Managing for Sustainability Concentration (B.Com.) (15 credits)
Offered by: Management (Desautels Faculty of Management)
Degree: Bachelor of Commerce
Program credit weight: 15
Program Description
The B.Com.; Major in General Management; Managing for Sustainability Concentration focuses on conceptual and analytical skills needed to formulate and implement organizational policies that contribute to ecologically sustainable and socially responsible economic development.
The main themes of courses in the Concentration include: organizational implications of the interlinked economic, social and ecological challenges of sustainability; the integration of sustainability into traditional business functions; and leadership, stakeholder management and managing change required to achieve sustainability.
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Required Course (6 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MGPO 440 | Strategies for Sustainability. | 3 |
Strategies for Sustainability. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course explores the relationship between economic activity, management, and the natural environment. Using readings, discussions and cases, the course will explore the challenges that the goal of sustainable development poses for our existing notions of economic goals, production and consumption practices and the management of organizations. | ||
| MSUS 402 | Systems Thinking and Sustainability. | 3 |
Systems Thinking and Sustainability. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Examines interconnected dynamics of organizations and social, economic, and ecological systems. Introduces systems thinking principles to foster learning, inform organizational decision-making, and solve real-world problems. Covers problem diagnosis and resolution of organizational and societal sustainability issues through causal loop diagrams, stock-and-flow mapping, group model building, computational simulations and case studies. | ||
Complementary Courses (9 credits)
3-9 credits from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ACCT 401 | Sustainability and Environmental Accounting. | 3 |
Sustainability and Environmental Accounting. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Developing measures of corporate environmental performance, assessing their reliability and reporting to external stakeholders. Using sustainability metrics in strategic and operational business decisions. Implementing and utilizing Environmental management systems and standards. Managing corporate environmental risks and accounting for environmental costs. Environmental auditing. | ||
| FINE 465 | Sustainable Finance . | 3 |
Sustainable Finance . Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Exploration of the financial implications associated with climate change and the transition to a low carbon economy. Topics covered include the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into the decision-making process of investment managers and corporate financial managers, including conducting a sustainability analysis for a company in an investment context. | ||
| INSY 455 | Technology and Innovation for Sustainability. | 3 |
Technology and Innovation for Sustainability. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The role of information and other technologies in the size and nature of an organization’s environmental ‘footprint’. Achieving sustainability through strategic innovation, such as digitization, recycling, reuse of materials, sustainable design, LEED certifications, smart grids and energy metrics. Analyzing the environmental benefits and hidden costs of novel technologies. | ||
| MGPO 438 | Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation. | 3 |
Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Explores key concepts associated with social entrepreneurship and social innovation – the application of principles of entrepreneurship and innovation to solve social problems through social ventures, enterprises and not-for-profit organizations. Focuses on the social economy, including how the market system can be leveraged to create social value. | ||
| MGSC 488 | Sustainability and Operations. | 3 |
Sustainability and Operations. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Social and environmental impacts of an organization’s operations. Regulatory environments, eco-efficiency concepts and measurement systems. Lifecycle analysis and exploring impacts linked to: product design, sourcing, production, distribution, sales, and end-of-life recovery treatment. Frameworks and best practices for reducing negative consequences and increasing positive ones. | ||
| MRKT 351 | Marketing and Society. | 3 |
Marketing and Society. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The social issues and concerns affecting marketing management are examined and the two way relationship between marketing and social change is explored. Particular attention is paid to consumerism, government regulation in marketing, corporate social responsibility, social marketing and marketing role in a conserve society. | ||
0-6 credits from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| BUSA 451D1 | Creating Impact Through Research. | 3 |
Creating Impact Through Research. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The development of community impact initiative projects. Emphasis is placed on hands on experience related to integrated management and research activities aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Research projects are supervised by university professors. | ||
| BUSA 451D2 | Creating Impact Through Research. | 3 |
Creating Impact Through Research. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. See BUSA 451D1 for course description. | ||
| INDR 294 | Introduction to Labour-Management Relations. | 3 |
Introduction to Labour-Management Relations. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to labour-management relations, the structure, function and government of labour unions, labour legislation, the collective bargaining process, and the public interest in industrial relations. | ||
