Business, Sustainability, and Justice
This seminar will engage with the intersection of business, sustainability, and justice, with a focus on diversity, equity, inclusion & accessibility (DEIA). This course is designed to help students recognize and analyze how businesses’ approaches to sustainability support and/or neglect issues of DEIA. The course offers students an opportunity to develop critical thinking about businesses’ impacts on environmental and social justice. Class sessions will be experiential and discussion-based. Readings, self-reflection, case studies and a final project will also be emphasized. Students will have the opportunity to co-create course discussions as we adapt sessions to align with students’ interests and career goals. The class will start with an overview of diversity in organizations, using academic research and case studies to explore discrimination and bias, equality, and equity in organizations and society and how they relate to organizational issues of power, privilege, innovation, and organizational effectiveness. Next, we will focus on issues of environmental injustice and the history of business impacts on society. Then we will explore the intersection, studying how companies have navigated issues of DEIA and sustainability, with the lens that we are not moving towards a just and sustainable society if we are not ensuring that sustainable business practices are equitable and accessible broadly.