Green Growth as Competitive Advantage

Introduction

By now most companies have committed to sustainability efforts—and yet many still see those efforts as a cost rather than a source of value. With companies such as Tesla, Novo Nordisk, Unilever, Interface, Vestas, IKEA, Microsoft, Apple, or Orsted, the green growth agenda has entered the mainstream. Also, international public institutions such as OECD, the EU Commission, UNEP, World Bank, IEA, and IRENA have long highlighted all the opportunities in the transition ahead towards 2050. Economic considerations have increasingly been introduced as arguments for sustainability - no longer just a cost but both profitable and smart, both privately and publicly. Such claims have, however, been contested and the results were long divergent. Recent research increasingly shows clearer connections between economic profitability and various indicators of sustainability and green growth (such as ESG). The program summarizes the latest knowledge about how and why the implementation of healthy growth can create both increased profitability and inclusion, as well as how to precisely differentiate greenwashing from real green value creation.

In recent years, Scandinavian and Norwegian companies have also increasingly restructured their business development and strategy towards green growth and the circular economy. Unions and governmental organisations are calling for green jobs and green procurement. This program will provide participants with the necessary and critical skills to translate the rhetoric of a green economy into practice in Nordic business and working life. The program puts particular emphasis on green strategies, business models, accounting and reporting, as well as innovation and leadership. These are the crucial areas in which to succeed in practice with becoming future-fit, profitable and fast-growing in a green economy.

Course content

Module 1) The Green Growth Challenge

Themes:

- Introduction to Green Growth: Current trends and future scenarios

- How much green growth can be found in Norway, EU, globally?

- Green jobs and green growth in key sectors: construction, transportation, energy, industry, public sector

- Definitions and boundaries of Green Economy (green vs environmental vs ecological economics)

- Greenwashing: When is 'green' just a label or a fraud?

- Circular economy and radical resource productivity: Is it possible to disconnect economic growth from resource consumption growth?

- Leadership and motivation in the green economy

- Ideology and motivation: Are sustainability and profitability compatible?

Active learning in groups:

- Use of strategic analysis tools to determine identify opportunities for green growth in their organizations.

- Explore their own motivation and values in relation to leading green initiatives

Module 2) Green Innovation

- The innovation process in the context of green growth and green investments: What is the impact?

- Funding green innovations: Trends and pitfalls

- Characteristics of good pitches to investors/CFOs that create trust and engagement

- How to address systemic and organizational resistance to change and innovation?

- Intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship: Challenges from seed stage to growth phase, including psychological factors

Active learning in groups:

- Develop smart green ideas for innovations and new business models

- Tools to transition from incremental innovation to systemic innovation and design thinking

Module 3) The Big Picture and the Long-Term Future

- How to think about the future: What are scenarios, visions, forecasts, and predictions?

- Climate change: How significant will they be this century? What can be done? How much will be done?

- Earth System Science: Understanding and seeing the connections between the economy and the Earth's ecosystems?

- The need for and effect of visions and roadmaps to 2050.

- To what extent will human creativity and innovation be sufficient to meet the challenges of systemic inequality and multiple crises?

- What is the future of the economics field itself? How to think like a 21st-century economist?

Active learning in groups:

- Play simulator for world development in the next 10-50 years

- Develop alternative scenarios for society and oneself

Module 4) Green Accounting in the 21st Century

- Overview of sustainability reporting requirements (ESG, CSRD) and integrated reporting

- Tools for assessing social and environmental impacts (such as LCA, capro)

- What is broad value creation – and the challenges of measuring different types of values

- Multiple capitals approach: social and natural capital, and valuation of ecosystem services.

- Measurement of social capital: happiness, trust, and quality of life accounting

- Corporate social responsibility (CSR): What is it – how widespread is it? And is it profitable?

Active learning in groups:

- Conduct an energy accounting for their own company

- Calculation of greenhouse gas emissions per value creation unit (Capro)

Module 5) Green Leadership: How to Lead in the Green Transition?

- What is green and sustainable leadership? Theory and numerous examples

- Status of sustainability leadership in Norway; how far have we come?

- The importance of inner motivation, vision, and purpose

- How to implement a green/sustainable strategy? Barriers and tools.

- Gender balance and the potential of women in sustainability leadership

- Strategic sustainability transformation: What will be the next management models in strategy and sustainability?

- About exams, examples, and solution proposals for answering exam questions

Active learning in groups:

- Me as a sustainability leader: My communication style when interacting with others

- Double materiality analysis and its use

- How to engage and mobilize stakeholders for a common purpose