AEM 6450 - Sustainability Marketing

Fall. 3 credits. Letter grades only.

Prerequisite: AEM 2420 or AEM 2400 or permission of instructor. Co-meets with AEM 3450.

M. Constas.

This course focuses on how the demand for environmentally responsible business practice can be leveraged to construct an effective marketing strategy. Students who enroll in the class will: 1. Develop the capacity to view a range of emerging environmental issues and regulatory pressures as presenting a set of strategic opportunities across various business sectors, 2. Recognize the way in which environmental impact marketing employs strategies that are related to but also distinct from conventional marketing, 3. Apply knowledge from environmental impact marketing to identify strategies and tactics used by corporations that have successfully integrated sustainability and profitability. Marketing principles discussed in the course will also be related to selected topics of interest including corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship, and environmental performance metrics. A focused research paper is required. In this paper, each student will analyze the way in which sustainability performance metrics have been and might be used as part of marketing strategy. The paper may be undertaken as sector-level analysis or as comparison between two competitors.

Outcome 1: Students will develop the capacity to view a range of emerging environmental pressures as presenting a set of strategic opportunities for different business sectors.

Outcome 2: Students will be able to recognize the way in which environmental impact marketing employs strategies that are related to but also distinct from conventional marketing.

Outcome 3: Students will know how to use knowledge of environmental impact marketing to evaluate marketing strategy.