Ethics: Professional, Personal, and General Ethics Towards a Sustainable World (SDEM 502)

Course Description:

This course Unit is an introduction to the concept and issues of ethics – for business, corporate, public service and personal use in environmental management and sustainable development principles.

The course is designed to open up students’ perspective on a practical tool in dealing with the key components of ethics: distinguishing between “values”, “principles”, “guidelines” and “acts”. Such areas as financial compliance, reporting and social responsibility for the environment and sustainable development will be addressed. This will help students in their personal choice of becoming actors of change and innovation – whether they will work for the private sector (corporations or Small Medium Enterprises) or the public sector (administrations and institutions), as well as within civil society (NGOs, associations). It therefore reviews the basic characteristics of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as the normative actions required from individuals and institutions and how humans and institutions can take individual responsibilities to ensure compliance without necessarily being compelled by any legal framework.

 It is important to stress that ensuring a healthy environment and achieving the targets of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development requires individual corporate and personal ethics which are to be cultivated or drawn from different practices that could be found in norms and ethical principles. The course unit will address such to improve the student’s expertise in the field of sustainable development.

Modules:

v  Introduction to Ethics

v  Ethics and Sustainability

v  Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)

v  Environment and Social Management Systems (ESMS)

v  Sustainability Reporting