Sustainability Insights from Coursera’s Strategy and Sustainability

Hannah Winishut
Jun 18, 2025
5 min read

Updated: Oct 24, 2025

COURSE TITLE: Strategy and Sustainability

TAUGHT BY: Prof. Mike Rosenberg

FROM: IESE Business School

The Essential Foundation: Understanding the Interplay Between Business and Environment

Professor Rosenberg's lectures emphasized the critical need to understand the differing perspectives between business and environmentalists. He highlighted that changing behavior requires a deeper look at values and assumptions, a conversation often missing between these two groups. This understanding forms the bedrock for navigating the complex relationship between economic activity and environmental stewardship.

Who Stands to Gain? Insights for Business Leaders and Sustainability Advocates

Business owners and leaders seeking to integrate environmental considerations into their strategy will find these insights invaluable. Sustainability managers, consultants, and anyone aiming to bridge the gap between business goals and environmental responsibility can gain significant knowledge from these core concepts.

Two people in an office setting, organizing sticky notes on glass. They appear thoughtful, with plants and computers in the background.

Unpacking the Core: Governance, Differing Worldviews, Strategic Issues, Responses, Options, and Stakeholders

Drawing from Professor Rosenberg's modules, here are key takeaways for understanding the strategic and operational aspects of business in relation to the environment:

1. The Role of Governance:

Board of Directors: Responsible for long-term viability, defining the size and scope of the business, and considering the interests of shareholders and stakeholders, all while ensuring compliance.
CEO: Accountable for strategy development and execution, managing the leadership team, and delivering results.
VPs: Lead functional, regional, and global business units, driving environmental considerations within their respective areas.

2. Six Differences in Worldview: Professor Rosenberg outlined crucial distinctions in how business professionals and environmentalists often perceive the world:**

Starting Point: Business often views itself as a creator of prosperity, while some environmental perspectives see it as a drain on resources.
Time Horizon: Business tends to operate on shorter-term cycles compared to the long-term focus of environmental concerns.
Language: Business communicates in the language of finance, whereas environmental discourse often uses moralistic terms ("good" vs. "evil").
Risk: Business approaches risk as something to be calculated and managed, while some environmental viewpoints advocate for risk avoidance when it comes to the environment.
Role of Government: Business generally sees government as setting the rules, while some environmentalists view government as being unduly influenced by business interests.
Purpose: Business often defines its purpose as providing goods and services and generating prosperity, while environmentalists often emphasize stewardship of the planet and its inhabitants.

3. The Past 60 Years: A Shift in Human-Environment Relationship: The industrial revolution's intensification has led to unprecedented environmental crises, forcing a re-evaluation of how businesses interact with the natural world.

4. Modes of Business Responses to Environmental Crises: Professor Rosenberg identified a spectrum of reactions:**

Denial: An unwillingness to acknowledge environmental problems.
Cover-up: Deliberate concealment of environmentally damaging actions.
Crisis Management: Reactive strategies for dealing with environmental accidents characterized by uncertainty.
Environmental PR: Publicly promoting environmental initiatives, sometimes without substantial action.
Engagement: Genuine integration of environmental sustainability practices within the company.
Transformation and Renewal: Fundamental changes in business operations towards greater sustainability, driven by ethical or financial motivations.
The EU Precautionary Principle: A key concept where action is avoided if long-term environmental effects are unknown.

5. Five Strategic Issues: Businesses must address these critical areas

Catastrophic Risk: Proactive scenario planning for low-probability, high-impact environmental events.
License to Operate: Maintaining social acceptance for business practices, which can differ from legal compliance. This evolves through stages of rejection, acceptance, approval, and identification.
Consumer Response: Understanding customer willingness to pay for sustainable products and services, and ensuring customer satisfaction.
Technological Innovation: Navigating the technology lifecycle, recognizing disruptive technologies, and understanding the hype cycle associated with new innovations in sustainability.
Globalization: Adapting to diverse and varying sustainability regulations across different global markets.

6. Strategic Options: Companies can adopt different approaches based on their context and stakeholder sensitivity:

Sensibility and Compliance: Meeting basic legal requirements while considering stakeholder environmental awareness.
Take the Low Road and Break the Law: Ignoring environmental concerns when stakeholder sensibility is low, often driven by performance pressures (illustrated by the Volkswagen scandal).
Wait and See: Doing slightly more than required by law and gradually increasing managerial environmental awareness.
Show and Tell: Demonstrating and actively communicating genuine and deeply embedded sustainability efforts (e.g., Patagonia, Interface Carpets), requiring transparency and sincerity.
Pay for Principle: Prioritizing sustainability driven by owners' or shareholders' values, potentially segmenting a market willing to pay more.
Think Ahead: Proactively anticipating future sustainability trends and integrating them into long-term strategic planning, especially crucial for businesses with significant fixed assets (e.g., Boeing). This involves scenario planning and change management.

7. Environmental Interest Groups: Understanding the motivations and strategies of different stakeholders

Conservationists: Focused on protecting wild places through legal means and lobbying.
Activists: Aiming to change harmful practices through protests, boycotts, and media engagement, often driven by ethical convictions.
Localists: Opposing specific projects in their local area, often driven by NIMBYism, and utilizing boycotts and social media. The Love Canal incident established legal precedent for corporate liability.
Advocates: Promoting specific viewpoints using scientific and data-driven analysis, often engaging in roundtables and working groups.

Woman smiling at laptop in a modern office with large windows. Colleagues work in background, plants and papers on desks, collaborative mood.

Course Insights: Strengths and Opportunities for Application

Professor Rosenberg's lectures from the "Strategy and Sustainability" course provide a comprehensive framework for understanding the multifaceted relationship between business and the environment. The emphasis on differing perspectives and strategic responses is particularly valuable for navigating the complexities of sustainability.

Where the Course Shines:

Conceptual Clarity: Professor Rosenberg effectively breaks down complex issues, offering clear explanations of governance structures, strategic challenges, and stakeholder dynamics.
Real-World Relevance: The inclusion of examples like the Volkswagen scandal and companies like Patagonia illustrates the practical application of these concepts.
Strategic Framework: The "Strategic Options" module provides a useful roadmap for businesses at different stages of their sustainability journey.

Opportunities for Enhancement:

Direct Application to SMEs: While the principles are broadly applicable, further emphasis on tailoring these frameworks to the specific challenges and opportunities of small and medium-sized enterprises would be beneficial.
Integration with Practical Tools: Connecting these strategic concepts with concrete tools for sustainability assessments and circular economy implementation would enhance their practical value.

A Thought-Provoking and Strategic Approach

Professor Rosenberg's approach encourages critical thinking about the underlying assumptions and strategic choices businesses face in the context of environmental responsibility. The framework provided is highly relevant for developing informed sustainability strategies.

Real-World Comparisons : The discussions around different business responses and strategic options inherently involve comparisons between companies that prioritize sustainability and those that do not.

Two women in a cafe discuss something while using a laptop. One holds a pen. Coffee cups and shelves with bags in the background. Cozy vibe.

Taking the Next Step: Integrating Sustainability into Your Business

I would highly recommend engaging with the concepts presented in Professor Rosenberg's "Strategy and Sustainability" course for any business leader or sustainability professional.

Ready to take your sustainability efforts to the next level?

The time to start is now. To help you put these ideas into action, we’ve created two FREE guides designed to help you jumpstart your small business's sustainability journey in an easy and actionable way.