Drive impactful change by learning how to build and execute a strategic ESG plan within your organisation. Gain the necessary skills to lead operational change and achieve stakeholder approval.

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Sustainability and Social Impact
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As the world moves towards greater awareness of individuals’ and organisations’ impact on the environment and society, corporations can no longer stay in the dark regarding sustainability and social impact.
Sustainability requires organisations to consider the way they operate and their impact holistically. How environmental, social and governance factors will shape the way they do business and ensure that decision making leads to great outcomes commercially, and to the societies and environments they operate in.
Our Sustainability and Social Impact course is ideal for:
- Internal communications professionals, partnerships or community managers, people and culture teams, business partners, or operational team members who are looking to influence change, improvements, and decisions within their organisation.
- Emerging or existing leaders looking to understand the importance of and develop the skills to drive a sustainability plan within your organisation. You’ll learn to assess materiality and consider sustainability frameworks as you develop a plan for your organisation
Throughout this course, you will:
- Explain why sustainability and social impact are critical to an organisation’s framework and/or strategy
- Select initiatives for inclusion in an organisation’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy and justify these choices based on the material, social and environmental impacts of the organisation
- Explain how change management principles, stakeholder management, and communications will be used for affecting and embedding change within an organisation
- Develop appropriate goals against which to measure and continuously improve an ESG strategy
During this course, you will analyse how sustainability is critical to an organisation's operations and strategy.
You'll select relevant social impact approaches and justify your rationale for embedded change within your organisation. As an ESG Advocate, you'll develop short, medium, and long - term goals to ensure continuous improvement in your sustainability roadmap.
During your final project, you will present a five-minute ESG strategy pitch. Your pitch will be targeted toward a chosen audience of key decision-makers or influence in your chosen organisation.
Course Overview
Learn more about our Sustainability and Social Impact course in the video below.
Career Outlook
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Course Structure
Learn more about Sustainability and Social ImpactModule 1: The rise of sustainability, social impage, & ESG
+- Trace the evolution of sustainable development as an organisational strategic priority
- Outline social priorities for contemporary Australian organisations
Module 2: Challenges and opportunities
+- Explore the wicked challenges organisations face from an environmental and social perspective
- Develop an understanding of materiality and how it relates to the social and environmental impacts of an organisation
- Conduct a PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental) analysis of your organisation
Module 3: Designing and redesigning
+- Conduct desktop research on viable sustainability initiatives undertaken by organisations comparable to your own
- Select a range of initiatives suitable for an ESG strategy by finding and validating information on organisational sustainability initiatives
- Prioritise your initiatives to include in your ESG strategy
Module 4: Frameworks for assessment, measurement and reporting
+- Identify relevant sustainability frameworks or standards to apply to your ESG strategy
- Determine which metrics or levels of achievement to set for your chosen organisation
Module 5: Partnerships, stakeholders, and engagement
+- Identify the range of stakeholders to be engaged for an ESG strategy to succeed
- Develop key messages to promote and progress the ESG strategy
Module 6: What's next?
+- Finalise your ESG strategic pitch
- Present and persuade stakeholders through a compelling ESG strategy
- Reflect on how sustainability values might shape your future career
* Your pitch should be targeted towards a chosen audience of key decision makers or influencers in your chosen organisation.
Learn with industry experts

Subject matter expert
Catherine O’Shea currently works as Sustainability Analyst at Ambulance Victoria. She completed a Master of Environment at Monash University in 2008 and has worked in sustainability feeding into, designing and implementing projects under the banner of ‘sustainability’ for 15 years. She is particularly passionate about healthcare sustainability and has...
Catherine O’Shea currently works as Sustainability Analyst at Ambulance Victoria. She completed a Master of Environment at Monash University in 2008 and has worked in sustainability feeding into, designing and implementing projects under the banner of ‘sustainability’ for 15 years. She is particularly passionate about healthcare sustainability and has worked in this field now for more than 10 years.

Subject matter expert
An inspiring storyteller, Daniel Flynn is the co-founder and managing director of one of Australia’s most successful startups, Thankyou. At 19 years old, compelled by a vision to change the world we live in, he co-founded the social enterprise, now globally recognised for its innovation, disruption, and impact. Daniel’s...
An inspiring storyteller, Daniel Flynn is the co-founder and managing director of one of Australia’s most successful startups, Thankyou. At 19 years old, compelled by a vision to change the world we live in, he co-founded the social enterprise, now globally recognised for its innovation, disruption, and impact. Daniel’s journey as a founder is one of grit and unconventionality, pioneering Thankyou to redefine ‘business as usual’, and change the world we live in forever. To date, Thankyou has given over $17m to impactful change-makers in the fight against global poverty.

Expert industry mentor
Cassie is a senior executive specialising in operations and marketing, with international experience across Australia, New Zealand, Asia, and North America. She drives positive business outcomes by aligning and optimising operations; creating spaces for companies, stakeholders and staff to engage with each other, brands and systems in meaningful ways.
She...
Cassie is a senior executive specialising in operations and marketing, with international experience across Australia, New Zealand, Asia, and North America. She drives positive business outcomes by aligning and optimising operations; creating spaces for companies, stakeholders and staff to engage with each other, brands and systems in meaningful ways.
She is a big believer in business for good and has spent the last number of years working across the charity, non-profit and mission-driven space. Her professional interests are in Business Strategy, Service and Organisational Design, Brand and Marketing, Data and Ethics, and Social Impact

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