Designing a Course for Developing Sustainability Competencies

To initiate, facilitate, and monitor transition processes toward sustainability in business, motivated professionals who possess sustainability-related knowledge and sustainability competencies are needed. However, the literature on how to design courses and curricula that effectively support the development and assessment of sustainability competencies within business education is still limited. Building on the experiences obtained from an extra-curricular course on sustainability in an Austrian business school, we offer a pathway for designing and implementing a sustainability competency-oriented course. Specifically, we demonstrate how to link social-sustainability-related learning objectives, learning activities, and assessment methods to achieve the development of competencies such as systems, futures, values, and strategic thinking, as well as implementation, and intra- and interpersonal competencies. The learning activities presented in this chapter focus on the social implications relating to SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and SDG 13 (Climate Action).