Exploring Sustainability in the Indian Context
Module 1
What is Sustainibility?
1. Historical Origins & Key Influencers While the idea of living within limits is ancient, the mo...
Why is Sustainability important?
1. Timeline of Key Milestones This timeline traces the evolution of corporate responsibility from...
Anthropocene and Planetary Boundaries
1. The Anthropocene: The Age of Humans Definition: The Anthropocene is the proposed current geo...
What are governments doing about climate change?
1. Agenda 2030: A Global Plan of Action What is it? A UN plan of action for "people, planet and...
Triple Bottom Line
The Triple Bottom Line (TBL) Framework The Triple Bottom Line (TBL) is a core sustainability fram...
How are India's leading businesses focussing on sustainable development
1. The Corporate Sustainability Dilemma The lecture poses a central question for students of sust...
Sustainability Careers
The Meteoric Rise of the CSO The demand for high-level sustainability leadership has surged in re...
What is Climate Change?
What is Climate Change? Climate change refers to long-term alterations in global temperatures and...
Radical Environmentalism
Deep Ecology vs. Shallow Ecology This is a core philosophical distinction within environmentalism...
The pandemic and Indian environmentalism
The "Pandemic Pause": A Natural Experiment The unprecedented nationwide lockdown offered a tempor...
The radical roots of Indian environmentalism
Guha's Critique of Western Environmentalism Environmental historian Ramachandra Guha argues that ...
Module 2
Ecological Footprint
Defining the Ecological Footprint The Ecological Footprint is a metric that measures the amount o...
Understanding wicked problems in climate change and sustainability
Understanding the Problem Spectrum Not all problems are created equal. They can be classified bas...
Introducing Systems
Defining a System While there are several definitions, the lecture synthesizes them into a compre...
Systems Thinking
Why Systems Thinking? The need for a new approach is best captured by Albert Einstein's famous qu...
The parts of a system
The Anatomy of a System A system can be broken down into three fundamental components, as illustr...
The iceberg model for systems thinking
The Four Levels of the Iceberg 🧊 The model uses the analogy of an iceberg, where only a small tip...
Leverage points
What Are Leverage Points? Leverage points are places within a complex system where a small, targe...
Systems Thinking and Entrepreneurship
Bridging Two Worlds While they might seem different, systems thinking and entrepreneurship share ...
Systems Mapping
The Fundamental Dilemma: The Root of the Crisis At the heart of Capra's map is a single, core con...
Circular Economies
The Linear Economy: A "Cradle-to-Grave" System "The Story of Stuff" deconstructs the linear mater...
Cradle to cradle design
The Problem with "Eco-Efficiency" (Being "Less Bad") The traditional corporate approach to sustai...
Doughnut Economy
The Intellectual Roots The Doughnut model builds on earlier critiques of mainstream economics: ...
Jugaad and Frugal Innovation
Jugaad: The Art of Ingenious Improvisation Jugaad is a Hindi term for an innovative fix or improv...