Overview: Foundations of Sustainable Business  This course provides an overview and comparative understanding of practices along with frameworks of sustainable business practice and economic principles provide the foundations for helping managers achieve competitive advantage. This course also presents current theory and practice of systems thinking for understanding global, environmental, and social change. This holistic and dynamic understanding helps bridge the social sciences with the natural sciences and enables students to understand the complexities involved in developing and implementing sustainable business practice. Issues of sustainable business practices are explored in order to provide tools and methods to help students understand, make decisions, implement, and evaluate emerging global issues surrounding sustainable business practice.  Module Readings and Assignment: Complete the following readings early in the module: Read the overview/online lectures for the Module  From the textbook, Capitalism at the Crossroads: Next Generation Business Strategies for a Post-Crisis World , read the following chapters: From obligation to opportunity Worlds in collision From the Argosy University online library resources, read: LaBarre, P. (2007, June). Leap of faith. Fast Company, 116, 97–103, 18. http://www.thecampuscommon.com/library/ezproxy/ticketdemocs.asp?sch=auo&turl=http://search.proquest.com/docview/ 228843209 From the Internet, read: Gelbspan, R. (2007, March 1). One path to climate peace. DeSmogBlog . Message posed to http://www.desmogblog.com/one-path-to-climate-peace-0 Suggested Readings: Epstein, M. (2008). Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring corporate social, environmental and economic impacts . San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. ISBN: 1576754863. Assignment & Instructions: Assignment: Course Project—Sustainability at Top Shelf Shoes In this course, you will work independently to analyze sustainability issues for a hypothetical organization. The assignments follow one another so that you can apply the methods and skills you learn in each module to develop your Course Project. Each week you will be asked to prepare a document that addresses the specified topics. In this assignment, you will begin your analysis. Outlined below is the scenario for the organization that is the focus of your Course Project—Top Shelf Shoes. Course Project Scenario: Top Shelf Shoes Top Shelf was found in 1990 by Tie Woodward. Within five years, Top Shelf had established a solid presence in the global shoe business with production facilities in Asia and sales throughout the world. By 2000, Top Shelf had a share of 45 percent of the global market in shoe sales. In 2001, Top Shelf made the Fortune 500 list of privately held companies and Tie was awarded the coveted International Business Award. However, Tie claimed the real success of his firm could.

1. Overview:
Foundations of Sustainable Business
This course provides an overview and comparative
understanding of practices along with frameworks of sustainable
business practice and economic principles provide the
foundations for helping managers achieve competitive
advantage. This course also presents current theory and practice
of systems thinking for understanding global, environmental,
and social change. This holistic and dynamic understanding
helps bridge the social sciences with the natural sciences and
enables students to understand the complexities involved in
developing and implementing sustainable business practice.
Issues of sustainable business practices are explored in order to
provide tools and methods to help students understand, make
decisions, implement, and evaluate emerging global issues
surrounding sustainable business practice.
Module Readings and Assignment:
Complete the following readings early in the module:
Read the overview/online lectures for the
Module
From the textbook,
Capitalism at the Crossroads: Next Generation Business
Strategies for a Post-Crisis World
, read the following chapters:
From obligation to opportunity

2. Worlds in collision
From the Argosy University online library resources, read:
LaBarre, P. (2007, June). Leap of faith.
Fast Company, 116,
97–103, 18.
http://www.thecampuscommon.com/library/ezproxy/ticketdemoc
s.asp?sch=auo&turl=http://search.proquest.com/docview/
228843209
From the Internet, read:
Gelbspan, R. (2007, March 1). One path to climate peace.
DeSmogBlog
. Message posed to
http://www.desmogblog.com/one-path-to-climate-peace-0
Suggested Readings:
Epstein, M. (2008).
Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and
measuring corporate social, environmental and economic
impacts

3. . San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. ISBN:
1576754863.
Assignment &
Instructions:
Assignment: Course Project—Sustainability at Top Shelf Shoes
In this course, you will work independently to analyze
sustainability issues for a hypothetical organization. The
assignments follow one another so that you can apply the
methods and skills you learn in each module to develop your
Course Project. Each week you will be asked to prepare a
document that addresses the specified topics. In this
assignment, you will begin your analysis.
Outlined below is the scenario for the organization that is the
focus of your Course Project—Top Shelf Shoes.
Course Project Scenario: Top Shelf Shoes
Top Shelf was found in 1990 by Tie Woodward. Within five
years, Top Shelf had established a solid presence in the global
shoe business with production facilities in Asia and sales
throughout the world. By 2000, Top Shelf had a share of 45
percent of the global market in shoe sales. In 2001, Top Shelf
made the Fortune 500 list of privately held companies and Tie

