Critical thinking for sustainable business solutions (Coursera)

Offered by The Open University,
Critical thinking for sustainable business solutions (Coursera)

This course will help you to discover how to flip your logical thinking and reasoning mind to enable you to generate a wide range of innovative ideas and assess when to apply the different thinking modes appropriately in the ideation process.

You’ll apply critical reflective thinking to avoid personal biases and unintended consequences when you develop potential solutions. You will also analyse proto-concepts critically to ensure their suitability and the likelihood of positive impact.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

Via text-based resources and task books, you’ll gain comprehensive understanding and benefit from in-depth reference points as you formulate your ideas and plans.
This course is part of the Sustainability for business success Specialization.

What you'll learn

  • Understand how the creative ideation process functions to generate a broad range of relevant outcomes to your challenge domain and systems map.
  • Converge on a selection of the most impactful ideas to take forward for implementation and (in)validation.

Syllabus

Welcome to the course
This week, you will dive into the process of creative thinking to solve systemic challenges. You will learn how to generate a broad range of ideas to address your defined sustainability issues.

Developing sustainable business ecosystem concepts
This week, you will learn how to converge your ideas into concrete concepts to take forward and test throughout the rest of the course.

Converging on sustainability concepts
This week, you will converge your thinking to make decisions about which ideas to take forward or to leave behind.

Refining sustainability concepts
This week, you will refine the ideas you are considering taking forward and reflect on how this will affect your draft systems map from course 2 in the Coursera Specialization 'Sustainability for business success'.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Solar Energy Systems Overview (Coursera) Coursera
University at Buffalo

Solar Energy Systems Overview (Coursera)

By the end of this course, learners will have acquired a broad understanding of the history and mechanics behind converting light into electricity, commonly known as photovoltaics (PV). They are empowered to recognize and describe elements of a PV system, enabling them to: compare the most common types of solar cells, sketch a solar PV system, and analyze differences between rooftop and ground mounting configurations.

Jun 22nd 2026
3 Weeks
Pensamiento crítico: toma de decisiones razonadas (Coursera) Coursera
Tecnológico de Monterrey

Pensamiento crítico: toma de decisiones razonadas (Coursera)

Tomar decisiones en el mundo de hoy, un mundo en creciente complejidad, con amplios cambios e incertidumbre, crea la necesidad de contar con aproximaciones que nos permitan discernir los verdaderos problemas y las causas que los originan. Identificar cuáles son estos problemas, requiere en la mayoría de los casos, retar las suposiciones en las que basamos nuestros juicios, respecto al mundo y sus realidades. Podríamos definir el pensamiento crítico, como “ese modo de pensar- sobre cualquier tema, contenido o problema- en el cual el pensante mejora la calidad de su pensamiento al apoderarse de las estructuras inherentes del acto de pensar y al someterlas a estándares intelectuales”.

Jun 22nd 2026
4 Weeks
Climate Change, Sustainability, and Global Public Health (Coursera) Coursera
University of Michigan

Climate Change, Sustainability, and Global Public Health (Coursera)

The third course of the Impacts of the Environment on Global Public Health specialization will introduce you to two major environmental health challenges facing the world today. The first is climate change –the preeminent threat to public health today, and a threat that will impact every human and ecosystem on the planet.

Jun 22nd 2026
4 Weeks
Exercer son esprit critique à l’ère informationnelle (Coursera) Coursera
University of Geneva

Exercer son esprit critique à l’ère informationnelle (Coursera)

Aujourd’hui, notamment du fait de l’essor des technologies, nous sommes en permanence assaillis par une multitude d'informations. Pourtant, beaucoup d’entre elles semblent peu fiables voire volontairement mensongères, comme les fake news. Ainsi, même si nous n’avons jamais été aussi bien informés qu’avec Internet et les réseaux sociaux, la société fait paradoxalement face à un phénomène de désinformation.

