CORSO DI STUDIO: Laurea magistrale in Economia Aziendale                                                              a.a. 2015/2016

Denominazione insegnamento
Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development

Lingua dell'insegnamento: Inglese
Crediti e ore di lezione: 6 CFU - 48 ore di lezione

Moduli: NO

Settore scientifico disciplinare: SECS-P/13

Docente: Veronica Novelli
Indirizzo email: veronica.novelli@uniud.it
Pagina web personale: http://people.uniud.it/page/veronica.novelli

Prerequisiti e propedeuticità/Requirements

PREREQUISITI: none
PROPEDEUTICITA': the subject does not provide any kind of specific preparatory teaching.

Conoscenze e abilità da acquisire/Knowledge and skills

The subject presents a general picture about the environmental pollution, its dangers, its causes, and the actions that each of us, primarily companies, can adopt to improve their impact on our earth, with the purpose of:
1. making the students aware to the environment through the knowledge of a significant number of environmental accidents characterizing the last decades, bringing to the definition of sustainable development and to its achievement, with the consciousness that our commitment for the environment is essential in order to live a long time on this planet;
2. providing the skills to interpret and minimize the human environmental damages;
3. indicating how companies can adopt voluntary actions to protect the environment and human health, with the aim of sustainable development, in order to get also economic advantages.

Students will:
1. acquire the skills to be able to reduce their ecological footprint, often higher than the load capacity of the environment where they live;
2. learn the importance of the voluntary environmental tools, voluntary environmental certifications, social and ethical issues, and the way to get them, to know the importance of the study LCA ..., which allow to a company to be more environmentally sustainable and therefore more competitive on the market, if compared with other companies of the same commercial sector;
3. through practical examples have the possibility to appreciate some companies that, by adopting positive practices, have been able to improve thier environmental performances by breaking down the impact on the eco-system, considering the eco-system pollution, the energy consumption and the waste production;
4. to understand whether and how biotechnologies can be of help in solving the problems of world hunger and minimize the problems of air, water and soil through the use of plants and/or genetically modified microorganisms.

Capacità relative alle discipline/skills related to the discipline

The aims of the subject "Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development" are:
1. to explain why our "weight" on earth is actually unsustainable;
2. to understand the virtuous actions that each of us can execute for an environmentally respectful coexistence in a civil society;
3. to understand the meaning of the actions that companies can voluntarily start and implement for improving their performances and their relationship with other companies.

Capacità trasversali/soft skills

Students will acquire general information about environment, but also specific and modern information, like LCA study, which will be useful for working in a company or in the public field, dealing with quality management and environmental sustainability. In fact today the sustainability topic declines considering the economic aspect, the social aspect and the environmental aspect.
The environmental protection, and the actions to improve it, is one of the fundamental points of sustainable development. The lectures, enriched by the last European and national regulations about the topics presented, aim to provide personal and professional skills which are easily expendable in enterprices, or institutions, where the financial commitment is joined by the consciuosness that the attention towards environment is a social focus for improving thier position with respect to other enterprices.

Programma e contenuti dell’insegnamento/Course description

1. The Environment and its pollution
2. Environmental complexity
3. Relationship between companies and environment
4. Voluntary instruments for eco- efficiency
5. Indicators in defence of the environment
6. Relationship between environment and human health
7.Technologies for the protection of the environment

Attività di apprendimento e metodi didattici previsti/Teaching and Learning activities

At the moment there is no textbook because the topics were chosen among the many that could be of interest to students of Economics, in particular. If the student attends lectures, supported by slides that illustrate the quantitative part of the subject, this is enough for the exam.

Modalità di verifica dell’apprendimento/Examination

The examination consists of a written test focusing on seven open questions. It is possible to improve the final mark by an optional oral exam.

Testi/Bibliografia/Bibliography

For the study of the variuous topics of the subject some books are suggested, in Italian or English. The bibliography can be found in the library of the Economic pole.
Furthermore the didactic material contains scientific publications, about the main topics, that allow students to broaden their knowledge.

Strumenti a supporto della didattica/Further readings and support material

Slides in ppt are used, when necessary, to explain the quantitative parts of the subject.

Tesi/Thesis

Students who wish to develop a master's thesis in the field of the topics presented in the subject can contact a company, with a particular attention towards environment, that adopted some environmental virtuous tools for land conservation, or with the intention of developing them in future.
The availability of the company is required and then the student can interact with it through some interviews with the quality management.
Normally the language used for the thesis is Italian, however English is not escluded.
In the teaching material some titles of the master's degree, developed within the subject, are proposed.

Note/Remarks

The subject takes place in the first part of the second year of the master degree and provides environmental topics interesting, not only for the students of Economics, but also for students of other courses.
The attention is focused on the relationship between enterprices and environment, damaged by the human actions, and voluntary instruments adopted by companies to minimize their environmental impact by improving the quality of the eco-system.
Some topics, like waste management, ISO 14001 certification and EMAS registration, already explained in the courses of Tecnologia dei Cicli Produttivi and Quality Management, with whom there is a teaching coordination, are deepened through specific examples and case studies.