WISO100326 Ecological sustainability and consumption: Perspectives of different actors

Type
course with continuous assessment
Semester hours
2
Lecturer (assistant)
Wallnöfer, Laura Maria
Organisation
Marketing and Innovation
Offered in
Sommersemester 2026
Languages of instruction
Deutsch
Content

(1) General course background and description

Interactive seminar with theoretical and conceptual inputs, teamwork, and feedback.
Focus: selected, systemic links between socio-ecological problems and both business practice and consumer patterns in market-based industrialised countries such as Austria.
Core emphasis on the roles and action options of three actors: policy-makers, companies, and consumers.
Students will get to know key actors in environmental and climate policy, their often conflicting interests, and gain insights into underlying conflicts of interest.
Aim: to convey, in an interactive process, the perspectives and conditional interrelations between consumption patterns, business practices, and policy frameworks.


(2) Core approaches

Active learning (interactive discussion formats, peer feedback, self-reflection) combined with analytical learning (source work, indicators, case analyses).
In teams of 2–4 students (final size determined by the course lead, depending on enrollment), students analyse a chosen consumption context (food, mobility, housing/energy use, clothing) with regard to (i) ecological, social, and economic challenges and (ii) the roles of the three actors in addressing these challenges.


The teams complete three core tasks:

Task 1: Design-a-Class — each group delivers a 45‑minute teaching unit; in the final session, all groups present their key insights (lightning talks), including brief individual statements.
Task 2: Draft an evidence-based, audience-appropriate entry for the Hot or Cool Vocabulary wiki (https://vocabulary.hotorcool.org/).
Task 3: Provide peer feedback on Tasks 1 and 2 of other groups using structured feedback forms.


(3) Sessions and activities

Session 1 — INTRODUCTION: ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY, ACTORS, CONSUMPTION CONTEXTS

Focus: overview of sustainability and consumption patterns; roles of policy–business–consumers; course format and assessment.
Activities: team formation; selection of context (food, mobility, housing/energy, clothing); expectation setting.
Output: fix team/context; initial goals for the Design‑a‑Class and a first idea for the wiki entry.


Session 2 — CONSUMER PERSPECTIVE

Focus: behavior, routines, rebound/spillover effects; “consumption corridors”; levers and limits of individual change.
Activities: case work; scope of action of individuals in different roles and their constraints.


Session 3 — BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE

Focus: corporate practices (product design, supply chain, labeling), greenwashing vs. real impact; metrics (CO2e, material footprint).
Activities: mini debate “impact vs. PR”; evidence gathering.


Session 4 — POLICY PERSPECTIVE (policy basics)

Focus: policy instruments (prices, standards, information, infrastructure), governance, distributional questions.
Activities: instrument examples by context; current agendas and targets.


Session 5 — Feedback on the concept drafts for the wiki entry and the Design‑a‑Class unit (online), followed by integration of the feedback.

Sessions 6, 7, 8 — Design‑a‑Class and integration of perspectives (Six Thinking Hats exercise).

Session 9 — Wiki presentation
Previous knowledge expected

none
Objective (expected results of study and acquired competences)

Upon successful completion, students will be able to:

- describe existing socio-ecological problems in relation to selected consumption contexts;
- investigate, analyse, and argue the perspectives and roles of political, economic, and individual actors;
- prepare and communicate their (experiential) knowledge in a multimedia, audience-appropriate manner, both in writing and orally;
- formulate and accept constructive feedback.


Achieving these learning outcomes fosters students’ disciplinary and methodological competences as well as their social and personal skills (critical thinking, discussion skills; depending on focus, also project management or literature research). Students should also discover curiosity and enjoyment in their own processes of change.
You can find more details like the schedule or information about exams on the course-page in BOKUonline.