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The Sustainability Leadership Programme, developed by Cranfield University, will incorporate a series of interactive training modules to enhance career development and help edie’s network of sustainability professionals lead their organisations to sustainable growth.
Beginning in January 2019, the Programme will be made up of six course which combine academic excellence with first-hand industry experience. The courses, which take the form of intensive one or two-day courses, will be made up of small, focused groups, allowing for an immersive and personal learning experience.
“As sustainability becomes increasingly embedded in core strategy, it has never been more important for senior executives to adopt a leadership position to drive real change,” said David Griffiths, publisher – edie portfolio.
“This new professional development programme will help to shape a new approach to business through purpose-driven leadership.”
The idea for the new Sustainability Leadership Programme was borne out of an in-depth sustainability leadership survey carried out by edie and Cranfield University earlier this year, which revealed a need for new training and development opportunities across three key areas: personal leadership, business strategy, and innovation and technology.
Simon Pollard, Cranfield University’s pro-vice chancellor at the School of Water, Energy and Environment, added: “Our new Sustainability Leadership Programme supports senior managers as they prepare their organisations for a lower carbon economy. Combining Cranfield’s expertise in management and technology with edie’s clarity of business acumen, the Programme will generate practical insights from hands-on sessions with like-minded leaders and develop the personal competencies for driving change.”
Sustainability Leadership Courses
Beginning in January 2019, the Sustainability Leadership Programme will consist of the following six courses:
Sustainability Leadership (30-31 January 2019)
This course will equip you with practical tools and tips on developing a vision/purpose statement, prioritising the social and environmental issues on which to focus, and developing a top-level strategy for achieving the organisational purpose. You will learn by doing, applying these tools to delegates’ organisations.
Course leaders:
Sustainability Leadership Implementation (course dates TBC)
This course will give you an opportunity to create a structured plan and to discuss with Cranfield’s experienced faculty experts on how you can navigate the difficulties of initiating and embedding change into your organisation. Discover practical insights on a range of skills including how to influence board members, how to implement circular innovation, and to how to engage with the policymakers
Course leadersTBC
Circular Innovation and Sustainability (6-7 March 2019)
This course will inspire innovators, entrepreneurs and business leaders to develop new ways of creating value from the transition towards a circular economy. Individuals will be introduced to multiple models of circular innovation across various business functions and sectors and supported to develop their own value proposition to transform an existing business or to create a new circular venture.
Course leaders:
Maximising Opportunities (14-15 May 2019)
This course tackles the governance, policy and regulatory landscape within which organisations operate in the UK and worldwide and how best to engage with and manage these influences.
Course leaders:
Professor Paul Leinster
Professor David Grayson CBE
Professor Hugh Wilson
Dr Simon Jude
Business Resilience (12-13 June 2019)
The course will introduce the wide-ranging strategic risk management, governance and resilience challenges facing organisations, and approaches that can be adopted to enable organisations to develop their adaptive capacity and resilience.
Course leaders:
Make the internal case for sustainability (4-5 September 2019)
Explore the tools and develop the key skills required to present a viable business case for adopting sustainability into your business. Understand how to present to the board, stakeholders and investors – presenting hard values that demonstrate business opportunities and returns.
Course leaders:
Find out more about the Sustainability Leadership Programme and apply to join here.
edie/Cranfield 30-minute online masterclasses
To coincide with the launch of the Programme, edie is running a series of free, online masterclasses, providing a taster of each module of the Sustainability Leadership Programme. The masterclasses, which are 30 minutes in length, arbe hosted by the course leader for each module, giving participants an insight into some of the key themes that will be explored in much greater detail in the full course.
The first two 30-minute masterclasses are now available to watch on demand.
edie staff
It occurred to me a while back that sustainability ‘professionals’ were mostly employed in marketing departments when they could achieve far more by reporting to the FD. Above all else no business can be sustainable if they cannot make long term profits. Marketing has often overlooked sustainability as they promote the use of ever more elaborate packaging to grab consumer attention regardless of cost (especially to the planet). The recent highlight on the need to reduce or avoid the use of plastics is the opposite of this. One of Cranfield’s key discipline is agriculture – and the Institution of Agricultural Engineers have their offices on campus. Their annual conference has the theme of Collaboration this year. The key point o this is the need for corporates to break down their silos and, rather than individuals seeking single points of best practice, learning to find solutions that give a far greater overall gain. The Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) is great for this. Rather than simply ask for energy efficiency for a single building ESOS looks at whole business energy use. Reducing the need for energy in the supply chain can achieve far more than simple schemes. In our field(!) we can show an automated greenhouse installed on a modern retail warehouse can give gains and benefits far beyond the tiny amount of energy generated by rooftop solar PV – but that needs collaboration. Building the business case is key – and we feel the finance department is whee this should start. I do hope this course highlights this need for collaboration!