Key Strategies for Business Sustainability (University of Waterloo)

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Register Your Interest

In partnership with the School of Accounting and Finance, WatSPEED’s Key Strategies for Business Sustainability course provides emerging sustainability leaders with the foundational knowledge of the impact of sustainability on business strategy, risks, reporting, and business practices. This four-week course includes an overview of the process necessary to align sustainability practices with operations and strategy while emphasizing how to harness opportunities and identify emerging risks.

Upon successful completion of the course, you will be able to:

• Recognize the impact of science and advanced social topics on your organization.
• Identify steps necessary to conduct a current state and materiality assessment within your organization.
• Identify considerations in establishing baselines, metrics, and target setting.
• Gain exposure to experts with experience integrating sustainability into business operations and organizational strategy.

Receive a certificate from the University of Waterloo

Upon successful completion of this program, you will receive a professional education certificate from the University of Waterloo.

Who Should Enrol

• Senior and emerging leaders who wish to understand how sustainability reshapes businesses and industries.
• Business managers and mid-to-senior level professionals interested in harnessing the impact of sustainability in their work environments.
• Anyone looking to understand better the foundational concepts of participating in sustainable initiatives and reporting. 
• Individuals tasked with implementing sustainability initiatives and strategic reporting within their organization.

What You Will Learn

Session 1: Understanding the Impact of Science and Advanced Social Topics on Your Organization	Understand the components of an organization’s carbon footprintMethodology overview behind measuring carbon emissions.Considerations for setting carbon targets to reduce carbon footprint in an organization and supply chainUnderstand how science-based topics such as biodiversity, and advanced social topics impact sustainability.
Session 2:  Conducting your Current State & Materiality Assessments	Explore the importance of:Understanding your organization’s current state of sustainabilityIdentifying your organizational ESG strategy / mission / vision / values.Double materialityApproach to: Identification of both internal and external organizational stakeholders necessary for materiality assessmentIdentify those topics that matter most to stakeholders.Identify topics with the greatest organizational impact.Methodology to develop a materiality matrix and identify key organizational focus areas to manage risk and capitalize on opportunities.
Session 3: Baselines, Metrics and Target Setting	Considerations in establishing baselines for metrics and in setting future targets.Investigate alternative metrics aligning with identified ESG/sustainability priorities.Explore challenges in obtaining and utilizing data for metric calculations.
Session 4: Operational and Strategic Sustainability Integration	Explore how sustainability integrates into operational processes and systems such as data governance; enterprise risk management; and controls.Explore the strategic advantages of integrating sustainability into corporate strategy.Explore how ESG factors intersect with higher-level processes and systems such as strategic planning and goal setting; budgeting and reporting; capital planning; and, compensation and bonuses.

How You Will Learn

This course offers multiple modes of learning that will allow you to get up-to-speed quickly on how sustainability plays a role in businesses. This includes: 

• 90-minute live sessions, taking place via Zoom on Tuesdays (October 29-November 19) from 1- 2:30 p.m. ET, comprised of facilitated sessions with industry experts.
• Curated readings that will allow you to dig deeper into specific topics of interest.  

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Register Your Interest