Program Structure

The main objective of the course is to make students familiar with the economic way of thinking. The course will cover the basic concepts and tools needed to undertake the analysis of such problems that arise due to the law of scarcity. In particular it will be focused on microeconomic principles that demonstrate the role and limitations of both competitive and imperfectly competitive markets in motivating socially efficient consumer, business, and public sector choices. Among the issues discussed: supply and demand, theory of demand, firms in the marketplace, market structure and firm performance, market failures and the role of government to correct negative externalities.

This is an introductory course to the broad field of business administration, focusing on the economics and the management of private firms. The course offers a general overview of the basic concepts and theories of modern management. The educational objectives of the course can be summarized as follows: 1) make students aware of the fundamental strategic decisions that a firm has to take in order to create value in its environment and pursue sustainable growth; 2) provide students with the fundamental concepts required for the economic analysis of firms' processes, as well as the ability to use them in basic situations; 3) give students a practical picture of how the performance of firms at various levels is measured and how managers use performance measures in order to fulfill organizational ends in the long term.

The course provides a general understanding of the fundamental principles of the international legal system, with a specific focus on the sources of law and their influence on environmental matter. The classes will be dedicated to the analysis of legal sources produced by different levels of government (national sources, international and EU sources), as well as a brief introduction to the general principles governing European administrative law.

The course aims to illustrate the technologies for environmental reclamation in four major fields of intervention (solid waste, atmospheric emissions from industrial processes, primary and discharge water, soil and groundwater). There are two didactic targets of the course: 1) to revise the basic principles of environmental pollution; 2) to evaluate the proper technologies for environmental reclamation. The didactic methodology includes traditional lectures, numeric exercises, description of case studies.

The long-term success of a firm and its capacity to generate sustainable value depend on the quality of its relationships with the various stakeholders. In fact, a company develops its activities through a stakeholder network, which affects and is affected by corporate behavior. Therefore, concepts of sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are becoming more and more crucial. CSR could be defined exactly as innovation for sustainability, that is, innovation for the sustainable development of a firm and, more in general, for the socio-economic system in which a business operates. Thus, the CSR concept has a strategic value that should lead to rethinking the nature, purposes and behavior of companies. The course aims to define the CSR concept and identify the implications for the business management in terms of: 1) sustainability of value creation processes; 2) identification and engagement, also through focused communication activities, of different stakeholder groups; 3) new managerial solutions and new corporate performance evaluation and reporting methodologies capable of integrating and improving traditional economic measures. The purpose of the course is to build a new vision of business, management and managerial tools according to a sustainability- and responsibility-oriented approach, based on a stakeholder framework. The course adopts an international perspective, qualified managers and experts will be involved and interactive teaching methodologies (case studies, movies and teamwork) will be used.

This course is an introduction to an economics and policy perspective of the use of environmental and natural resources, with special attention to exhaustible and renewable energy sources. The first part of the course will develop appropriate economic concepts and tools for analyzing environmental and natural resource issues with special attention on how economic policies can be designed to deal with these impacts. This part will be complemented by the analysis of cases taken from water, waste and transport sectors. The second part will discuss the efficient use of depletable and renewable natural resources such as oil, gas and renewable energy sources with special attention to electricity generation. More applications of this part will be developed in subsequent courses. Throughout the course the separate and complementary roles of markets and governments in allocating and regulating the use of environmental and energy resources will be discussed.

This course is an introduction to an economics and policy perspective on the nature of environmental problems and how environmental policy should be designed. We will study how economic activities can lead to a non-efficient use of natural resources and how different approaches can be adopted to adjust human behavior and economic activities in the presence of these externalities. We will discuss instruments like environmental taxes, cap and trade systems, as well as liability rules and regulation. Regulation from a national (or social planner) objective as well as transboundary and international trade issues will be covered.

Over recent decades, environmental and sustainability challenges such as climate change, ecosystem degradation and competition for scarce energy resources have become more and more relevant. This course is intended to familiarize students with these challenges and the impact on business strategies. It will address environmental risks, dependence on ecosystem services and new business opportunities arising from managing the natural environment. Moreover, we will look at responses at a strategic and operational level: green innovation and green supply chain management, green marketing and sustainable consumption, environmental management systems and certification (ISO 14001, EMAS, etc.). The format is based on active learning and includes lectures, case studies, videos, incidents and class discussion, qualified speakers and a project work with a leading company in sustainability management.

