This course provides a structure and credit for students' engaging in research activities beyond coursework. The course allows students to engage in a research project outside of their coursework, or in research training and production that goes beyond the requirements and expectations of a course paper.

The course has been designed to develop an understanding of the lens of sustainability management (SM) and its applications in diverse decision making situations. The lens of SM is neither the lens of sustainability nor the lens of management but includes both, and is developed using the concepts of integrative science such as the both-and principle and plausibility method.

This course is of a multidisciplinary nature and will examine contemporary sustainability reporting practice and sustainability management issues from different stakeholder perspectives. The readings consist of articles, research reports, government publications, case studies, and chapters from various sources. This course explores corporate sustainability reporting practice and the use of sustainability performance information by stakeholders including investors and management. The course will also examine contemporary decision-making tools for sustainability management in different business contexts.

This course's aim is to provide a scientific foundation of environmental science, identify key environmental problems and discuss scientific aspects of addressing these problems. The course covers the fundamentals of environmental science, sustainability science, environment as a system, systems and chaos theory, earth system, energy systems, urban environments, environmental change, and environmental impacts; and scientific foundations of the key environmental issues including air pollution, ozone depletion, climate change, global warming, water pollution, marine pollution, land pollution, genetic pollution, noise pollution, chlorofluorocarbon, nuclear waste and emissions, electronic waste, loss of biodiversity and resource degradation. The scientific aspects of these environmental issues will be analyzed using a systems approach and case studies will be used to investigate such issues in real-life context.

This course covers economic approaches to environmental problems and sustainability. The course will deal with economic principles that explain the operation of markets and firms and will also deal with the economic meaning of sustainability, the valuation of ecosystem services, transferable pollution permits, environmental regulation, and environmental activism. The course will also discuss divergences between private and social costs, the tragedy of the commons, the economics of sustainability, externalities, pollution, and the allocation of depletable and renewable resources over time.

Ecosystem science provides the scientific foundation to support the sustainable management of diverse ecosystem services including provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services. A deep understanding of interactions between different ecosystem services and impacts of different human and natural disturbances on ecosystem’s health is critical to design and implement sustainability management practices. This course provides an in-depth understanding of ecosystem science and ecosystem-based management systems. The course focuses on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The course covers ecosystem structures and functions, ecological energetics (primary production, secondary production, and consumer energetics), biogeochemistry (carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles), nutrients and pollutants in ecosystems, ecosystem budgets, ecological restoration, ecosystem-based management, and adaptive management.

Sustainability ultimately depends upon human behaviour. At both individual and organizational levels, the actions that people take have profound social, economic, and environmental consequences. These consequences are manifest both in the immediate present and even more strongly in the experience of future generations. In this course, we will explore the human factors that influence the adoption of sustainable or unsustainable practices. Why do people prefer immediate gratification instead of longterm gains? How can we incentivize sustainable behaviour? What is the best way to act as an effective change agent within an organization? These questions will be addressed by examining fundamental topics in Psychology and Organizational Behaviour, including motivation, decision-making, and social dynamics. Over the course of the semester, our primary goal is to understand how insights from the behavioural sciences can be used to design and promote sustainable organizational practices.

The course is designed to provide students with a basic understanding of various laws and policies related to the environmental, social, and economic pillars of sustainability that have relevance to a practicing professional sustainability manager. The course commences with an overview of the structure of the Canadian legal system and then divides in two parts. The first part focuses on environmental law and policies. This part covers international agreements, such as Global Programme of Action for Sustainable Development (Agenda-21), Kyoto Protocol, Biodiversity Convention, and Future We Want (outcome of Rio+20); Canadian laws, such as Environmental Protection Act, Federal Sustainable Development Act, Federal Sustainable Development Strategy and Bill C-45; and Ontario's laws such as Environmental Protection Act, Environmental Assessment Act, Green Energy Act, and Open for Business Act. The second part focuses on laws related to social and economic pillars and covers the Canadian laws of torts, contracts, sole proprietorship, partnerships, corporations, bankruptcy.

