OADD 2295 - All artisans of sustainable development (sd): hands on approach of the sd journey

The course offers an overview of major issues related to sustainable development, as seen and explained by a business practitioner. It aims at placing the students in situations where they will have to understand the complexity and systemic aspects of these issues, the importance of a multi-stakeholder vision, and present solutions through group works and individual contributions. These will need to combine rigorous analysis of the subject matters and strong creativity to present them in an effective manner.

Learning Outcomes
1. Understand the key concepts of sustainability
2. Develop a more systemic thinking, including the opinion of stakeholders
3. Assume personal opinions solidified by fair and balanced analysis
4. Improve communication skills, creativity to improve the buy-in of those sensitive matters
Professional Skills :
- Ability to analyze complex issues
- Group work as an accelerator on complex matters
- Ability to agree to disagree and to manage consensus

Pierre-alexandre BAPST

Séminaire

English

Course workload:
- In Class Presence: 2 hours a week / 24 hours a semester
- Reading and Preparation for Class: 3 hours a week / 36 hours a semester
- Research and Preparation for Group Work 1 : 3 hours a week / 36 hours a semester
- Research and Preparation for Group Work 2 : 3 hours a week / 36 hours a semester
- Contextual movies (6 films+ memo) : 18 hours before the course

General readings about sustainability issues (from previous courses or through own research on the web ) are essential to assure a minimum level of understanding in the class.
In addition, it is requested to watch at least 3 films in the following list, films available on international platforms:
- Our Planet (Alastair Fothergill, with Sir David Attenborough)
- An inconvenient truth (Davis Guggenheim, with Al Gore)
- Don't look up (Adam Mc Kay)
- Demain (in French with English subtitles, Cyril Dion)
- Kiss the ground (Joshua Tickell)
- The Upside (Jon Hartmere)
For the screened film, prepare half a page with bullet points, on the main strategic challenges highlighted by the authors, to be discussed during first session.

Autumn 2025-2026

Assessment:
(i) Participation to sessions and one page memo on 10 sessions to be submited to faculty : 50%
(ii) Group work 1 (battle on SD controversies): summary paper with arguments (one page) plus oral group presentation, to be ready for sessions 5 : 25%
(iii) Group work 2 (TV news “we did it/we fail in 2050”): summary paper with arguments (one page) plus oral group presentation, to be ready for sessions 11 : 25%

Pedagogical and feedback format:
i. Group activities: during the session, in oral.
ii. Papers from sessions: group feedback on aggregated results, plus individual feedback on papers submitted.
iii. Individual conversation : on request to faculty (outside course hours).