Sustainable Business Management Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Sustainability Managers, CSR Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-SC-049

Before you join: Participants should have basic familiarity with their organisation's operations, business objectives and internal decision processes.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Organisations face increasing scrutiny of environmental impacts, labour practices, supply-chain conduct, climate commitments and public sustainability claims. Managers must turn broad commitments into governed programmes, measurable targets and credible disclosures while balancing commercial priorities, regulatory requirements and stakeholder expectations. Poorly defined sustainability work can create legal exposure, weak investment decisions, unreliable data and accusations of greenwashing. Well-managed programmes can reduce resource costs, strengthen supplier performance, improve risk management and support access to capital and customers.

This course develops the practical management skills required to design, govern and report sustainability and corporate social responsibility programmes. Participants examine materiality assessment, stakeholder engagement, human rights due diligence, environmental management systems, carbon accounting, circular economy approaches, responsible procurement and social performance. They learn to use the GHG Protocol, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, GRI Standards and ISSB disclosure concepts to connect sustainability priorities with operational controls, capital allocation, performance measures and executive decisions.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings with sector-based cases, group analysis, reporting simulations and structured planning work. Cases reflect decisions faced by banks, manufacturers, public agencies, extractive companies, consumer businesses and service organisations. Participants build a practical set of working documents, including a materiality assessment structure, sustainability KPI dictionary, carbon inventory plan, supplier assessment model and 90-day implementation plan. The course is suited to managers who need to move from sustainability statements to accountable action, measurable results and evidence suitable for management review, assurance and external reporting.

What you will be able to do

  • Conduct a double materiality assessment using stakeholder evidence, impact severity and financial significance
  • Design sustainability governance structures, policies, accountabilities and risk controls
  • Apply GHG Protocol principles to define organisational boundaries and greenhouse-gas inventories
  • Develop environmental and social performance indicators with clear data ownership and controls
  • Assess suppliers using responsible procurement criteria, sustainability scorecards and remediation plans
  • Prepare sustainability disclosures aligned with GRI Standards and ISSB reporting concepts
  • Evaluate sustainability initiatives using lifecycle cost, carbon, social risk and strategic fit
  • Produce a 90-day sustainability implementation plan with owners, milestones and review mechanisms

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Build credible sustainability business cases for management approval
  • Create carbon inventory boundaries and data-collection requirements
  • Assess supplier sustainability risks using documented criteria
  • Prepare evidence-based sustainability reports and management briefings
  • Lead cross-functional sustainability action plans with defined accountability

For your organisation

  • Clearer governance for environmental, social and sustainability decisions
  • More reliable sustainability data for reporting and assurance
  • Reduced exposure to greenwashing and unsupported public claims
  • Stronger supplier due diligence and responsible procurement controls
  • Prioritised sustainability investments linked to business value and risk

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can identify material sustainability priorities and build a defensible business case for action.

  • Drivers of sustainable value: regulation, resource constraints, markets and risk
  • Triple Bottom Line trade-offs between economic, environmental and social outcomes
  • Materiality assessment using stakeholder evidence, impact severity and financial significance
  • Double materiality distinctions under ESRS and investor-oriented reporting
  • SDG target mapping against products, operations and value-chain impacts
  • Business-case logic linking sustainability initiatives to revenue, cost and resilience

Participants can establish governance arrangements that assign responsibility and control sustainability risks.

  • Board oversight structures, committee mandates and sustainability decision rights
  • CSR policy architecture: commitments, procedures, controls and accountability
  • Ethical decision tests for conflicting stakeholder interests and long-term impacts
  • Anti-greenwashing controls: substantiation, approvals, records and claim governance
  • Enterprise risk registers connecting sustainability risks, owners and treatments
  • Management incentives tied to verified environmental and social performance

Participants can plan stakeholder engagement and assess salient human rights risks.

  • Stakeholder mapping by influence, dependence, impact exposure and relationship quality
  • Engagement plans defining purpose, methods, frequency, feedback and escalation
  • Human rights due diligence aligned with UN Guiding Principles
  • Salience assessment using scale, scope, irremediability and likelihood
  • Grievance mechanisms designed for accessibility, confidentiality, remedy and learning
  • Community investment criteria separating strategic partnerships from charitable giving

Participants can structure environmental controls, objectives and improvement actions using ISO 14001 concepts.

  • ISO 14001 environmental aspects and impacts register development
  • Significance scoring using severity, frequency, legal exposure and stakeholder concern
  • Operational controls for waste, water, chemicals, emissions and biodiversity
  • Environmental objectives, targets and programmes with accountable owners
  • Internal audit evidence, nonconformity grading, corrective action and follow-up
  • Emergency preparedness for spills, releases and environmental incidents

Participants can define carbon inventories and connect climate targets with transition actions.

  • GHG Protocol organisational boundaries: equity share, financial control, operational control
  • Scope 1 and 2 inventories from fuel, refrigerant and electricity data
  • Scope 3 screening across purchased goods, transport, use and investments
  • Emission-factor selection, activity-data controls and calculation documentation
  • Science-based target setting: base year, boundary, ambition and milestones
  • Transition plans connecting decarbonisation projects, capital budgets and governance
  • Climate-risk scenarios assessing physical hazards, transition pressures and time horizons

Participants can integrate circular economy and responsible sourcing principles into procurement decisions.

