Program Overview
Course summary
Biologists claim we’re living through the sixth mass extinction of species, while climate scientists suggest there’s little more than a decade to cut the risk of extreme heat, drought, floods and extreme poverty. Sustainability is the most pressing concern of the 21st century. Companies across the globe are being forced to consider their impact on people and the planet to achieve the outcomes of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Paris Climate Agreement.
The UK was the first major nation to formally back a pledge to cut carbon emissions to practically zero by 2050, followed soon after by the EU. Having spent decades internationalising operations and supply chains, organisations now have to reduce their carbon footprint, minimise climate and environmental risk, enhance resiliency and integrate sustainability into their operations, but few know how to do this.
Our exciting MSc responds directly to the urgent demand for a new type of professional – those who not only possess core business management skills, but also understand corporate sustainability, want to make a difference and, more importantly, have the skills, creativity and innovation to lead positive (and profitable) change.
Corporate sustainability management is critical to the long-term viability of businesses, many of whom are under increasing scrutiny from a concerned society and mounting pressure from expanding regulations. They need people who appreciate the wider context of their operations and stakeholder relationships – people capable of spotting and solving problems, coming up with practical and feasible solutions, then pushing through change.
Tackling all this and more, our MSc is structured around three themes: analysis of sustainability issues (both social and environmental), the development of possible innovative solutions (collaborative, innovative business models, projects and products), and implementation and change management.
From the outset, your learning will be practice based. You’ll engage with a range of partner organisations on ‘live’ projects and research, and see first-hand how sustainability is managed in a particular socio-economic space. Companies we are in talks with include those involved in upcycling and recycling, as well as champions in this burgeoning professional area. You can also undertake an optional internship as part of your dissertation.
Our course was designed with input from a range of industry professionals and businesses currently operating in the sustainability space or championing the profession.
Top reasons to study with us
- This MSc is ideal for recent graduates and those with a passion to contribute to a better future as an expert in sustainability – promoting sustainable solutions, driving sustainable product development or managing sustainability reporting, compliance, and change
- Sustainability is a growing field with more and more job opportunities in environmental protection, social responsibility and business profitability
- Become business-ready through intensive practical experiences and focused study
- Exciting teaching and learning with live case studies and guest speakers to include managers and entrepreneurs who have transformed their companies into a sustainable firm
- Sustainability in practice consulting project with a client company, acquiring up-to-date skills such as carbon footprinting expertise and product life-cycle analysis
- Interactive group ‘Trash Hack’ – an entrepreneurial exercise in recycling an industrial waste product
- Engaging assessment methods, including simulations, business challenges, investigating briefs, group pitches and video presentations
Course structure
The course incorporates interdisciplinary modules from multiple business fields (such as strategy, operations management, digital disruption and innovation, marketing and finance), together with environmental studies (such as carbon footprinting and environmental impact assessment).
You’ll develop a greater understanding of the relationship between business and society and how to engage with stakeholder communities more effectively. You’ll learn to expertly assess your employer’s impact – whether it be social, environmental or economic. Finally, with an appreciation of the challenges that sustainability poses for strategic decision-making, you’ll develop the skills and know-how to innovate, implementing new processes, products and services, and identifying ways to integrate sustainable practices into day-to-day business.
Semester 1
We begin by exploring the challenges and opportunities that societal and environmental issues create for organisations as exemplified by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We consider sustainable management in all its dimensions, focusing on real-life problems, such as reducing or changing energy sources, or how to influence the behaviour of suppliers. We consider the importance of green marketing – how to promote products or services based on their environmental benefits, whether, for example, they’ve been manufactured in a sustainable fashion, don’t contain toxic materials or ozone-depleting substances or feature minimum packaging. You’ll gain a deeper understanding of business innovation and how companies can exploit emerging opportunities around sustainability.
