The course consists of three main parts: i) Environmental accounting: The course begins with a model of the environmental requirements that private and public enterprises are faced with and the alternative strategies that they may follow in order to fulfil these requirements from various stakeholders. Basic concepts such as sustainable development, ecological efficiency, eco-efficiency are reviewed, as well as the three bottom lines: economics, environment and corporate social responsibility, CSR. Social responsibility implies that existing and new enterprises take into consideration the rights and needs of the local population and that employees work under safe conditions with regards to health, environment and security. Then various methods for environmental accounting, life cycle assessment (LCA), environmental product declarations as well as systems for environmental labelling and certification are described, criticised and exemplified. ii) Environmental management: Environmental management for sustainable development of public and private enterprises is a dynamic and complex organisational challenge which requires adaptation and a willingness to think in new ways. Therefore, management methods for working with environmental cases must be sensitive to the social as well as to the technical consequences that this has for the organisation. Systems thinking is an analytic framework for understanding complex organisational structures as systems. In this way, the course gives an introduction to the method for thinking in systems, and shows how this can be applied to an organisation using the Balance Score Card (BSC) method. iii) Sustainable development for private and public enterprises: The course seeks to show how knowledge of environmental accounting, systems thinking, the Balanced Score Card (BSC) method and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can be used as management tools for environmentally friendly and sustainable public and private enterprises.

The students should be able to explain system-based management methods and practical tools for developing environmental strategies and environmental accounting systems for private and public enterprises, and be able to evaluate existing environmental accounting and management systems.

Lectures and extensive supervision of student groups in their work on the semester assignment. Students will present "almost finished" semester assignments in class and receive comments from fellow students and the teachers. Exercise in evaluation of environmental accounts from selected firms, with presentation and feedback in class.

Extensive supervision of student groups in their work with the semester assignment.

- Schaltegger, S. and R. Burritt 2000: Contemporary Environmental Accounting. Issues, Concepts and Practice. Greenleaf Publishing, Sheffield, UK. - Selected journal articles and book chapters, which are available at the course web site.

ECN170 or an equivalent introductory course in environmental and resource economics.

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The semester assignment counts 100 % of the grade.

150 hours.

Minimum requirements for entrance to higher education in Norway (generell studiekompetanse)

Overlap with ECN373

40 hours.

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External examiner will control the quality of syllabus, questions for the final examination, and principles for the assessment of the examination answers.