EME 805: Renewable Energy and Non-Market Enterprise

Quick Facts about EME 805

• Instructor and Author - Erich W. Schienke, Ph.D. Lecturer, John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, and Sustainability Management and Policy Option Leader in the Renewable Energy and Sustainability Systems (Online Masters and Graduate Certificates Program); and Ethics Co-Leader for the Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, The Pennsylvania State University.
• Overview - The course approaches the exploration and explanation of key concepts in renewable energy and sustainability nonmarket strategies through evidence-based examples. The main topics for the course include a) social structures of markets, b) nonmarket environments, c) renewable energy markets, d) complex systems analysis, and e) renewable energy technology and business environments.
• Learning Environment - This website provides the primary instructional materials for the course. The Resources menu links to important supporting materials, while the Course Outline menu links to the course lessons. Canvas, Penn State's course management system, is used to support the delivery of this course as well, as it provides the primary communications, calendaring, and submission tools for the course.
• Topics of Study - The content of this course is divided into 12 lessons. Each lesson will be completed in approximately 1 week.

  • Lesson 1: The Social Construction of Markets

  • Lesson 2: The Rise of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

  • Lesson 3: How CSR became to be known in terms of Environmental Social Governance (ESG) measures

  • Lesson 4: ESG measures

  • Lesson 5: Ensuring regulatory compliance and ESG monitoring and reporting (The 8 Responsibilities of Chief Sustainability Officers)

  • Lesson 6: Overseeing portfolios of sustainability projects and embedding sustainability into processes and decision-making (The 8 Responsibilities of Chief Sustainability Officers)

  • Lesson 7: Managing Stakeholder relationships and building organizational capabilities (The 8 Responsibilities of Chief Sustainability Officers)

  • Lesson 8: Fostering cultural change and scouting and experimenting (The 8 Responsibilities of Chief Sustainability Officers)

  • Lesson 9: The rationale for B/C-Corps, i.e. to B-corp or not to B-corp?

  • Lesson 10: Building up to a B/C-Corp

  • Lesson 11: Designing policies for sustainability, the energy transition, and beyond

  • Lesson 12: Implementing policies for sustainability, the energy transition, and beyond