  • Life-cycle thinking from raw materials through use, recovery and disposal
  • Circular economy strategies: reduce, reuse, repair, remanufacture and recycle
  • Supplier sustainability segmentation using spend, risk, influence and criticality
  • Supplier codes covering labour, environment, ethics and remediation expectations
  • Responsible procurement criteria embedded within specifications, tenders and evaluations
  • Supplier assessment methods: questionnaires, audits, scorecards and improvement plans
  • Traceability controls for high-risk commodities and tier-one supplier data

Participants can define social performance priorities and establish measurable workforce safeguards.

  • Social impact assessment distinguishing workers, communities, consumers and vulnerable groups
  • ISO 45001 worker participation, hazard identification and risk controls
  • Leading and lagging indicators for safety, wellbeing and labour performance
  • Modern slavery risk indicators across recruitment, labour brokers and subcontracting
  • DEI metrics addressing representation, progression, pay equity and inclusion
  • Responsible restructuring practices covering consultation, redeployment and fair transition
  • Social performance action plans with owners, milestones and remedy measures

Participants can design reporting processes supported by reliable indicators and audit-ready evidence.

  • GRI Standards applied to material topic disclosures and management approaches
  • ISSB S1 and S2 disclosures for sustainability-related financial information
  • ESRS disclosure architecture, datapoints and double-materiality evidence
  • KPI dictionaries defining formulas, boundaries, sources, owners and review cycles
  • Data-quality controls: completeness, accuracy, timeliness, traceability and approval
  • Assurance-ready evidence files, audit trails and management representations
  • Report narratives connecting targets, performance, setbacks and corrective actions

Participants can prioritise sustainability investments and prepare implementation support for organisational change.

  • Capital allocation criteria incorporating lifecycle cost, carbon and social risk
  • Internal carbon pricing models: shadow price, fee and implicit cost
  • Net present value comparisons for efficiency, renewable energy and waste projects
  • Benefit-realisation plans assigning baselines, owners, milestones and verification
  • Sustainability-linked finance terms, KPIs, reporting duties and consequences
  • Portfolio prioritisation using impact, feasibility, cost, risk and strategic fit
  • Change-management plans addressing sponsorship, communications, capability and resistance

Participants can prepare an actionable sustainability programme for their immediate business priorities.

  • Sustainability maturity assessment across governance, data, operations and culture
  • Priority initiative selection using materiality, feasibility, dependencies and value
  • 90-day action plans with deliverables, owners, resources and milestones
  • RACI matrices clarifying accountability for cross-functional sustainability programmes
  • Executive briefing structure: decision required, evidence, options, recommendation and next steps
  • Implementation scorecards linking actions, KPIs, review forums and escalation
  • Personal application commitments tied to an immediate workplace decision

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Double materiality assessment template
  2. Sustainability governance and RACI model
  3. GHG inventory boundary and data-collection plan
  4. Supplier sustainability assessment scorecard
  5. Sustainability KPI dictionary and evidence checklist
  6. 90-day sustainability implementation plan

Who should attend

  • Sustainability Managers — responsible for translating commitments into governed programmes and measurable results
  • CSR Managers — responsible for social investment, stakeholder relationships and responsible business policies
  • Environment, Health and Safety Managers — seeking to connect management systems with wider sustainability priorities
  • Procurement and Supply Chain Managers — responsible for supplier standards, due diligence and responsible sourcing
  • Risk and Compliance Managers — assessing environmental, social and governance risks and control requirements
  • Finance and Strategy Managers — evaluating sustainability investments, reporting implications and transition plans

Skills and tools covered

Materiality assessmentCarbon accountingSustainability governanceResponsible procurementESG reportingSustainability programme planning

Tools and standards

GRI Standards, ISSB S1 and S2, GHG Protocol, ISO 14001

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce methods, standards and decision criteria, followed by facilitated case work drawn from business, public-sector and supply-chain settings. Participants analyse material issues, carbon data, supplier risks, reporting evidence and investment choices in small groups. Simulations examine management committee decisions, stakeholder challenges and disclosure review. Structured application planning helps participants adapt course methods to their own organisation, function or current sustainability priority.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic familiarity with their organisation's operations, business objectives and internal decision processes. Experience in sustainability, CSR, environmental management, procurement, risk, finance, operations or reporting is useful but not essential. The course assumes participants can interpret business information, discuss organisational priorities and work with simple performance data. Prior knowledge of carbon accounting, ISO management systems, sustainability reporting standards or environmental legislation is not required. Participants do not need technical engineering, scientific or assurance qualifications.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants need basic familiarity with organisational operations and business decision-making. Previous work in sustainability, EHS, procurement, risk, finance or CSR is useful, but no knowledge of carbon accounting or reporting standards is required.

Participants should bring a laptop if possible and may bring non-confidential examples of sustainability priorities, policies, reports, supplier requirements or performance data. Course materials and working templates are provided.

The course is designed for managers and specialists with responsibility for sustainability, CSR, environment, health and safety, procurement, risk, reporting, finance or strategy. It also suits managers asked to contribute to a sustainability programme without being full-time specialists.

Carbon accounting and ESG reporting are important parts of the programme, but they are not treated as isolated technical subjects. This course addresses the management system around them: materiality, governance, stakeholder engagement, supply chains, operational controls, investment choices and implementation.

Participants leave with templates and plans that can be adapted to a current organisational priority, such as establishing reporting controls, improving supplier standards or preparing a carbon inventory. The final module converts course concepts into a 90-day action plan with named owners and milestones.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. The five days cover ten modules in teaching order, using instructor input, cases, group analysis, simulations and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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