This course aims to pursue the following objectives: 1) provide information and discussion about the economics of renewable energy sources and technologies and about the different kinds of energy saving (technologies and processes); 2) explore the policies supporting the deployment of these technologies; providing the basic tools to operate in the market for green certificates and in the market for white certificates. Specific topics are: the economics of wind energy: costs and supporting policies in industrialized and developing countries; regulatory framework; the economics of biomass energy with emphasis on biofuels for transport uses; solar energy (thermal, thermoelectric, photovoltaic); costs and supporting policies (with emphasis on feed-in); regulatory frameworks, economics of energy saving; energy saving in the residential sector (including district heating); combined heat and power generation; heat pumps; etc. Teaching methods include lectures, guest speakers from a variety of organizations and case discussions.

The course will deal with the legal and policy frameworks governing the environment and a wider sustainability agenda. In doing so, the program will focus on the national, EU and international policy arenas. In particular, the course will introduce students to the key challenges and opportunities posed by sustainable development to policy makers, citizens and wider civil society. The course aims to meet a growing international need to produce students with detailed knowledge of complex governance issues and excellent skills to work with trans-disciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches. The teaching methodology is based on frontal lessons as well as practical seminars which provide students with essential knowledge about governance of environmental law and sustainable development and a set of skills to analyze those areas at national, EU and international levels.

This course will tackle the Geopolitics of Hydrocarbons. The world order and global politics have always been shaped largely by natural resources, and therefore energy production. So, what are the implications, for example, of North America’s new lease on life through shale gas and tar sands, and the ever-growing demand for energy in the Indo-Pacific region?

The course will provide a general understanding of the principles of corporate finance and corporate risk management and their specificity as applied to green business. The first part of the course will develop the general theoretical framework for project evaluation in corporate finance. To this aim, a number of key valuation concepts will be presented, ranging from the time-value of money, different concepts of risk, the compensation of risk on financial markets, cost of equity, cost of capital, etc. The second part will provide an in-depth view of project financing techniques for renewable energy (solar, wind, hydro, etc.) and environmental projects (water, carbon sequestration, infrastructures, etc.). Contents of this part will include: setting up a project finance transaction, risk analysis and risk management, and financing the deal. The third part will examine a common set of techniques which can be used by managers in dealing with (especially environmental) risk management, including prevention, diversification, risk retention and transfer via insurance and non-insurance market tools. A decision-making framework for selecting among these various tools will be established. The fourth part will focus on current social responsible investment behavior of institutional investors and on the effect of socially responsible investing on the financial performance of firms. 

The objective of the course is to provide theoretical and practical knowledge regarding the functioning of carbon markets and the management of carbon risks. Carbon market institutions, rules and mechanisms and the determinants of carbon prices will be analyzed, both related to the Kyoto Protocol (ET, CDM, JI, REDD) and other regulations (EU ETS) or voluntary markets. Their effects on competition and corporate strategies will be evaluated through simulations. Programmatic CDMs will also be considered through a case study by the World Bank in a city in an emerging country. Carbon risk assessment and management and the role of carbon cycle operators (analysts, consultants, traders, certifiers, etc.) will be investigated through interaction with experts.

The course will offer a detailed analysis, mainly applied, to the economics of natural resources management, focusing on two paradigmatic sub-sectors: water resources management and solid waste. Both sectors entail a combination of economic issues, which arise either on the side of the natural resource, or on that of public services and whose interaction requires coordination.

Over the last decade, a new wave of entrepreneurial ferment has taken hold around the globe, motivated by the search for new, sustainable solutions to complex social problems. This course is intended to familiarize students with the challenges and opportunities of social entrepreneurship, providing knowledge and tools to sustain social opportunity identification and exploitation. It will address social planning along the stages of entrepreneurial discovery, social impact assessments, innovative investment and financial models, such as venture philanthropy and social venture capital. Moreover, recent advancements in the field of innovation for social change will be reviewed, with a focus on bottom of the pyramid strategies, scaling opportunities, and cross-sector social partnerships. Leveraging on the variety of current experiences and perspectives, theory and practice of social entrepreneurship will be articulated throughout the course, combining traditional lectures, case studies, project works and interaction with professionals in the field.

