Study Semester "Principles of Sustainable Business"

Compulsory Foundation Modules

• Fundamentals of Entrepreneurial Management (5 ECTS) 
  Good ideas need entrepreneurs: This module aims to raise fundamental elements of managerial competences needed in the field of entrepreneurship. Lessons will cover topics such as financing of ventures and funding alternatives, corporate financial modeling as well as areas such as marketing and cost accounting. We strive to improve the chances of entrepreneurial success for our students and their ideas for a sustainable future.

• Digitalization (5 ECTS)
  Thinking ahead of times: This module deals with in-depth aspects of digitization in national, international and intercultural contexts, how to address content to heterogeneous target groups, digital business and customer communication and the economic perspectives of companies in a global digital context. You will be able to analyze, classify and optimize various digital media in terms of language, content and economic use to design a differentiated digital business communication model in an intercultural context.
• Sustainable Development Goals (5 ECTS)
  A better and more sustainable future: The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. You will understand and reflect on the historicity and systematics as well as on the local application of these goals. In teams you will develop action portfolios as a local interpretation and implementation of a chosen SDG. Based on that concept a real or fictional application of the action portfolio in the local context of the Birkenfeld region will be conducted.
• German Language and International Business Culture (5 ECTS)
  Successful business is both global and local: As an introduction into German business culture and society, this course teaches about the 2000-year tradition of natural protection, why „quite good“ means „excellent“ and why management needs permission to let you work overtime. We will further look at intercultural perspectives and gain insights into neighboring cultures. This lays the groundwork for your visits to businesses and sites in the region where Germany, France and Luxemburg meet and where global and local business practices are forged.

Elective Modules

• Sustainable Waste and Waste Water Treatment Technologies (5 ECTS):
  Keeping waste to a minimum: Reducing the amount of natural resources consumed is one of the most important actions we can all help to follow. The module introduces you to the treatment technologies for waste reduction and recycling in Circular Economy. Wastewater disposal continues to be one of the biggest tasks of environmental protection. Get to know the innovative technical paths of Circular Water Systems and Eco Sanitation. Become familiar with pilot plants for nutrients recovery, future plastic filter options and low tech solutions for developing countries.
• Cleaner Production and Operations Management (5 ECTS)
  Reducing the environmental impact of the business: Cleaner Production tries to prevent and reduce risks to humans and the environment while increasing an overall efficiency of processes, products and services. In this module you will acquire basic knowledge about production processes, learning to understand the organization of these processes and their position within the supply chain. Learn how to analyze industry relations alongside their horizontal and vertical value-chains and get an appropriate toolkit to measure and monitor the results based on economic and ecological aspects.
• Environmental Policy  (5 ECTS)
  Considering environmental protection: Environmental problems cross national borders and can only be tackled through international cooperation. International environmen-tal policy covers many issues: Climate protection, sustainable energy policy, conservation of biological diversity, protection of forests, oceans and soils and against hazardous substances or the fight against desertification. You will discuss the political actors and their role in the political process. Examine the different views on regulatory policy and the impacts on property rights and distribution.
• Sustainable Conflict Resolution (5 ECTS)
  The framework for sustainable strategies: This module presents and discusses conflicts against the background of international and national development of sustainability strategies and implemented legal procedures. The difficulty of sustainable decision finding and restorative justice by formal legal proce-dures is examined. Respective knowledge about relevant Euro-pean and German legal norms and legal principles as well as about alternative dispute resolution strategies such as media-tion, arbitration, negotiation will be transmitted and serves to enhance your understanding of decision taking in different social fields.

Compulsory Foundation Modules

• Fundamentals of Sustainable Business and Circular Economy (10 ECTS)
  Fundamentals of Sustainable Business
  You can do well by doing good:  A growing number of organizations are integrating sustainability into their business strategy. This module serves as a natural starting point by identifying and analyzing the structure of these modern enterprises. You will be able to demonstrate the influence of external environmental conditions on the entrepreneurial process as well as identify potential ethical conflicts and social responsibility issues involving different stakeholders of the firm.

Circular Economy A critical tool for sustainable development: The circular economy boosts the EU‘s    competitiveness by protecting businesses against scarcity of resources and volatile prices, helping to create new business opportunities and innovative, more efficient ways of producing and consuming. Be part of weeklong activities and site visits to showcase, demonstrate and share knowledge on the latest advancements.

• Management of Non-Governmental Organizations (5 ECTS)
  From service organizations to human-rights advocacy: You will reflect on the status-quo of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and learn about chosen tools to manage them. Via case studies, you will interpret the given and potential development of particular NGOs. In order to expand the professional, methodical and social competences in the area of NGOs, you will elaborate reports on particular (global or local) NGOs in regard to pre-defined historical, managerial and trend-based aspects and criteria.
• German Language and International Business Culture (5 ECTS)
  Successful business is both global and local: As an introduction into German business culture and society, this course teaches about the 2000-year tradition of natural protection, why „quite good“ means „excellent“ and why management needs permission to let you work overtime. We will further look at intercultural perspectives and gain insights into neighboring cultures. This lays the groundwork for your visits to businesses and sites in the region where Germany, France and Luxemburg meet and where global and local business practices are forged.

Elective Modules

• Ethics and Society (5 ECTS)
  Harmonization of antagonistic targets: This module explains the need for modern ethical correct business modeling and sus-tainable management in companies in all major functional and managerial fields. Practical real business exercises as well as virtual examples set you into a manager role as decision maker or project leader. You identify the parallels between classical and business ethics and realize the positive outcome. Learning more about classical ethically desired and accepted behavior you understand how to change today’s established often-misleading production ways and rigid treatment of employees to a business that reduces systematically negative impacts.
• Sustainability and Law (5 ECTS)
  Evaluation from a legal point of view: This module presents and discusses reference points of legal regulations in the fields of ecology, economics and social issues against the background of international and national development of sustainability strategies. The difficulty of implementing sustainability as an indefinite legal term into positive law is examined. Knowledge about relevant European and German legal norms and legal principles is transmitted and serves to enhance your understanding of decision taking in different social fields.
• Remote Sensing (5 ECTS)
  Gain key knowledge in remote sensing technologies. Students will be able to analyze various types of remotely sensed data (e.g. optical, radar, lidar etc.), to define appropriate algorithms, and to critically discuss the quality of the results of their analyses. On the basis of the acquired knowledge, students will be able to recognize the benefits remotely sensed data have, especially with view to the recent discussion addressing hot topics such as climate change, loss in biodiversity, natural and technological disaster or atmospheric pollution, to name but a few. On the other hand, the students will be able to deal with the limits of remote sensing technologies compared to In-Situ-Methods.
• Environmental Monitoring (5 ECTS)
  Students learn about the objectives and selected methods of environmental monitoring. They will be able to plan and implement monitoring concepts to inform about specific environmental structures and processes, manage monitoring data, perform simple statistical evaluations and present monitoring results adequately.
• Energy Informatics (5 ECTS)
  The students have acquired further knowledge of the structure of modern energy systems and basic knowledge in the transfer of tasks from the energy industry in digital form. They will be able to work out and further develop problem solutions for energy systems and present the results from the energy models.