Jun 22nd 2026
5-12 Weeks
Sustainable Vikings: Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility in Scandinavia (Coursera) Coursera
Copenhagen Business School

Sustainable Vikings: Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility in Scandinavia (Coursera)

This course gives you immediate access to the world leading sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Scandinavian firms dominate the major sustainability and CSR performance indicators including the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI). In this course we explore the concepts of sustainability and CSR and focus attention on how Scandinavian firms, like Novo Nordisk, have achieved superior sustainability and CSR performances.

Jun 22nd 2026
5-12 Weeks
Sustainable Business Enterprises (Coursera) Coursera
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Sustainable Business Enterprises (Coursera)

This course will explore current challenges and opportunities facing firms in the area of environmental sustainability. It will begin with an introduction to sustainability, with a particular focus on how environmental sustainability is relevant to business. Topics such as unsustainable consumption/consumer behavior, market research sustainable product design, sustainable value chains and communications will be covered. The bottom-up approach in terms of immersion, emersion, and design as applied to sustainable business enterprise will be covered.

Jun 22nd 2026
4 Weeks
ESG Investing: Setting Standards & Conducting Analysis (Coursera) Coursera
Interactive Brokers

ESG Investing: Setting Standards & Conducting Analysis (Coursera)

The ESG Investing: Setting Standards & Conducting Analysis course provides students with basic knowledge of traditional financial products with some fundamental concepts to help better define what ESG is, including the rationale behind its inception, and how it has developed. Through the series of video, webinar, and reading modules in this course, you’ll learn how to identify and describe the basic principles underpinning the “E”, “S” and “G” in ESG, as well as obtain a brief background of ESG’s origins and evolution.

Jun 22nd 2026
5-12 Weeks
The Economics of Agro-Food Value Chains (Coursera) Coursera
Technische Universität München - TUM

The Economics of Agro-Food Value Chains (Coursera)

In this course, you learn how the agro-food value chain approaches the challenge of constantly improving its competitiveness by producing high quality food and products and also aiming to attain greater sustainability. Some of the topics of this course are: the notion of quality for food and agricultural products and consumer value; how to conduct market research in this field; labelling, branding and pricing strategies, as-well as innovation in the agro-food sector; how sustainability can be used as a competitive advantage through corporate social responsibility: the role and different types of industrial standards; the different forms of coordination in the chain, in particular with regard to the retailing and distribution sector.

Jun 24th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Alternative Mobility Narratives (Coursera) Coursera
University of Amsterdam,EIT Urban Mobility

Alternative Mobility Narratives (Coursera)

Ready to imagine a radically different mobility future? This course is about the stories that we tell ourselves about why and how we move. By critically examining our current narratives, we help you think about mobility in a new way. Using systems dynamics modelling, we explore how a mobility innovation (of your choice) impacts our mobility system as a whole, for better or for worse. This course will invite you to reflect on our mainstream mobility narrative built on engineering and economics. But warning: you may end up never looking at mobility in the same way again!

Jun 22nd 2026
5-12 Weeks
Effective Problem-Solving and Decision-Making (Coursera) Coursera
University of California, Irvine

Effective Problem-Solving and Decision-Making (Coursera)

Critical thinking – the application of scientific methods and logical reasoning to problems and decisions – is the foundation of effective problem solving and decision making. Critical thinking enables us to avoid common obstacles, test our beliefs and assumptions, and correct distortions in our thought processes. Gain confidence in assessing problems accurately, evaluating alternative solutions, and anticipating likely risks. Learn how to use analysis, synthesis, and positive inquiry to address individual and organizational problems and develop the critical thinking skills needed in today’s turbulent times. Using case studies and situations encountered by class members, explore successful models and proven methods that are readily transferable on-the-job.

Jun 22nd 2026
4 Weeks
Global Health Security, Solidarity and Sustainability through the International Health Regulations (Coursera) Coursera
University of Geneva

Global Health Security, Solidarity and Sustainability through the International Health Regulations (Coursera)

Welcome to the MOOC "Global Health Security, Solidarity and Sustainability through the International Health Regulations". We are very excited to have you on board and hope you will enjoy the course! In the coming 6 weeks, you will learn about the International Health Regulations (IHR), history of its creation and evolution, its major principles and implementation procedures, as well as challenges and future opportunities.

Jun 22nd 2026
5-12 Weeks