Innovation, Technology and the Environment

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• analyse the feasibility of implementing new technology opportunities in a sustainable context.
• appraise the innovation challenges facing green entrepreneurs in a given industry setting;
• recognise trends in the environmental context (policy, technology, economic/social) that present entrepreneurial opportunities;
• analyse how new industry sectors have arisen in response to new trends;

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• communicate effectively, in both oral and written form, using and justifying argument within reports, presentations and debates;
• plan and control effectively for successful completion of a personal and group workload;
• carry out team-work effectively.
• use a wide range of information sources requiring the development of bibliographic skills including the use the Internet;

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• the contextual factors (global and national) influencing innovation in an environmental context;
• the challenges and opportunities presented to entrepreneurs by the green agenda;
• the nature of the entrepreneurial environment: as a complex, dynamic set of inter-relations between new markets, new technologies and new regulatory practices;
• the process of developing viable market opportunities based on energy and resource conservation issues.

Introduction: why innovation and the environment; Key concepts of innovation; Key actors driving the environmental agenda; Challenges of sustainability transitions; Opportunities for entrepreneurs and innovators; Dimensions of eco-innovation; Building the innovative organization and developing an innovation strategy; Decision making under uncertainty and building the innovation case; Innovation networks and open innovation; Capturing the benefits of innovation and capturing learning from innovation.

Learning activities include lectures; activity-based seminars; case studies; private study; online-quizzes, group presentations.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.