Bachelor 2026/2027

Sustainable Development and Corporate ESG Practices

Type: Compulsory course (Business Informatics)

Delivered by: Department of Strategic and International Management

Where: HSE Graduate School of Business

When: 3 year, 4 module

Open to: students of one campus

Language: English

ECTS credits: 3

Contact hours: 36

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The undergraduate course "Sustainable Development and ESG Practices" provides a comprehensive conceptual, historical, and strategic introduction to responsible business and sustainability management within the modern organizational landscape. Designed specifically for bachelor students, this course challenges traditional shareholder-primacy frameworks by framing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles not merely as compliance mechanisms, but as an interconnected strategic management paradigm essential for long-term corporate value creation. The curriculum is balanced across four dedicated thematic sections. It begins by tracing the historical evolution of the sustainability mindset over the last sixty years—spanning Friedmanite shareholder primacy, the Brundtland report, post-Soviet capitalism shifts, the Triple Bottom Line, and the UN SDGs anchored into regional national priorities. It then systematically unpacks the practical corporate execution of sustainability through three dedicated pillars: the Environmental (E) Pillar focusing on climate risks, carbon accounting (Scopes 1-3), and digital infrastructure footprints; the Social (S) Pillar covering human capital equity, ethical value chains, and social entrepreneurship models; and the Governance (G) Pillar analyzing corporate oversight structures, non-financial disclosure tables (GRI), and greenwashing mitigation strategies.