4. was awarded the coveted International Business Award.
However, Tie claimed the real success of his firm could be seen
in the stylish Top Shelf shoes being worn by everyone from
villagers in Africa to rock stars in Hollywood.
In 2003, a major competitor of Top Shelf began a green
marketing campaign to highlight its efforts to reduce its
environmental footprint with its new “Green Shoe.” A
simultaneous, growing concern for environmental issues helped
spur the sales of Top Shelf's competitor—it gained market
share. As the competitor’s sales increased, news stories began
to question the implications of Top Shelf’s business practices,
especially as they related to low cost labor and environmental
concerns. Within a fiscal quarter, Top Shelf sales were down by
10 percent. Tie responded by exclaiming on the
Nightly Business Report
that everyone had to wear shoes and Top Shelf made the best
looking and most affordable foot fixtures on the planet. Sales
fell another 5 percent the following quarter. Tie’s management
team attributed this to the competition’s green efforts and the
bad publicity received by Top Shelf.
Tie’s firm hired a middle manager for environmental affairs and
launched a green campaign that touted a Top Shelf shoe-
recycling program with the slogan “We make them, you wear
them, we’ll recycle them. It’s good for your feet and good for
the earth.” Sales climbed back up 7 percent over the next
quarter, and the boss gave out bonuses to his management
team.
While initial reaction to the marketing was positive, especially
among longtime Top Shelf shoe wearers, two reporters,
Burnstone and Woodwoe, broke a story about the impact of air

5. and water pollution at Top Shelf’s shoe-recycling facility on the
outskirts of a major city in Asia. Apparently, some of the shoes
were recycled to produce energy. According to the report by
Burnstone and Woodwoe, the shoes were being burned by low-
wage workers without any precautions for the workers’ health.
An increasing number of children and elderly in the region
began showing up at clinics and hospitals with breathing
problems, dizziness, and toxic blood poisoning. Then, a worker
at the plant collapsed and died in front of the large kiln.
Global news organizations, bloggers, and YouTube broadcasters
quickly picked up the story. The sales of Top Shelf began to
plummet. By the end of the fiscal year, the company saw a 50
percent reduction in revenue as compared to the previous year.
Growth was no longer the issue. Instead the company was faced
with the problem of how to stay afloat despite the significant
losses and depleting capital. This time, Tie made no public
pronouncements. He laid off the manager of the recycling plant,
shut down the kiln at the plant, and, on the advice of long-time
friend Gifford Pinchot III, hired a reputable sustainable
business consulting firm, Sustainable Growth Strategies, to
advise Top Shelf on everything from public relations to
substantive changes in the company’s labor and environmental
policies.
Assume you are leading the consulting team for Sustainable
Growth Strategies. You are responsible for the analysis leading
to a report with a set of recommendations to put Top Shelf on
the path to sustainability. Your first task is to prepare a brief
paper for Top Shelf that explains the meaning and use of
sustainability within a business context.
Your team reports directly to Tie Woodward. He is a sharp,

6. hardworking, and open-minded leader with a sense of humor.
Tie realizes that every day without a genuine sustainability plan
is bad for business. Therefore, he wants to show as soon as
possible that the company is committed to sustainability. He
realizes that there may be advantages in positioning Top Shelf
as a sustainability leader in the long run.
Using the module readings, the Argosy University online library
resources, and the Internet, research sustainable business
practice.
Develop a comprehensive report that includes the following:
An introduction to the concept of sustainability.
Identification of and elaboration on the three main themes or
pillars of sustainability—ecology, society, and economy.
An explanation of how sustainability is being defined by
businesses giving relevant examples.
Identification and analysis of effective sustainability strategies
employed by leading businesses.
A discussion of how sustainability is being used as a public
relations tool.
An overview of the positive and negative reactions Tie’s firm
might expect from supporters and critics.
A compelling case for Tie’s firm to pursue sustainability.

7. Write a
3–4-page report in Word format
. Apply APA standards to citation of sources.
By Monday September 10, 2018
, deliver your assignment to the
Submissions Area
.
Assignment Grading Criteria & Maximum Points:
Described in detail the concept of sustainability including the
three main themes or pillars of sustainability—ecology, society,
and economy.
16pts.
Explained how sustainability is being defined by businesses
giving relevant examples.
16pts.
Described effective sustainability strategies employed by
leading businesses demonstrating analysis and research.
16pts.
Explained how sustainability is being used as a public relations
tool.
16pts.
Developed a compelling case for Tie’s firm to pursue

8. sustainability explaining the positive and negative reactions
Tie’s firm might expect from supporters and critics.
20pts.
Wrote in a clear, concise, and organized manner; demonstrated
ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of
sources; displayed accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
16pts.
Total: 100pts.