About This Course

As humanity, we are facing urgent sustainability issues and companies are increasingly seen as having an especially great responsibility for sustainable business practices. This MOOC provides an in-depth case study of the business model of the company Vaude, supplemented with background knowledge on the topics discussed.

To deep-dive into the the sustainability approach of Vaude, the MOOC contains interviews with various people inside of Vaude, including departments as diverse as procurement, product development, HR, operations, accounting, and management.

About Vaude

Vaude has travelled a long way on the path of sustainability and has learned a lot on this journey. This knowledge could be very inspiring and valuable for other companies and individuals which would like to travel the same path and transform value chains to be more sustainable.

Target Groups

This MOOC is intended to provide comprehensive and deep insights into Vaude‘s learnings to share this information with interested learners. The main target groups are:

• Established companies or start-ups that are developing their sustainability strategies and seek inspiration
• Employees in companies that intend to be internal change agents and to develop sustainability from within the organization
• Students who wish to learn about sustainable business practices
• And individuals interested in sustainability, Vaude, and the textile/outdoor industry

Learning goals

The goals of this MOOC are:

• To convey a basic understanding of the terms and frameworks in sustainable business
• To provide insights about Vaude‘s sustainability approach
• And to empower individuals and organizations to be active changemakers in the sustainability transformation

Course Topics

This course consists of various modules that include first-hand insights from Vaude-employees as well as academic background on every topic.

• Sustainable Business Basics
• Purpose, Business Model, and Stakeholder Engagement
• Innovation, R&D and Product Design
• Management of Sustainability & People Management
• Supply Chain and Production
• Retail, Consumer, and Services
• Sustainable Finance, Controlling, Accounting, and Reporting