SEMESTER: Fall 2019

COURSE NUMBER: EWMBA 292T.11

This course is dual-listed with the FTMBA  Program

COURSE TITLE: Business & Natural Resources - Sustainable Use of Ecosystems

UNITS OF CREDIT: 1 unit

INSTRUCTOR: Omar Romero-Hernandez

E-MAIL ADDRESS: oromero@berkeley.edu

MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Sunday 10/27 and Sunday 11/17 from 9AM to 5PM

Please note the unorthodox nature of this course, which meets all day on 2 Sundays. To earn a passing grade, you must attend BOTH class sessions in their entirety.

PREREQUISITE(S):  None

CAREER FIELD: Particularly suited for those students with interest on embedding sustainability and natural resources management into their marketing, finance or operations career.

CLASS FORMAT: A mixture of lectures, cases, and guest speakers. Content is enhance with the preparation and discussion of business cases that advance the role private companies, NGOs, and public organizations towards applicable, action-oriented and sustainable business. We expect to reinforce the content with guest speakers who would share unique perspectives in the field.

REQUIRED READINGS: Course materials distributed on bCourses

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE:

20%     Participation and attendance
30%     Short Assignments: business cases                       
35%     Final project
15%     Final individual essay

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:
This course is part of a combined collaboration between the Haas School of Business and the College of Natural Resources. 
Businesses are operating in an increasingly resource-constrained world. Water shortages, land use restrictions, together with the long and short term impacts of climate change will result in the need for business managers to understand the immediate and long term risks from a changing environmental reality.  Those that fail to adapt will be at a serious disadvantage. At the same time, there are clear opportunities to improve the bottom line by considering natural resource issues on a daily basis. Companies and other stakeholders that understand these imperatives will be able to better navigate an increasingly complex world and the major environmental risks it faces. 
The course incorporates business and sustainability aspects into the field of natural resource management.  Using economic and ecological concepts students are expected to learn tools, and use them to solve practical natural resource management problems relevant to business, NGOs, and society at large. The course concentrates in four thematic fields:  Ecosystem Services, Economic Valuation, Climate Change and Water. In particular, we will relate these topics to a business context. Students are expected to complete assignments distributed in class and based on real and relevant natural resource management problems.  
Taking this course will help students to support their decision making process related to the use and conservation of natural resource and the inextricable link to competitive advantage. 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
Omar Romero-Hernandez, PhD., Faculty and Principal Researcher on Business and Sustainability, Haas School of Business. 
He has led various internationally awarded projects in the field of renewable energy, sustainable business strategies and business processes – sponsors include the United Nations, Ministry of the Environment, Industry consortiums, the Stock Exchange and NGOs. In 2010 he was appointed national leader of Mexico’s Business Summit task force on Economic Growth and Low Carbon Emissions, which delivers recommendations to the President. 
Omar is a Chemical Engineer with graduate studies in Economic Policy and Government and a PhD in Process Economics and Environmental Impact from Imperial College, London, UK.  Prof. Romero-Hernandez was the recipient of the 2010 Franz Edelman Award, the world’s most prestigious award on Operations Research and Management Science.
Omar has worked for a diverse range of public and private organizations such as Procter & Gamble, PEMEX (Oil & Gas), Accenture, and the Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources. In 2001, he was appointed as Professor at ITAM, UC Berkeley Fulbright Professor in Haas (2009) and Energy Biosciences Institute Researcher in 2010.  Currently, he is a National Researcher, and author of three books: Renewable Energy Technologies and Policies, Industry and the Environment and Introduction to Engineering – An Industry perspective and several international publications on engineering, business and sustainable development.