What you will study
Block 1: Complexity and challenges
This introductory block sets the scene for your learning journey. You’ll examine the complex situations and difficult decisions environmental managers face during the current climate and biodiversity crises, and explore responses to environmental challenges at the local level. We’ll introduce you to the essential skill sets and capabilities environmental managers need to address these challenging and often emotive situations.
Block 2: Human, citizen, manager
This block focuses on individual perspectives and how you might approach environmental management as a human, citizen and manager. You’ll explore human responses to our environmental impact and our actions as global citizens in addressing these impacts. To help you appreciate different perspectives, you’ll critically question norms, practices and opinions while reflecting on your own values, perceptions and actions. You’ll learn how values influence human interactions and why individuals might resist change despite overwhelming evidence change is critical.
Block 3: Organisations
In this block, you’ll examine environmental management at the organisational level. Large-scale sustainability challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss require organisations to think, plan and take action over decades or even centuries. Through examples like nuclear waste management and biodiversity enhancement schemes, you’ll discover how organisations are planning for the long term, while also developing skills to synthesise and evaluate data that supports effective decision-making.
Block 4: Communities
Next, you’ll consider environmental management at the community level, examining how different communities – geographical, interest-based and virtual – approach environmental challenges. Through case studies focused on sustainability issues, including social equity, you’ll develop your understanding, skills and capabilities in designing effective processes for community engagement and participation.
Block 5: Pathways and practice
This concluding block brings together everything you’ve learned throughout the module. You’ll have the opportunity to reflect on your learning journey and take stock of the sustainability competencies you’ve developed. You’ll also reflect on using appropriate language and visual aids to make compelling cases for environmental action to different audiences.
You will learn
- Key challenges and trends in contemporary environmental management.
- The potential of systems thinking approaches to understand complex situations and propose environmental management outcomes.
- How to reflect on the relationship between values and actions in environmental management, and how to negotiate different perspectives.
- How to manage, evaluate and synthesise data across different sources, and communicate this to influence decision-making.
- How to effectively communicate with different audiences about environmental management situations.
Vocational relevance
You’ll develop competencies for sustainability applicable across a breadth of vocational settings, broadly split over three themes:
- negotiating difference
- peer assessment and engaging with the views of others
- designing social learning processes.
By completing a series of activities, you’ll also have the chance to earn two Digital Badges in the following areas:
- sustainability literacy
- scientific report writing.