BUU11570 Enacting Sustainable Development 2025/26

(5 ECTS)

Lecturer:

Norah Campbell

Office Hours: Mondays 10.30-11.30am

Pre- Requisite: None

Module Description

Businesses in the 21^st century will operate with an increasingly stressed ecological environment – a complex situation that demands new business and management competencies.

This module introduces you to Sustainable Development – the planetary boundaries and the social foundations within which humanity needs to operate to avert breakdown. Designed over the past year by a team from Science, Psychology, Business, Law, Medicine, Engineering faculty and students, the module is transdisciplinary and problem-based. In other words, it focuses on foundational concepts that span all disciplines – systems, frames of perception, justice, and growth. In this module students develop ways of thinking and doing that will enable them to address complex sustainability problems and develop equitable solutions that promote sustainable development and a liveable future for all.

Why this module is the introduction to Business and Management

Organising sustainably is the greatest challenge of the 21^st century. Sustainability is an objective that transverses disciplines and professions; the complexity and multidimensionality of sustainability challenges means no discipline alone can address them. This module takes a novel, transdisciplinary lens on sustainability introducing you to perspectives and concepts from earth systems science, health sciences, engineering, economics, politics, and human psychology. Through this module, you will develop literacy with fundamental scientific concepts and data that signal the health of the planet and its ecosystems – on which all human activity – including business, depends. You will develop new competencies – knowledge, skills, and attitudes – that will enable you to apply this learning to respond to real-world sustainability challenges. You will learn new ways to see and to think using a transdisciplinary lens – empowering you to question, reconcile, negotiate, and envision so that you become leaders in a transformative transition to a sustainable and just future.

Learning and Teaching Approach

There are 5 themes. Each theme has one two-hour lecture, and a small (15 person) seminar.

The themes are:

Planetary boundaries and doughnut economics
Systems complexity and future forecasting
Worldviews and values for sustainable justice
Problem framing: prevention, mitigation, and adaptation
Misinformation related to sustainable development

A 2-hour workshop follows each lecture, where you participate with your small seminar group, guided by your seminar leader. Each workshop is problem-based, and you will begin to develop 6 competencies (skills, knowledge, attitudes)[1]. They are:

Systems thinking: you analyse and understand complex relationships and systems across different spatial and temporal scales (local-global; short-long term).
Anticipatory competency: you envision and evaluate possible, probable and desirable futures; you can anticipate consequences and understand risk.
Normative competency: you analyse and negotiate norms, values, principles, goals, and targets for sustainability with others.
Strategic competency: you work collectively to design and implement actions, transitions, and transformative governance strategies for sustainability.
Collaboration competency: you understand and respect the needs, perspectives and actions of others to enable collaboration, including dealing with conflict.
Critical thinking competency: you question and reflect on norms, practices, opinions, and position.

[1] Adapted from United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) skills for sustainability: https://www.unsdglearn.org/unesco-cross-cutting-and-specialized-sdg-competencies/

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module, you should be able to:

Recognise that you are part of a complex global system and that your management will influence its fate.
Formulate challenges to sustainability as problems, and develop approaches for preventing, mitigating, or adapting to these problems
Explain risks of misinformation related to sustainable development
Question the psychosocial foundations of sustainability
Work collectively to design actions, transitions, and transformative strategies for a sustainable future.

Relation to Degree

This foundational module provides the bedrock of competencies that will deepen over the degree. It gives you the analytical categories to understand the relationships between the economic, environmental, social and personal world. Trinity Business School’s central undergraduate learning goal is to “Develop awareness of the need for strategic adaptability and a systems-level approach to rapidly changing natural, social and technological environments, and become equipped to work creatively within organisations to address organisational issues and/or grand challenges.”

Workload

Content	Indicative Number of Hours
Lecturing hours	10
Workshop hours	10
Preparation for lectures, workshops	30
Reading of assigned materials and active reflection on course content	65
Final exam preparation	10
Total	125

Textbooks and Resources

The module opens you to new types of reading – academic journal articles, scientific reports, video interviews and documentaries with experts, and policy reports. These will be in the ‘required reading’ folder under each theme – where you will also see which to do before or after the lecture.

Required core course textbook

None.

Student Preparation for the Module

Attendance is mandatory for both lecture and workshop. You must read and view materials in detail.

Course Communication

Please post any module questions to the Blackboard discussion board.

Please note that all course related email communication must be sent from your official TCD email address. Emails sent from other addresses will not be attended to.

If you have a personal issue, please chat to your Seminar Leader. If you do not get a response from your seminar leader, please email Declan on cahilld1@tcd.ie and then if no reply then contact norah.campbell@tcd.ie

Assessment

This module has two assessment parts.

Part I: Workshop attendance and participation (65%)

This module requires attendance and participation in order to achieve the 6 competencies.

Specifically you will be assessed on (i) punctual attendance with the pre-workshop work done, (ii) self-initiated and reflective contributions to the tasks within them, (iii) empathetic peer interaction, leadership when required, and (iv) post-workshop submission. Grades for this part of the assessment are Very Good (70%), Good (60%) and Non-satisfactory (0 or 30%, depending on circumstances). Your seminar leader will give you feedback on how you are doing mid-way through.

Part 2: In person test (35%)

At the end of the semester, you will sit a multiple-choice test. This test will consist of 45 multiple-choice questions in 45 minutes which will be drawn from the course material and the lectures. Sample MCQs relating to each Lecture session will help you assess the extent to which they understand the course material and the lectures.

Reassessment

If you fail the module, you must deliver a presentation during the Reassessment week (usually August). The presentation will be a critical reflection on the material and the workshops, with a longer question and answer/discussion with the module leader.

Biographical Note

This module has been designed by a team of experts across Trinity College spanning from Geosciences to Psychology. They are:

Prof. Sarah-Jane Culinane, Business
Prof. John Gallagher, Engineering
Prof. Clare Kelly, Psychology
Prof. Felix Mezzanote, Law
Prof. Carlos Rocha, Biogeochemistry
Prof. Cicely Roche, Pharmacy

The material was co-developed by a group of Trinity students over 2022-23.

The module is taught in Trinity Business School by Norah Campbell, Associate Professor of Business, and led facilitator Declan Cahill.

Seminar Leaders make up the rest of the team, and are highly skilled researchers who work with small workshops:

Seminar leaders for your workshops & seminars for the year:-

Declan Cahill	cahilld1@tcd.ie
David Coffey	coffeyD3@tcd.ie
Donal McKenna	mckenndo@tcd.ie
Melda Hasiloglu Ciftciler	hasilogm@tcd.ie
Shawn Shunyu Ji	shji@tcd.ie
Sherry Qirui Luo	luoqi@tcd.ie
Sylvia Yuqian Mu	muyu@tcd.ie
Sadhbh Crean	creansa@tcd.ie
Venu Bhaskar Puthineedi	puthinev@tcd.ie
Yuqi Zheng	zhengy2@tcd.ie
Kathleen Conroy	conroyk1@tcd.ie
Fodhla O'Connell-Grennell	oconnefo@tcd.ie
Lian Wang	wangl4@tcd.ie