In terms of sustainable innovation, the course analyzes the New Product/Service Development Process as a complex inter-functional management topic, which requires strategic initiatives, aligned organizational activities, and appropriate methodologies (such as eco-design, design for environment, quality function deployment, project management and LCA). Regarding sustainable supply chain management, the course analyzes different supply chain strategic models, approaches and structures, highlighting topics such as reverse logistics, closed loop supply chain, collaboration and life cycle approach.

The course analyzes the main strategies of companies focused on the waste, water and energy sectors. The key topics will be: marketing and communication policies, grid management, financial policies, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate organizational structure. The course mainly develops a local perspective within a national and European context. Particular attention will be given to the case studies regarding leading European utilities (for example: EDF, E.On, ACCIONA, Iride, Alpiq, etc.). Guest speakers by top managers, regulators and public administrators are part of the program; in addition, the course will include discussion of research prepared by the students. 

The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology has resulted from an increasing global pressure on manufacturers to understand their products’ impacts on the environment at every stage of their production and consumption. Whether this manifests itself in the importance of environmental considerations in the design stage or assessing the entire environmental footprint of a product or process, this new way of thinking opens up brand new opportunities from environmental and economic standpoints.

This new elective focuses on sustainable mobility and its implementation in smart cities, key topics for sustainability management in the 21st century. 

This course consists of a series of workshops, designed to give students a hands-on experience of some of the key current issues in sustainability and energy. In the 2023 edition, workshops are organized on the following topics:

•  "How to communicate sustainability": The workshop presents an overview of the fundamental role that communication plays to amplify and share with stakeholders the commitments of a sustainability strategy as well as the key results reached. The analysis will focus on the tools currently available on the international scenario, such as Global Reporting Initiative, UN Global Compact, EU Directive on Non-Financial Reporting.

•  "The challenges of Sustainability in Agribusiness": The workshop will provide participants with a general overview of upstream supply chain of the Agribusinss industry, from field to processing, discussing the challenges of agribusiness and different business approaches related to the challenges of the global food system. With the support of a Business Leader Guest Speaker the course will focus on the hot topics of agribusiness today, from sustainability challenges, through technology, to consumers’ behaviour and perceptions

• "Sustainable Finance"

Our students were involved in 5 field projects with: Ambrosetti, Bain, Boeing, Bolton, Res4Africa Foundation

Our students were involved in 7 field projects with: Barilla, Bolton, Eni gas e luce, Mastercard, Pietro Fiorentini, Mastercard, Too Good To Go.

Students were involved in 8 field projects with: Bolton, Enel, Eni, Italgas, One Ocean, Res4Africa, Saib and Uefa.

Students were involved in 8 field projects with: Bolton, Edison, ENI gas e luce,  Ferrero, Res4Africa, Saib and Warstila.

Our students were involved in 8 field projects with: Consorzio Italiano Biogas, Enel Foundation, Eni, EY, Ferrero, H&M, Res4Med, Sorgenia.

Students were involved in 7 field projects with: H&M, ERG, Lavazza, BKW, Res4Med, EY, Uniper Energy.

Terna, EPEX, GDF Suez, RTE, ACEA, Alerion Cleanpower, Animp, e-COMAU, CONAI, Dynamo Camp, Enel Green Power, Enel, Edison, Eni, E.On, ERP Recycling, RWE Innogy, E-Holding, Homeserve, Interseroh Service Italia, Johnson & Controls, South Pole, Tauw, SIRAM (Veolia Group), ENGIE, AbzeSolar, RES4AFRICA

Accenture, Bureau Veritas,  Renovo, Unicredit, Verne Global, Deloitte, Innovaid, KPMG, EY, Unicredit Leasing, Utiliteam, PWC, Eurizon Asset Management

LVMH, 3M, Burberry, FIAMM, Henkel, IKEA, Procter&Gamble, Telecom Italia, Tetra Pak, TNT Global Express, Barilla, Coca-Cola HBC Italia, UBC, VF, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, SNACT, StraBerry

CDP, Chamber of Commerce of Ancona, Global Reporting Initiative, ILO, World Bank