Why are some organizations more successful than others? Can we identify the roots of superior performance and devise ways to leverage the drivers of success? Strategic management enables us to understand the attractiveness and dynamics of industries, the drivers of competitive advantage, as well as the value propositions required to deliver and capture value. In the process of creating, delivering, and capturing value, organizations also affect the well-being of society. As such, strategic management also requires an assessment of the social responsibility and environment sustainability provided by organizations through their strategies. Strategic management is of relevance not only to profit-seeking corporations, but also for non-profit organizations, public agencies, supra-national organizations and countries as a whole. This course examines how organizations select markets, compete with each other, and organize themselves internally to produce successful outcomes. As part of this, the implications for sustainability are an integral consideration.

The course is designed to develop an integrative understanding of creating and managing a sustainable enterprise. In the first part of the course, basic concepts related to integrative and systems thinking, key-features of sustainable enterprise, organizational design, and strategic management planning will be discussed. In the second part, students (in a group of two or three students) will work on a project related to design and management of sustainable enterprise under the supervision of course instructors. The focus of projects will be on demonstrating integration, application, and innovation skills to address challenges faced by an organization with a goal to become a sustainable enterprise.

SSM1100Y is a core (mandatory) course intended to provide students with the opportunity to conduct independent academic research on a topic that falls within the interdisciplinary fields of the MScSM program. It is not meant to be a thesis but should adhere to principles of excellent research. Students work on a research project in their area of interest, under the supervision of a faculty member with expertise and research interests in the topic area. Through semi-regular meetings with the course instructors, and in collaboration with the students' supervisor, students will work to identify potential research questions, apply methodological skills and research skills appropriate for addressing the research question, and conduct primary or secondary research. Finally, students write up their results in a full-length research report, and present their findings in an open forum to members of MScSM Program as well as interested members of IMI and the wider UTM community. (Management Credit)

SSM1100Y is a core (mandatory) course intended to provide students with the opportunity to conduct independent academic research on a topic that falls within the interdisciplinary fields of the MScSM program. It is not meant to be a thesis but should adhere to principles of excellent research. Students work on a research project in their area of interest, under the supervision of a faculty member with expertise and research interests in the topic area. Through semi-regular meetings with the course instructors, and in collaboration with the students' supervisor, students will work to identify potential research questions, apply methodological skills and research skills appropriate for addressing the research question, and conduct primary or secondary research. Finally, students write up their results in a full-length research report, and present their findings in an open forum to members of MScSM program as well as interested members of IMI and the wider UTM community. (Science Credit)

The graduate students in the Master of Science in Sustainability Management are required to complete a summer internship/co-op placements in order to graduate. As part of their course of study, they must undertake a placement of 10 to 16 weeks in length, from May to August, in an industry of their choosing. Placements may be in-person, remotely or in a hybrid mode; students and host employers will have the full support of our Program Office throughout the term. Suitable positions can be in any area that relates to sustainability — including ESG, reporting, strategy, CSR, engagement, community partnerships, policy, government relations, and more — or in any traditional area of the business that aligns with their skills and interests, including marketing, finance, and beyond.

How is environmental sustainability a profoundly social challenge? This class will explore how environmental problems are deeply intertwined with social problems, just as humans and human institutions are part and parcel of nature. Students will be challenged to integrate sociological insights into efforts toward critically-engaged forms of sustainability management. The course will provide an overview of environmental sociology along with topics such as environmental injustice and toxic exposures, consumption and green capitalism, corporate culture and institutional change, environmental risk and disaster, and several weeks on various dimensions of the climate crisis including the political economy of climate adaptation, denialism, social movements and counter movements, and predicative politics.

