Sustainability Development Goals

Innovation and Sustainability Management

This research project is a critical analysis of the progress being made towards a sustainable development goal of your choice and an analysis of the contributions of an industry towards achieving that goal using examples of companies in that industry.

For example, if you wish to study SDG 2 (zero hunger), you could analyse the retail grocery sector and companies’ (eg Tesco or Walmart) efforts to reduce food waste.
2500 words excluding bibliography.

Report structure
The structure of the report should be as follows;

1) Introduction (indicative word count 200 – 400)
Present the purpose of your report, what is in the report and the main conclusions.

2) A description of the SDG you have chosen to analyse, (indicative word count 600 – 800).
This section should include a description of the SDG and why you consider it to be an important goal.

3) A critical analysis of an industry’s progress towards reaching this goal. (indicative word count 600 – 800). Here are number of points and questions that you may want to consider for this section. Please do not consider them as a checklist as some will apply to some goals/industries and not to all.

Many companies say that they are contributing towards this goal or that goal, but a lot of this is just public relations.
Is it possible to measure their progress using clear benchmarks and base years (Sustainability reports are good sources of information for this)?
Has a company or companies in this industry innovated in any way to contribute? In what way?
Are there any collaborative efforts between different actors (eg NGO’s, governments etc.)?
Has the innovations and strategies employed lead to an increase in a companies profits?
Can we evaluate the success or failure in terms of the triple bottom line?
You should use recent examples from different companies in that industry.

4) Conclusion (indicative word count 200 – 400)

Here you should summarise the main findings of your report (are we making progress towards this goal, are companies really working towards it?), plus some future perspectives (what are the chances of reaching the target in the future? What will happen if we don’t etc.).

5) Bibliography.

Don’t forget to use Westminster/Harvard referencing. The guide to this system can be found on the student hub.
Not referencing your work correctly will lead to the loss of points.

Assessment criteria for Coursework

Criterion for Individual Research Project Weighting
Introduction
What is this report, what are the main conclusions 20%
Analysis of an industries role in contributing to and solving the problem
Why is this SDG important?
What are the consequences of not attaining it.
What are the major obstacles in attaining it?
What steps need to be taken? By individuals, by companies, governments? 30%
Relevant use of innovative solution by companies
How have companies contributed?
What type of innovations have they introduced? Product or process? 30%
Depth and breadth of research, including academic articles.
Quality of research, academic articles, government, intergovernmental reports. 10%
Presentation, format.
Quality of writing. Quality of argument. Critical analysis of problem, goal and company actions. Correct referencing. Page numbers. 10%

Assessment General Threshold Criteria

80-100% Outstanding work. All assessment criteria have been met to an exceptional standard
70-79% An excellent piece of work. All assessment criteria have been met to a high standard
60-69% A good piece of work. All assessment criteria have been met to a good standard
50-59% A sound piece of work. All assessment criteria have been clearly been met
40-49% Fail. An inadequate piece of work. One or more relevant assessment criteria have not been met
0-39% Fail. A poor piece of work. Most of the relevant assessment criteria have not been met.