Communication & Sustainable Development

Students will gain a general understanding of the field of Communicating Sustainability and of its centrality and importance to the achievement of Sustainability goals.

These goals are set by international organizations, such as the United Nations, as well as by special climate conferences, governments, activists, NGOs, scholars, and businesses.

A paradox is that while a general consensus has been taking form as to the importance, broadness and even urgency of change in the area, no one will argue that we are on pace with, say, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals set for 2015.

This serves to underscore the importance of communicating sustainability effectively. At the same time, there is much long-term reason for hope, if short-term optimism evades us. New models for integrating sustainability into the firm’s activities bear the mark of originality and are quite compelling.

Students will achieve a theoretical understanding of these models, how they differentiate from more traditional approaches to Corporate Social Responsibility, and the implications they pose for the Public Relations and Communications professional.

Students will achieve a clear understanding of the field of Communicating Sustainability. Sustainability will be treated as a complex and evolving field, that embraces the intertwined themes of the environment, economic development and prosperity, and social progress.

• Effective communications in the field of Sustainability
• Different frameworks of Sustainable Development
• Relation and differences between CSR and Sustainability approaches
• New models for integrating Sustainability into the firm’s activities
• Challenges to the communications professional
• Communicating Sustainability from the societal and firm perspectives
• Creating Sustainability communications plans

The course content will combine theory, case reviews, workshops and teamwork. Student teams will create concept reports, creative briefs, and communication plans. Each team will treat 1 of 3 Sustainability cases: Chocolate slavery, Nespresso Ecolaboration, and KickStart.