Learning objectives
<p>The competition among firms at global level is going towards the reduction of the production costs and on the attempt to respond to the rising needs like the environment protection. The cost reduction in some case is based on the reduction of the ineffectiveness through the waste control. <br />
Nowadays, managers have to respond to a new strategy funded on the sustainability concept by using voluntary system like the ISO14001 standards, or compulsory like the limit fixed by the Kyoto protocol for the GHG emission reduction. The firms that will be able to adopt this kind of instruments will be greater possibilities to compete in the future on the global markets. <br />
A strategy for improving the economics performances by improving environmental performances should consider the chain of actors that characterizes the entire product cycle, from the use of the raw material to the final consume. In other words, the strategy should consider the supply chain. Each manager should know the supply chain where his firm is inserted. Managers have to decide having in front their own firm in a long -run perspective and trying to identify a compromise between the competition reinforcing and the environmental sustainability. <br />
The objective of the course is twofold. First of all, the course wants to provide specific skills on the sustainable use of e the resources inside the supply chain. Second, the course have the objective to propose themes concerning the relation between the economic activity and the natural environment in order to provide to the future managers a wider enterprise perspective related to a environmentally aware use of natural resources. <br />
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