| INDR 492 | Globalization and Labour Policy. | 3 |
Globalization and Labour Policy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Exploration of contemporary labour policies around the world in the context of globalization. Topics include labour market functioning, international trade, technological change, flexibility, employment standards, protective legislation, employment practices. | ||
| MGPO 365 | Business-Government Relations. | 3 |
Business-Government Relations. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The political environment in which business organizations operate: how governments control, regulate, promote, and compete with the private sector and how corporate policy responds to, and seeks to influence, these activities. | ||
| MGPO 430 | Practicum in Not for Profit Consulting. | 3 |
Practicum in Not for Profit Consulting. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course is designed around a pro bono consulting experience. It is meant to connect students to both the NGO community as well as the consulting world. The students go through the entire process of researching potential NGOs, writing and getting a Letter of Proposal Signed off, undertaking the first hand research and analysis, presenting the project results to the Board of the NGO, and finally presenting it to both the professor and the office of the partnering consulting firm. Students are put into teams whose structure is meant to mimic that of a real consulting team. | ||
| MGPO 435 | The Origins of Capitalism. | 3 |
The Origins of Capitalism. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course covers the evolution of modern business institutions from their roots in the early middle ages to the modern era. Covering economic issues in the context of arts and culture, it offers a "distant mirror on globalization." | ||
| MGPO 450 | Ethics in Management. | 3 |
Ethics in Management. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of the economic, legal and ethical responsibilities of managers in both private and public organizations. Through readings, case studies, discussions and projects the class evaluates alternative ethical systems and norms of behaviour and draws conclusions as to the right, proper and just decisions and actions in the face of moral dilemmas. The focus of this course is on the decision process, values and consistency of values of the individual and on the impact of systems control and incentives on managerial morality. | ||
| MGPO 469 | Managing Globalization. | 3 |
Managing Globalization. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course explores economic and social consequences of globalization, focusing on the most pertinent issues at the time. Topics include the existing global imbalances; the opportunities and risks presented by large cross border capital flows; and the role of institutions, and organizational and policy responses in crisis hit countries. | ||
| MGPO 475 | Strategies for Developing Countries. | 3 |
Strategies for Developing Countries. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Strategic management challenges in developing and emerging economies. Focus on strategies that foster both firm competitiveness and economic development, including: technological capabilities, new forms of organization, small and large firms, global production, social impact, global standards and governance. | ||
| MGSC 483 | Analytics-Based Community Project. | 3 |
Analytics-Based Community Project. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Aiding a host community organization in the application of analytics, with the aim of helping to improve the community's operations for the good of society. | ||
| MSUS 401 | Sustainability Consulting. | 3 |
Sustainability Consulting. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Designed around a pro bono consulting engagement, provides real-world experience in applying management consulting theories and tools to plan and implement projects that move organizations towards sustainability. Topics include: consulting as an industry; different types of sustainability consulting; implementing change in organizations; and project management. | ||
| MSUS 434 | Topics in Sustainability 1 | 3 |
Topics in Sustainability 1 Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An advanced topic in sustainability. | ||
| ORGB 321 | Leadership. | 3 |
Leadership. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Leadership theories provide students with opportunities to assess and work on improving their leadership skills. Topics include: the ability to know oneself as a leader, to formulate a vision, to have the courage to lead, to lead creatively, and to lead effectively with others. | ||
| ORGB 325 | Negotiations and Conflict Resolution. | 3 |
Negotiations and Conflict Resolution. Terms offered: Summer 2025 A conceptual framework to guide participants through negotiation and conflict resolution process. | ||
| ORGB 421 | Managing Organizational Change. | 3 |
Managing Organizational Change. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Organizational change theory and techniques are examined with an emphasis on techno-structural interventions such as Quality-of-Work-Life approaches. Through simulations and case-studies, the course explores initiatives in organizational change, primarily in contemporary Canadian organizations. It also includes opportunities for "hands-on" experience in work and organization redesign. | ||
| RETL 410 | Sustainable Retail and Entrepreneurship. | 3 |
Sustainable Retail and Entrepreneurship. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Stages of developing a business concept in sustainability and retail. The experiential learning component culminates in a competition where student teams will pitch their business ideas to a panel of external business experts. | ||
Or any related undergraduate topics course (with approvals from the Program Mentor and the BCom Office.)