Note: Grant funding comes from Skillnet Ireland through the Irish National Training fund, and, as a result, is ONLY available to residents of the Republic of Ireland who work as a sole trader, or for a private or semi-state commercial company registered in ROI. If you are not eligible for the discount, you will still have the option to enrol by paying the full course fee. Please read Eligibility Criteria.
Sustainability is now acting as a shaping force for business. Integrating sustainability into organisational strategy is no longer just the right thing to do but a necessity for long-term commercial success. This 8 week programme explores how companies can leverage opportunities from the sustainability transition to drive financial goals while enhancing environmental and societal benefit. It asks how companies can use sustainability to improve competitiveness, foster innovation, reduce risk, enhance brand reputation, and demonstrate business value.
- Understand the sustainability challenge and what it means for business
- Know how to develop a sustainability strategy aligned with organisational goals
- Examine sustainability risk and opportunity for your organisation
- Leverage sustainability as a driver of innovation for new products, services and circular business models
- Explore how your organisation can create additional value using a sustainable business model canvas
- Be able to make the financial case for sustainability in your company
- Develop a strategic project that will make your organisation more competitive and sustainable
The sustainability challenge and what it means for business: Sustainability is a multi-dimensional issue that requires a coordinated approach across the organisation. We will investigate the context of the sustainability and how business can respond.
The Five Waves of Sustainability: Most companies are not overnight sustainability successes but progress along a pathway towards sustainability. We will explore the different stages of the sustainability journey from non-responsiveness to leadership to systems change.
Embedding sustainability into strategy: Social and ecological issues are now regarded as strategic to organisations in the sense that they are shaping the business environment. We will explore different strategic responses that your organisation could consider and how to develop a tailor-made strategic response to sustainability for your company.
Sustainability risk and opportunity: We examine corporate sustainability as a business approach that creates long-term shareholder value by embracing opportunities and managing risks deriving from economic, environmental and social developments. We will ask whether your organisation is risk or opportunity oriented for sustainability.
Innovating for Sustainability: Sustainability can be a key driver and guide for innovation within your organisation. Thinking of sustainability in terms of business models has become increasingly important for firms and practitioners over the past decade. The ecosystem (technological, business model, and systems) and spectrum (incremental vs. radical) of sustainability innovation will be explored.
Sustainable Business Model Canvas: The Sustainable Business Model Canvas is a strategic tool that provides a visual and structured way to see how your business activities support triple bottom line enabling you to spot new opportunities.
Making the business case: One of the main reasons companies provide for not adopting sustainable business practices is the inability to present a clear business case for such practices. We will explore how to develop a coherent business case for your sustainability programme and where to find the finance to underpin it.
The course will draw on case studies of, and speakers from, leading sustainable businesses putting theory into practice. Course participants will develop a strategic project within their company that will contribute to both the sustainability and the competitiveness of the organisation and will present this to the class as part of the assessment for the programme.
The UCC Sustainability Academy endeavours to ensure that our training programmes are relevant, timely, learner-centric, and solutions-focused, meeting the training needs of an audience. Each module in the programme will include exercises, discussions and peer-to-peer learning that will help participants to digest and understand the concepts from their own perspective and that of their business and peers.
This programme will be of interest to industry professionals who wish to connect their work on sustainability with enhanced business outcomes for their organisation.
The course is set at Level 7 on the FETAC.
Upon completion of this course, participants will obtain a Digital Badge from University College Cork.
Dr Paul Bolger
Programme Lead
Dr Paul Bolger is Head of the UCC Sustainability Academy. He has worked across academia, industry and government for over 25 years developing solutions for global sustainability challenges. He is programme lead for a range of UCC sustainability courses including Introduction to Sustainability in Business, Sustainability in Practice for Business, and Sustainability for Business Success. Paul is the convenor for the annual International School of Sustainability Leadership attended by sustainability professionals from across 10 EU countries. He leads the innovative Connectsus programme which brings together community and business to reimagine a vision for sustainable food in their communities. A golden thread through Paul’s work has been ensuring that sustainability knowledge is communicated in a way that is useful and impactful for learners and users.
