Specific strategies for teaching sustainability in operations classes, shared by award-winning instructors from around the world.
Faculty members from across the globe came together in summer 2013 for an interactive webinar on strategies for teaching sustainability in operations. The webinar began with presentations from three award-winning instructors: Rob Klassen (Western University), Gal Raz (University of Virginia), and Stephanie Bertels (Simon Fraser University). (Biosketches are below.) They described specific techniques they’ve used: e.g. student assignments, cases and other approaches. Participants then asked questions and shared their own strategies for teaching sustainability.
Resources Mentioned by Speakers and Participants
From Stephanie Bertels:
From Rob Klassen:
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Building Sustainable Distribution at Walmart Canada (case study)
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Britannia Industries Ltd. (case study)
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Monsanto Company – Doing Business in India (case study)
From Gal Raz:
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Ops methodology in the context of sustainability: Eastman Tritan
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Reverse supply chains: Sandvik Coromant Recycling Concept (case study); Sandvik news article
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Government incentives to affect sustainability: Chevy Volt (case in development)
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Corporate responsibility: Starbucks Corporation Building a Sustainable Supply Chain (case study)
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Corporate responsibility: Apple – Foxconn
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Jon Stewart show (video)
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News articles:
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On a 2009 suicide and qualms about labor practices at the facility
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Initial Foxconn article I shared with the class
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HBR article: Don’t Tweak Your Supply Chain: Rethink it from End to End
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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle…or Rethink (article)
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From Oliver Laasch:
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United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) textbook; chapter on operations. Contact Oliver Laasch for chapters.
Join the Conversation!
Use the comments section at the bottom of the page to share your thoughts, suggestions or teaching resources.
Other Webinars in the Series
Additional webinars focused on teaching sustainability in other disciplines:
Marketing: View webinar video and materials.
Finance/Accounting: View webinar video and materials
Strategy: View webinar video and materials
Webinar Guest Speakers
Robert Klassen, Ivey Business School
Robert’s research interests focus on exploring the linkages between operations and the natural environment, including international operations. This research has emphasized, first, characterizing the pattern of investment in environmental technologies, and second, understanding both the antecedents and performance outcomes of these investments.
Teaching: He won the 2008 Page Prize for Sustainability Issues in Business Curricula for his course, “Managing for Sustainable Development.”
Gal Raz, Ivey Business School
(Formerly at the University of Virginia)
His research focuses on supply chain strategy including supply chain pricing and contracts and public policy implications of supply chain management such as sustainability and health care. Teaching: He won the 2011 Page Prize for Sustainability Issues in Business Curricula for his course, “Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Israel.”
Stephanie Bertels, Simon Fraser University
Stephanie’s research interests include innovations related to sustainability, institutional change, inter-organizational collaboration, and resilience and reliability. Teaching: She has been on the SFU Business Teaching Honour Roll (top 10% of teachers) annually since 2008.
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