This version of the course guide is provisional until the period for editing the new course guides ends.

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Corporate Social Responsibility

Code: 43059 ECTS Credits: 6
2025/2026
Degree Type Year
Interdisciplinary Studies in Environmental, Economic and Social Sustainability OT 0

Contact

Name:
Maria Rosa Rovira Val
Email:
mariarosa.rovira@uab.cat

Teachers

Isabel Pont Castejón

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

 


Objectives and Contextualisation

The course aims to introduce students to key topics of sustainability in the field of organizations (mainly companies): Corporate social responsibility (CSR), climate change, circular economy, European Green Deal, 8th 2030 environmental action program of the European Union.


Competences

  • Analyse, summarise, organise and plan projects related to the environmental improvement of product, processes and services.
  • Apply knowledge of environmental and ecological economics to the analysis and interpretation of environmental problem areas.
  • Communicate and justify conclusions clearly and unambiguously to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Continue the learning process, to a large extent autonomously.
  • Integrate knowledge and use it to make judgements in complex situations, with incomplete information, while keeping in mind social and ethical responsibilities.
  • Work in an international, multidisciplinary context.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analyse best practices in corporate social responsibility.
  2. Communicate and justify conclusions clearly and unambiguously to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  3. Continue the learning process, to a large extent autonomously.
  4. Integrate knowledge and use it to make judgements in complex situations, with incomplete information, while keeping in mind social and ethical responsibilities.
  5. Know the main concepts, regulations and international initiatives concerning the different dimensions of corporate social responsibility (economic, environmental, social, corporate governance).
  6. Work in an international, multidisciplinary context.

Content

The course is divided in two parts:

 Corporate Social Responsability (CSR). Adaptation to climate change and to circular economy 
  • Introduction. CSR and the organisation's strategy 
  • CSR tools & tools for sustainable production and consumption, adaptation to climate change and circular economy.
  • Corporate sustainability reporting: The Global Reporting Iniciative (GRI) standard & European Union Directive

European environmental law 

  • Begining and development of the enviornmental law of the European Union: principles and legal basis 
  • Instruments and policies. The European Green Deal. The 8th Environmental Action Programme 2030
  • Main actors in the European Union. The role of the European Union, the States, the Autonomous Communities andLocal Administrations 
  • Harmonization, execution and implementation. Let’s approach some sectorial elements as climate change, circular economy ..

Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Exercise in class 4 0.16 1, 5, 2, 4, 3, 6
Lectures 29 1.16 5, 6
Type: Supervised      
Tutorial 30 1.2 3
Type: Autonomous      
Reading articles, books and studying for each of the given lectures 64 2.56 1, 5, 4, 3
Short essay writing, which involves reading the necessary academic literature 20 0.8 1, 5, 2, 4, 3

 

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Final exam 50% 3 0.12 1, 5, 2, 4
Participation in class 25% 0 0 1, 5, 2, 4, 6
Short essay writings 25% 0 0 1, 5, 2, 4, 3

Restricted use of artificial intelligence (AI): “For this subject, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is allowed exclusively in:
a) support tasks, such as bibliographic or information searches, text correction or translations or similar,
b) course monitoring activities.
Requirement: The student must clearly identify which parts have been generated with this technology, specify the tools used and include a critical reflection on how these have influenced the process and the final result of the activity. The lack of transparency of the use of AI in this assessable activity will be considered a lack of academic honesty and may lead to a partial or total penalty in the grade of the activity, or greater sanctions in serious cases.

This module does not offer Single Assessment, as agreed with the coordination of the degree and with the Dean's Office of the Faculty of Sciences.
 
If the student does not pass the final exam, a date will be scheduled for re-evaluation.
 
The student will be evaluated separately for each of the two parts of the course based on:
i) the knowledge obtained at the end of the course regarding the proposed academic literature and the other topics and aspects worked during the sessions;
ii) his/her brief written submissions and his/her capacity for critical analysis, and
iii) Active participation in the sessions.

 
Details:
 
One or two brief writings of 500-1000 words for each part of the course. The teacher will evaluate the writing according to her/his own criteria. The student could ask for details on his/her mark with the corresponding teacher.
 
The final exam covers most of the topics worked during the sessions. The space for the answers will be limited and these will have to demonstrate the understanding and mastery of the main concepts and ideas provided during the course. The corresponding teacher will assess them according to her/his own criteria. The student could ask for details on his/her grade with the corresponding teacher.
 


Bibliography

Bibliography Corporate Social Responsibility/ Responsabilitat Social Corporativa/ Responsabilidad Social Corporativa

-          BENN, SUZANNE and BOLTON DIANNE (2011) Key concepts in corporate social responsibility, SAGE, Los Angeles (Calif.)