Semester 2
Our aim is to equip you with the skills and knowledge to build readiness for change within various types of organisation, then implement change successfully. We’ll consider how to improve corporate sustainability reporting, looking at the methods and frameworks to monitor carbon emissions and use of natural resources and energy. As well as employee relations, we look at wider stakeholder communities and the need for companies to encourage sustainable supply chains, green logistics and procurement. Finally, choosing either a research or work-based project, you’ll investigate and report on issues in current sustainability management and practice.
Modules
The following modules are indicative of what you will study on this course.
Core modules
Strategies for a Sustainable Future
This module explores the challenges and opportunities that societal and environmental issues create for organisations as exemplified by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Students will explore sustainable management in all its dimensions, learning from real life examples, focusing on examining key problems and developing innovative solutions in order to lead their organisations towards sustainable change that aligns businesses long-term goals with the broader expectations of society in a globalised, connected world. To help students understand the systematic and organisational role of sustainability in any organisation, the module will give an overview of major sustainability issues, practices according to the following 3 dimensions: environmental, social and financial.
Marketing for a Sustainable World
This module will cover key sustainability marketing concepts such as green marketing and green brands, how to create value for the customer, and designing products and services using different sustainability tools such as product life-cycle analysis. Sustainable marketing strategy development will be studied in the context of the triple bottom line that places equal weight on economic, environmental and social stewardship.
Digital Disruption and Sustainable Innovative Business Models
The module aims to develop students’ understanding of how new opportunities are offered for business innovation and sustainability in emerging and existing sectors and the strategic challenges in exploiting these emerging opportunities in order to transform them into sustainable economic strategies. How can digital start-ups build strategies to win against traditional bricks-and-mortar incumbents?
Leadership and Change Management in a Complex World
Sustainability, corporate social responsibility and ethics have an internal as well as an external focus. The internal focus includes organisational and management behaviours, health, safety and well-being, ethical and responsible leadership and the management of diversity and inclusion. Changing business models to become more socially and environmentally sustainable requires closer alignment of organisational behaviours with corporate social and environmental priorities. This puts strong emphasis on change management competencies and leadership approaches that foster development of adaptive organisational cultures and readiness for change. Leadership of such transformational change is the main focus of the module.
Collaboration, Cooperation and Green Supply Chains
This module is focused on organisations’ eco-systems and the necessity for companies to build partnerships and collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders in order to deliver sustainability goals. Particular emphasis is placed on sustainable supply chains and green logistics and procurement. The first part of the module provides the context for integration and collaboration between firms, and explains how firms employ strategic partnerships and other forms of co-operation and control to overcome internal resources constraints, access new technologies and, more importantly, in a sustainability context, to redefine industries and components of supply-demand networks. The second part of the module addresses sustainable supply chains and particularities and principals of their management as key areas where firms can address sustainability issues and leverage change. The third part of the module focuses on the specific elements of supply chain management, covering green public procurement, environmental and socially responsible purchasing policies and organisational issues associated with implementation of these.
Sustainability in Practice
Innovative thinking, creative problem solving, and integrative research approaches are at the heart of this experiential and application-oriented module. The module supports students in developing knowledge and key competencies to investigate and report on issues in current sustainability management and practice. The module will also ensure that students have an advanced understanding of how to select effective research strategies and designs, and how to collect and analyse qualitative and quantitative data to evaluate the research outcomes. The module offers two routes that students could opt for. Route 1: a sound academic research project, and Route 2: a work-based and consultancy-type project supported by critical understanding of research techniques. For those students opting for the consultancy-type project, they will be required to undertake a practical sustainability project in collaboration with a UK-based organisation. Students are expected to analyse a sustainability issue working with a company of their choice and make clear and rigorous recommendations drawn from the research carried out. The project allows for different levels of interaction with companies, ranging from interviews with senior managers to an (uncredited) internship which would form the basis of the research project. The module team provides guidance to students to work with a host organisation relevant to students’ career aspirations.