Anna Ozolina
Programme Coordinator and Trainer
Anna is a manager, educator and researcher specialising in responsible and sustainable business. She is experienced in co-designing and delivering sustainability leadership and executive education programmes, coordinating large cross-sectoral EU and corporate projects, and establishing and developing research centres. Anna has a strong track record in building and leveraging international networks to advance sustainability-driven business practice. In her current role as Manager of UCC Sustainability Academy, she focuses on developing impactful sustainability training that upskills leaders and supports transformative organisational change.
Valeria Andreoni
Professor
Professor Valeria Andreoni is AIB Professor in Sustainable Business at University College Cork and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She holds a PhD in Economics from University of Bologna (Italy) and a Master in Ecological Economics and Environmental Management from Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain). Her expertise focuses on Ecological Economics, Energy Economics and Degrowth. She is a trained facilitator for the 2030 SDGs Game and module leader for Microeconomics and International Economy.
Dr Damian Tobin
Lecturer
Dr Damian Tobin is a Lecturer in International Business at Cork University Business School in UCC. His research is on a number of areas including economic development (state-owned banks, currency internationalization and financial inclusion), business history, common pool resources (climate and public health) and technology diffusion. He has experience in providing economic policy briefings for international corporations, governments, social think-tanks, and advisory firms.
Mary Cronin
Sustainability Consultant
Mary is an innovation specialist, systems thinker and circular economy facilitator. As the founder of UpThink Innovation Agency, Mary works with SMEs and large organisations as a circular economy/climate change/ESG consultant. Mary implements systems innovations to business models to create longer-term sustainable businesses. As Chartered Engineer and technologist, Mary combines her expertise with innovation and design to create scaling opportunities, enabling companies to transition to a low carbon future.
Lisen Wirén
Sustainability Practitioner
Lisen Wirén has 15+ years of experience in sustainability and social impact, working in the private sector, NGOs and with social entrepreneurship. Driven by a passion to make the world a better place, she focuses on achieving this goal through organisations and workplaces. Her exceptional leadership skills earned her the nomination for Sustainability Manager of the Year in the Netherlands and together with others, led her company to win the most sustainable retailer award 2017. Lisen is co-author of the book “Embedding Sustainability: How to Drive Organisational Transformation”.
Programme Lead and Contributors
The Sustainability for Business Success programme is led by Dr Paul Bolger, Head of UCC Sustainability Academy, and will include modules from internationally recognised UCC academics, sustainability practitioners, and industry leaders in sustainability.
About UCC Sustainability Academy
University College Cork (UCC) is an award-winning Higher Education Institution ranked in the top 1.1% of universities in the world. The University is a national and global leader in Sustainability and was ranked 8th in the world in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings in 2021 for its work related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The UCC Sustainability Academy is the first university sustainability training and education unit of its kind in Ireland which uses a unique model for sustainability education delivery. The Academy was established in 2024 as a direct response to the need for climate and sustainability related training in the public and private sectors. Academy programmes draw on the deep expertise of over 100 sustainability academics in UCC across 25 schools combined with a core team of sustainability trainers and industry practitioners to contribute to programmes. We pride ourselves on delivering educational content which is cutting-edge based on the research output of 400 research papers annually within the internationally leading UCC Sustainability Institute.
This programme enabled me to show internal and external stakeholders how we can improve the business and increase sustainability without worrying about it being an additional cost
My understanding of sustainability business principles has greatly improved since completing this course. I can bring sustainable ideas back to my sustainability team.
This programme has already assisted in the design of my organisation’s strategic planning framework ensuring that as part of the company’s plans going forward that ‘sustainability’ will be taken into consideration in shaping the use of our resources
