Module
Sustainable Business & Agri-Food Supply Chains
- Module code
- 3218
- Module leader
- Dr Richard Baines
- Module level
- 6
- Module credits
- 15
- Prerequisites
- None
- Min study time
- 150 hours
- Contact Hrs within study time
- 25 hours
- Teaching period
- Semester 1
Module content
This module focuses on the challenges aimed at businesses and corporations along agri-food supply chains to demonstrate environmentally responsible practices and corporate social responsibility (CSR), or put simply Corporate Responsibility (CR). The following themes will be developed:
- Business externalities (policy, society, pressure groups, trading partners, customers etc) and how to address these.
- Business policies and procedures to address environmental (and social) issues (assessment tools and standards)
- The use of environmental and social tools linked to business responsibilities and activity
Module outcomes
To achieve credit for this module, students must be able to:
- Identify the external and internal factors that are leading businesses to develop corporate strategies
- Analyse named standards that address environmental and social performance for their applicability to specified business situations.
- Evaluate a business situation in relation to its environmental performance and develop a strategy to maintain/improve this.
Assessment
| Assessment | Description | Weighting |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | Essay | 40% |
| Coursework | Case study | 60% |
Key texts
Students should be familiar with the content of the following:
- Agenda 21: UN Sustainable Development (No date)
- Blowfield, M. (2012) Business and sustainability. Oxford University Press.
- Hitchcock, D.E. and Willard, M.L. (2009) The business guide to sustainability: practical strategies and tools for organizations. 2nd edn. London: Earthscan.
- CRONER PUBLICATIONS (no date) Croner's environmental management. [Reference material] Croner Publications.
- EEA, 2015, The European environment — state and outlook 2015: synthesis report, European Environment Agency, Copenhagen.
- Evans, J.P. (2011) Environmental governance. London: Routledge. (Routledge introductions to environment).
- Kütting, G. (2011) Global environmental politics: concepts, theories and case studies. London: Routledge.
- Leipziger, D. (2003). The Corporate Responsibility Code Book. Greenleaf Publishing.
- Mahonge, C.P.I. (2010) Co-managing complex social-ecological systems in Tanzania: The case of Lake Jipe wetland. Wageningen: Wageningen Academic. (Environmental policy series; Environmental policy series, 2
- Moon, J. (2014) Corporate social responsibility: a very short introduction. Oxford University Press. (Very short introductions, 414).
- OECD. (1993). Agricultural and Environmental Policy Integration.
- Therivel et al. (1992). Strategic Environmental Assessment. Earthscan publications.