Sustainability Analytics and Reporting
This module provides the methods and frameworks in order to measure and report on an organisation’s carbon emissions, usage of natural resources and energy to GRI standards. The module will also cover the strategic importance, place and role of sustainability reporting.
CSR and Sustainability in Context
One of the educational aims of the MSc in Sustainability Management and Innovation is to enable students to gain an understanding of the challenges facing businesses and managers in different contexts. In particular, it is important that sustainability-minded managers of the future understand the implications of different economic, political, social and ecological environments on sustainability strategies and solutions. There are immense benefits to be achieved by taking students out of the UK context and studying for a short period in a different country. This module will provide the opportunity to explore business and sustainability in a contrasting economy. The learning will take place through formal lectures from Westminster faculty, local faculty and guest speakers, and through direct observation and experiential learning in local businesses and local urban and rural contexts.
Program Outline
Careers
Sustainability is one of today's fastest-growing industries and the demand for multi-skilled business managers with the specialist knowledge to tackle sustainability is enormous. Organisations all over the world need people with an understanding of sustainability, personal integrity, good people skills, strong networking skills, and the ability to drive change.
You might find yourself working in-house or as a consultant, helping businesses to develop environmental management strategies, analysing the impact of products and processes on the environment. You could specialise in project management of sustainability activities and strategies or reporting and compliance obligations. Alternatively, if you consider yourself highly creative, you might wish to focus on the development of more sustainable products and providing input into product renovation and recycling.
The University's Careers and Employability Service has built up a network of over 3,000 employers around the world, helping all our students explore and connect with exciting opportunities and careers.
Build your business network
Build connections with peers and future business leaders.
Develop your CQ
Develop your cultural intelligence – or ‘CQ’ – studying alongside students and staff representing more than 100 nationalities.
Kickstart your career
Learn how to use social media in your job hunt or LinkedIn to kickstart your career.
Industry links
Westminster Business School is one of London’s leading centres for business education. Taught in the heart of London, close to many of the city’s national, international and global employers, as well as its political, media and financial services scene, our emphasis is on skills, capabilities and attributes.
The applied projects and optional internship will not only expand your professional networks, but also directly enhance the prospects for early employability after graduation.
Job roles
This course will prepare you for roles such as:
- Environmental consultant
- Product sustainability manager
- Sustainability consultant
- Sustainability project manager (cities and regions)
- Sustainability reporting manager Graduate employers
Employers value graduates who have invested in their personal and professional development – and our Westminster Employability Award gives you the chance to formally document and demonstrate these activities and achievements.
The award is flexible and can be completed in your own time, allowing you to choose from a set of extracurricular activities.
Activities might include gaining experience through a part-time job or placement, signing up to a University-run scheme – such as mentoring or teaching in a school – or completing online exercises.
Dr Martin Mathews
Senior Lecturer
Martin joined Westminster Business School from France in 2012, having held senior management positions in two French business schools and acted as a visiting lecturer for EM Grenoble and Paris School of Business.
With over 20 years’ experience as a business schoolteacher, researcher and commercial manager in Britain and France, he was previously an export manager for two SMEs and more recently a consultant for the Lyon Chamber of Commerce and Renault Trucks. His professional experience includes developing export sales, business strategies and working on cluster policies and governance. He still consults in trust-related areas and general management.
Martin obtained his PhD in Strategy from the University of Chester in 2013 and now teaches strategic and sustainable management, CSR, global markets and strategic perspectives.
His research interests are focused on two themes developed in his PhD thesis: trust (inside and between firms); and the institutional and learning processes and their consequences in industrial districts and clusters. He has published in a range of journals, including Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, the Journal of Trust Research, Regional Studies and Human Resource Management. One recent research project considered the impact of changes in stakeholder requirements on corporate social responsibility activities in Russian energy firms.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that our planet is in crisis. Companies have got to move away from the old ‘take, make, use and dispose’ model of capitalism and find new ways to do business without causing any further harm to our home or the people and animals who share it with us. Business as usual is simply not an option.
