (Netherlands) and a BSc in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from North Carolina State University (USA).
Robert Strand
Lecturer and Executive Director, Center for Responsible Business, UC Berkeley Haas School of Business
Robert Strand is the Executive Director of the Center for Responsible Business and Lecturer at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. His research and teaching explore sustainable business practices and the role of corporations in society with particular attention to the U.S. and Nordic contexts. More recently, Robert is focusing on contrasting varieties of capitalism in the U.S. and Nordic contexts and working on the book project “Sustainable Vikings: Nordic Leadership in Sustainable Capitalism.” He was a United States Fulbright Scholar to Norway.
Robert was first drawn to the Nordics as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar to Norway out of desire to understand how the Nordics were achieving such strong and balanced economic, environmental, and social performances at the macro country level – and he wanted to understand the role of business in this. He soon identified a heightened focus on cooperation rooted in democratic ideals as a fundamental reason among other related institutional and cultural factors.
Prior to joining academia as a professor with the Copenhagen Business School, Strand spent a decade in industry with IBM and Boston Scientific in a range of roles in manufacturing, supply chain, marketing, strategy, and investor relations. He holds a PhD in corporate social responsibility from the Copenhagen Business School, an MBA in international business from the University of Minnesota (completed at HEC-Paris), and a BS in industrial engineering from the University of Wisconsin.
