Coursera

Thinking about sustainable business systemically (Coursera)

Offered by The Open University,

On this course, you’ll examine the process, methodology and impact of global circular economy initiatives. You’ll use systems thinking and mapping to understand the underlying dynamics and interaction of your problem-opportunity space and explore the likely impacts and effects of changing and/or influencing key elements of your systems. You’ll also identify key ‘leverage points’ of potential change across your systems map that you can address through future business interventions.

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

Go beyond the limitations of existing methodologies and business design approaches to serve complex ecosystem needs and problems
Design and implement new sustainable business concepts and business models grounded in People, Planet, Profit and Progress centric thinking and doing

Syllabus

Welcome to the course
This week, you will learn about the benefits of a circular economy and examine what steps you should take to frame a specific challenge before you attempt to solve it.

Systems thinking and sustainability spaces
This week, you will address complex issues within multi-stakeholder settings, often with divergent perspectives. You will learn how to create, map and analyse problems across stakeholders using systems thinking to understand complex dynamics and their interrelatedness across your chosen challenge space.

Developing your systems map
This week, you will pick up threads from the three preceding lessons and move on to building a systems map related to your challenge space.

Refining your systems map
This week, you will decide what to include and exclude from your map given the underlying complexities of your stakeholder ecosystem, and decide where you might need to intervene within your system.

Go to Class

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

Related Courses

Coursera

Technical University of Denmark - DTU

Ash-Related Operational Challenges in Energy Utilization of Sustainable Fuels (Coursera)

Engineering Sci: Environment

The basic idea behind this MOOC, is to present recent data on fuel characterization, slagging, fouling, corrosion, and trace element transformations, in a course that can be readily provided for students and industry people. This ensures understanding and application of the research, and provides the students and industry with a forum for discussion of the very latest research results, as well as feedback from industry to the research group at DTU, on important new research subjects in the field.

Oct 19th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Sustainability Energy Fuels

Coursera

Universidad de los Andes

Herramientas de la Economía Circular (Coursera)

Business

La Economía Circular representa una perspectiva de mejoramiento continuo para la transformación de sistemas de producción y consumo sostenibles. Aprender de sus herramientas, agrega un valor agregado concreto, a las competencias de profesionales interesados en la sostenibilidad ambiental y social. El presente curso ofrece aprender de la importancia de la Economía Circular a través de sus herramientas, útiles para el diseño de proyectos.

Oct 26th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Sustainability Circular Economy Sustainable Economy

Coursera

Erasmus University Rotterdam

Driving business towards the Sustainable Development Goals (Coursera)

Business

Extreme weather events, wars, famine and environmental destruction are just a few of the wicked problems faced by humanity. That’s why in 2015 the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This agenda includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that target the big challenges such as how to eliminate poverty, how to protect the environment and how to bring about peace. Every member state committed to achieving these goals by 2030. What can businesses do to counter climate change and create a sustainable business culture? Why is this relevant for business anyway? Explore how business can contribute to a better future for people AND the planet without giving up profits.

Oct 19th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Business Economy Society

Coursera

Rutgers University

Soul Beliefs: Causes and Consequences - Unit 2: Belief Systems (Coursera)

Humanities Social Sciences

Throughout history, the vast majority of people around the globe have believed they have, however defined, a “soul.” While the question of whether the soul exists cannot be answered by science, what we can study are the causes and consequences of various beliefs about the soul and its prospects of surviving the death of the body. Why are soul and afterlife beliefs so common in human history? Are there adaptive advantages to assuming souls exist?

Oct 26th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Biology Evolution History

Coursera

Università Bocconi

Sustainable Urban Regeneration (Coursera)

Economics & Finance

The transformation of land use, functions, and services in cities represents an opportunity to foster sustainable development, contributing to local and global challenges. Urban regeneration is a key area to govern change, attract investments, engage stakeholders, and generate multiple benefits in both developed and developing countries.

Oct 19th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Sustainability Sustainable Development Sustainable Urban Transformation

Coursera

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Women in environmental biology (Coursera)

Health & Society

Have you ever wondered how humans relate to other living beings and what do you need to know to be able to understand current environmental problems? Do you know that many of these researches and knowledge have been described by women? This course gives answers to these questions and it is addressed to anyone interested in the relationship between humans and other living beings, as well as all those concerned about the global change situation that the planet is suffering.

Oct 19th 2026

4 Weeks

Sustainability Women Environment

Coursera

Princeton University

Global Systemic Risk (Coursera)

Social Sciences

What is globalization and how does it work? How can we understand the process as a whole? How are the parts of the world linked? What are the risks of living in a world where “no one is in charge”? This course introduces students to systems thinking, network theory, and risk analysis and uses these tools to better understand the process of globalization. Focusing on trade, finance, and epidemiology, it analyzes potential challenges to the current global order.

Oct 26th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Finance Trade Risk Analysis

Coursera

University of Copenhagen

The Sustainable Development Goals – A global, transdisciplinary vision for the future (Coursera)

Social Sciences

In 2015, the UN launched the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Adopted by 193 member states, the goals represent an important international step in setting humanity on a trajectory towards sustainable development. Within this course, you will get a historical overview of how sustainability has been understood, as well as a thorough introduction to the SDGs – what they are, how progress can be measured, and how the SDGs are relevant for the management of the global systems supporting humanity. The course will examine how various societal actors are responding to and implementing the SDGs.

Oct 25th 2026

3 Weeks

Sustainability Climate Change Social Sciences

Coursera

University of Manchester

Managing Responsibly: Practicing Sustainability, Responsibility and Ethics (Coursera)

Management & Leadership

Managers are increasingly confronted with issues of sustainability, responsibility and ethics. Managing responsibly is an integrative approach to sustainability, responsibility and ethics, which allows you as a manager to deal competently with such challenges. This course will facilitate your learning process to engage in changing practices to make them more sustainable, responsible, and ethically informed.

Oct 19th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Business Sustainability Management

Coursera

CentraleSupélec

On Strategy : What Managers Can Learn from Philosophy - PART 1 (Coursera)

Management & Leadership

In the expression “creative thinking”, the keyword is not creativity; the keyword is thinking. With the help of great philosophers, you will rediscover the art of thinking. To help leaders to be rigorous even without figures, great philosophers have lots of ideas. Managers are invited to rediscover the art of thinking. They should understand the role of mental models, realize the importance of cognitive bias, agree on clear definitions and efficient criteria etc. Creativity demands the ability to unshackle ourselves from conventional ways of thinking, to "think outside the box".

Oct 19th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Business Philosophy Innovation

Coursera

Yale University

Connected Leadership (Coursera)

Personal and Professional Development

This course is designed to maximize your ability to create change at the individual, team and system levels. Through study, reflection, and deploying practical tools, you will establish a firm connection between your clearly articulated Purpose, effective Priorities, visualized Potential for success, and pathway to maximized Progress. But, what does that mean in practice?

Oct 19th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Leadership Emotional Intelligence Team Management

Coursera

Yale University

Introduction to Psychology (Coursera)

Health & Society

What are people most afraid of? What do our dreams mean? Are we natural-born racists? What makes us happy? What are the causes and cures of mental illness? This course tries to answer these questions and many others, providing a comprehensive overview of the scientific study of thought and behavior. It explores topics such as perception, communication, learning, memory, decision-making, persuasion, emotions, and social behavior. We will look at how these aspects of the mind develop in children, how they differ across people, how they are wired-up in the brain, and how they break down due to illness and injury.

Oct 26th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Health Brain Psychology