-          CRANE, A. et al. (2008) The Oxford Handboook of Corporate Social Responsibility,  Oxford University Press Inc., New York

-          CROWTHER, D. and SEIFI, S. (2021) The Palgrave Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility, Palgrave Macmillan.

-          EUROPEAN UNION Consolidated text: Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings, amending Directive 2006/43/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Council Directives 78/660/EEC and 83/349/EEC (Text with EEA relevance)Text with EEA relevance

-          EUROPEAN UNION Directive (EU) 2022/2464 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 December 2022 amending Regulation (EU) No 537/2014, Directive 2004/109/EC, Directive 2006/43/EC and Directive 2013/34/EU, as regards corporate sustainability reporting (Text with EEA relevance).

-          EUROPEAN UNION Consolidated text: Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2772 of 31 July 2023 supplementing Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards sustainability reporting standards (Text with EEA relevance)Text with EEA relevance

-          MAGNAN, M. and MICHELON, G. (2024) Handbook on Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility, Edward Elgar Publishing.

-          YIN, R.K. (2018) Case study research and applications: Design and methods. Sage publications.

Bibliography European Environmental law/ Dret Ambiental Europeu / Derecho Ambiental Europeo

-          BELL, Stuart ( Donald McGillivray, Ole Pedersen, Emma Lees, Elen Stokes);  Environmental  Law; Oxford University Press, 10 ed. 2024

-          BIRNIE, P.W.-BOYLE, A.E., REDGWELL, C.,International Law and Environment, 3a ed. Oxford UniversityPress, 2009. ( updated -Fourth Edition- in 2021)

-          BROWN WEISS, E. (Edited), Environmental Challenge and International Law, The United Nations University Press, 1992.; International Environmental Law, Second Edition (Casebook) 2nd Edition, 2006

-          CLÉMENT, Marc. Droit européen de l'environnement.Jurisprudence commentée, ed, Larcie, 4ème édition 2021

-          DE SADELEER Nicolas. EU environmental law and the internal market. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014

-          Kingston, Suzanne; Heyvaert Veerle; Čavoški , Aleksandra - European Environmental Law, Cambridge University Press 2017

-          KRAMER, Ludwig. EU Environmental Law, Sweet and Maxwell, 9th ed. 2024

-          KRAMER, Ludwig Environmental Justice and European Union Law,Croatian Yearbook of European Law and Policy 16 , December 2020, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348484000_Environmental_Justice_and_European_Union_Law

-          LEE, Maria; EU Environmental Law, Governance and Decision-Making, 2nd Ed. 2014

-          MACRORY (2014),Regulation, Enforcement and Governance of Environmental Law, 2nd edition HartPublishing, Oxford

-          MACRORY et al. (2004), Principles of European Environmental Law. Europa Law Publishing.

-          SALZMAN, JAMES, Environmental Law and Policy (USA), 2022 https://archive.org/details/environmentallaw0000salz_j7n2/page/n9/mode/2up

-          SANDS, Philippe. PEEL Jacqueline, Principlesof International Environmental Law, Cambridge University Press, 4d  Ed., Manchester/N.Y., 2018 2nd Edition: https://www.academia.edu/37547219/Philippe_Sands_Principles_of_Int_Environmental_Law

-          THORNTON, James; GOODMAN, Martin, CLIENT EARTH 2017. Scribe Publications (May 11, 2017)

-          VAN CARLSTER, Geert, EU Environmental Law, Elgar European Law series, 2018

Webgraphy of a general nature/Webgrafia de caire general /Webgrafia de carácter general

-          Official website European Union http://europa.eu/index_en.htm

-          Training Package on Principles of EU Environmental Law http://ec.europa.eu/environment/legal/law/principles.htm

-          EU Environmenal Law Training Package. https://ec.europa.eu/environment/legal/law/training_package.htm

-          Summaries of the European environmental and climate change legislation https://eur-lex.europa.eu/summary/chapter/20.html

-          Official Journal of the European Union http://eur-lex.europa.eu/oj/direct-access.html?locale=en

-          European Commission (Environment) : https://ec.europa.eu/environment/index_en.htm

-          https://ieep.uk/work-streams/divergence-in-uk-eu-environment-policy/access-ieep-definitive-guide-to-european-environmental-policy/

-          European Environment Agency  http://www.eea.europa.eu

-          PNUMA (United Nations Program for Environment  https://www.unep.org/

-          Council of Europe. “Manual on human rights and the environment"; https://www.coe.int/en/web/human-rights-intergovernmental-cooperation/-/manual-on-human-rights-and-the-environment

-          European Court of Human rights  http://hudoc.echr.coe.int

-          IEEP ( Institut for European Environmental Policy) https://ieep.eu/

-          EEB (European Environamental Bureau) https://eeb.org


Software

No


Groups and Languages

Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(TEm) Theory (master) 1 English first semester afternoon