- Dr Galina Gornostaeva - Senior Lecturer
- Dr Paul Langley - Senior Lecturer
- Philip Holden - Senior Lecturer
- Dr Rebecca (Yi) Wang - Principal Lecturer
- Dr Sylvia Snijders - Senior Lecturer
- Professor Lilian Miles - Professor
- Yasmin Kulasi - Senior Lecturer
- Dr Naveeda Qaseem - Senior Lecturer in Economics
Have you ever wondered what our lecturers did before joining the University of Westminster? What their first job was or what inspired them to teach? What music they listen to, and what shows they enjoy? In this video series, we chat to various colleagues from across the University and ask them questions about their interests, their passions, and Westminster. In this episode, we chat to Yasmin Kulasi, Senior Marketing Lecturer at Westminster Business School.
Tackle society's biggest challenges
Learn how to support the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and tackle some of society’s biggest issues, including poverty, hunger and climate action.
Combine theory and practice
Link theory to global practice through real-life case studies, problem-solving and live business projects.
Develop business insight
Strengthen business insight through interaction with businesses and discussions about current sustainability challenges.
Your learning experience is designed to develop the capabilities needed by the graduate labour market, integrating practice-based learning and projects alongside academic learning and business theory.
To assist the learning experience, we provide reading lists, lecture and seminar materials in advance via Blackboard, our virtual learning environment. Where possible, lectures are recorded using specialist software and similar tools to make sure you can really listen to what is said in class and don’t miss a thing.
How you'll be taught
Through a variety of teaching methods – from lectures and seminars to case study analysis, business projects and an optional internship – we aim to bring study to life by incorporating real-world experience.
There is a requirement for ‘self-guided’ learning and you will need to develop your own opinions and approaches to problems. Group work is a core component of the programme, which allows you to deepen relationships with classmates, get a more thorough understanding of subjects by interacting with people from diverse professional and cultural backgrounds, and mimic the office environment in which projects are often conducted in small teams across different departments. Through projects including the Trash Hack, you’ll be given multiple opportunities to put forth real-life solutions to problems, present business cases or introduce plans for service optimisation.
At the core of the course will be interaction with those who are managing sustainability now. We hope to invite local practitioners from industry, consultants and NGOs to share their current sustainability challenges and experiences.
In the following graph you'll find examples of how study time has been distributed in the past (data from the academic year 2022/23). Changes to division of study time may be made in response to feedback and in accordance with our terms and conditions. Learning typically falls into three broad categories:
- Scheduled hours: examples include lectures, seminars, practical classes, workshops, supervised time in a studio
- Placement: placement hours normally include placement opportunities, but may also include live projects or virtual activity involving employers
- Independent study: non-scheduled time in which students are expected to study independently. This may include preparation for scheduled sessions, follow-up work, wider reading or practice, completion of assessment tasks, or revision
How you'll be assessed
Central to the Sustainability Management and Innovation MSc is the notion of developing a deep understanding of the relationship between organisations, society and the environment. To this end, assessment is centred on critical enquiry and reflection on both societal and environmental problems in the 21st century. It is designed to evaluate your capacity to develop, both individually and collectively, a problem-solving approach and to communicate possible solutions and innovations in a persuasive, professional manner, both verbally and in writing.
The course involves a variety of assessment methods that call on students to propose solutions to real case-studies in groups, alone and under short time limits. Presentations and essays are also included in the course content, but it is the focus on practical resolution to real problems and the encouragement of analytical skills and creativity that make this an attractive course.
In the following graph you'll find an indication of what you can expect (data from the academic year 2022/23). Changes to assessment weights may be made in response to feedback and in accordance with our terms and conditions. Assessments typically fall into three broad categories:
- Practical: examples include presentations, podcasts, blogs
- Written exams: end of semester exams
- Coursework: examples include essays, in-class tests, portfolios, dissertation