The course is designed to develop an understanding of: (i) relationship between sustainability and marketing; (ii) linkages between sustainability concerns and people’s behaviour including their behaviour in markets; (iii) differences between the principles of conventional marketing and sustainability marketing; (iv) sustainability marketing values and strategies; and (v) applications of sustainability marketing concepts and tools to a range of profit and non-profit organizations. The course will include a range of topics such as evolution of marketing, sustainability, and sustainability marketing; elements of sustainability marketing and corporate social responsibility; challenges and opportunities for sustainability marketing; sustainability and people's (consumer's) behaviour; harnessing people's behaviour for sustainability; sustainability marketing values and objectives; sustainability marketing strategies; sustainability marketing mix including customer solutions, communication, cost, and convenience; innovations and sustainability marketing; future directions of sustainability marketing; and applications of sustainability marketing.

Many students finish their master's degree, but know little about how business decisions are made, how they should be made, and how to have an optimal impact on corporation executives and their decisions. This course is designed to provide the background understanding of business and ethics to ensure that students can argue effectively and ensure that your master's level knowledge is able to make a significant favourable impact on employers. In this course, students will develop an understanding of: 1) the ethics of sustainability and innovation, 2) business governance and ethics, 3) how business views sustainability, 4) how to influence corporate strategy and decision making through business ethics, and 5) important current and future topics and issues in sustainability and innovation ethics. The focus of the course will be practical and will build upon a historical understanding of ethical developments to offer students a perspective on current practices as well as future prospects.

This is a directed studies courses, and therefore the course content, for every offering, will be decided by the specific instructor and student. The course will be open to all areas related to sustainability management such as strategy, managerial economics, managerial accounting, marketing, organizational behaviour, environmental science, ecosystem science, sustainability ethics, and sustainability policy and law. The focus in this course will be on applied topics related to any of these areas such as applications of the principles of strategic management, organizational behaviour, managerial accounting, managerial accounting, and marketing to design/reform/manage sustainability practices of an organization. This course can be used as either a Management or Science elective, depending on the topic of study. At the time of registration, the Program Director will determine which concentration course will apply to depending on the course content, as agreed upon by the instructor, student, and Director.

This is a directed studies courses, and therefore the course content, for every offering, will be decided by the specific instructor and student. The course will be open to all areas related to sustainability management such as strategy, managerial economics, managerial accounting, marketing, organizational behaviour, environmental science, ecosystem science, sustainability ethics, and sustainability policy and law. The focus in this course will be on applied topics related to any of these areas such as applications of the principles of strategic management, organizational behaviour, managerial accounting, managerial accounting, and marketing to design/reform/manage sustainability practices of an organization. This course can be used as either a Management or Science elective, depending on the topic of study. At the time of registration, the Program Director will determine which concentration course will apply to depending on the course content, as agreed upon by the instructor, student, and Director.

As a special topics course, the theme and content will vary with every offering. Some examples of course topics include Climate change, Biodiversity, Gender Equity, Poverty Alleviation, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Corporate Social Responsibility. This course will explore the diversity of approaches, ideas and concepts related to the theme. Students will be exposed to both social and natural science perspectives through in-class lectures and discussions, as well as regular guest lecturers. A major end-of-term project requiring the application of theories and methodologies from their chosen area of focus (science of management/social science) is required.

This course is a statistics course for life and social science graduate students. Please consult the department for further details.

This course is intended to graduate students in disciplines other than statistics whose studies involve research design and statistical data analysis. Topics include vocabulary of data analysis and principles of research design, significance tests, Type 1 and 2 errors, power and sample size, simple and multiple linear regression, ANOVA, analysis of correlated data (repeated measures), random effects models, introduction to R and computer-intensive methods (permutation, bootstrapping, simulation), and further topics depending on interests of students or instructor.

Practical techniques for the analysis of multivariate data; fundamental methods of data reduction with an introduction to underlying distribution theory; basic estimation and hypothesis testing for multivariate means and variances; regression coefficients; principal components and the partial multiple and canonical correlations; multivariate analysis of variance; classification and the linear discriminant function. The use of R software should be expected.