There are two sustainability focussed business projects, one with CO2 Management in Norway, and the other with BCG here in Austria. I will allocate you to one of the projects before the first session. When you sign up, you will receive a questionnaire on your skills and project preferences.

Project 1

Title: Scaling up the Swiss and Austrian Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Market:  An assessment of the market potential, the main emitters’ drivers and barriers and potential CCS partners.

Organisation: CO2 Management AS, Bergen Norway.

Overall Project Aims:

Switzerland and Austria have great potential for both emission reduction and CCS, with national emissions in 2019 of 38Mt CO2 (Switzerland) and 65Mt CO2 (Austria). Significant challenges in technology, economics, and legislation remain.

Project 1 Objectives:

1.Country perspective

Overview of status quo country practices, assessment of regulatory environment/policies and political willingness for change. Market analysis & segmentation: identification of key emitters (companies in hard-to-abate sectors, particularly cement, limestone, waste-to-energy, and steel production)

 2.Deep dive: Company perspective

Identification of key emitters with the greatest potential for CCS deployment (e.g., by contacting industry associations).Expert interviews & sentiment analysis (interviews with at least 4 companies per country, in differing industries). Analysis of their key drivers and barriers to CCS implementation (interview findings)

3.Solution

Outline Swiss and Austrian market potential (country perspective).Provide well-researched guidance on which emitters to target in which order.

Language Requirements: Due to the strong focus on expert interviews, the student team requires at least 2 native speakers. Language proficiency in German, French, and Italian is therefore highly recommended.

Other Information: The coaching sessions and the mid-term and final presentation will be held online.

Project 2

Title: How can businesses in Austria prevent food waste?

Organisation: BCG, Austria

Overall Project Aims:

You will specifically focus on different types of businesses in the food value chain in Austria and assess their impact on food waste by leveraging a diverse set of tools and methods, including desk research, interviews and structured analyses. Throughout the process, you will get the chance to participate in hands-on skill-sharing sessions by volunteers from BCG.

Scope:
 Food waste refers to the decrease in the quantity or quality of food resulting from decisions and actions by retailers, food service providers and consumers

Geographic focus: Austria

Industry focus: Agriculture, food processing, retail

Project Objectives: 1. Status quo- country perspective 2. Status quo- business perspective 3. Recommendations.

Learning Outcomes:

Knowledge and Understanding 

After completing the course, students will have: 

• extended their knowledge of current business sustainability issues and challenges
• Knowledge of best practices of leading organisations 
• learned how to collect, analyse and structure data 
• developed project management skills 
• received feedback from practitioners on the outcome of their analysis and the viability of their recommendations 

Attendance Requirements:

No late assignments will be accepted under any circumstances. 

Presence in sessions is mandatory, given the importance of personal interaction between students, corporate partner and faculty. More than two absences will lead to exclusion from the seminar. 

To participate, students will be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement. 

Teaching and Learning Methods:

The business project uses a combination of discussions with company representatives, feedback sessions, presentations, group coaching as well as work outside the classroom.. 

In the first kick- off session with faculty, the challenges and milestones of the case will be outlined, At the same time, students will be familiarised with the guiding principles of project work, with the project plan and rules in the handling of faculty/ company. 

Afterwards, the students will officially kick off the project in collaboration with their company. In a plenary session, the organisation will outline the challenges from their perspective and provide useful input for the project and will provide input for the project and the specific challenges to be dealt with. As a result of this, students will come up with the precise scope of the project. 

Throughout the process, coaching and feedback sessions with faculty/company will take place to make sure that the students are on track and get the relevant input needed at each project phase. During the project, you will be supported and coached by company representatives. 

Assessment:

Results will be presented to the company mid-term and at the end of the process.  Verbal and printed presentations will be assessed. 

Assessment will be based upon the quality of the mid-term and end-term presentation, the final report, participation during classes and group members peer review.  

Group level (70%): mid- term presentation (20%) end –term presentation (30%) Final report (20%) 

Individual level (30%): Peer review (20%), participation (10%) 

Please log in with your WU account to use all functionalities of read!t. For off-campus access to our licensed electronic resources, remember to activate your VPN connection connection. In case you encounter any technical problems or have questions regarding read!t, please feel free to contact the library at readinglists@wu.ac.at.