BUSDEV 724 Designing for Sustainability is part of the Product Management specialisation within the Master of Business Management programme.
Contemporary business innovation processes require a design thinking approach to adapt and respond to rapidly changing societal and ecological conditions. Growing consumer and institutional demand for eco-innovations has further encouraged businesses to embed sustainability into their strategies. This course explores how frameworks such as Cradle-to-Cradle® and the Circular Economy provide powerful design thinking–based strategies to address these challenges.
Across the modules, students examine sustainability as a central driver of innovation. They learn how design thinking can be applied to sustainability, explore how planetary boundaries define the limits within which businesses must innovate, and compare eco-efficiency (doing more with less) with eco-effectiveness (creating positive impact by design). The course also introduces the principles of Cradle-to-Cradle design and its globally recognised certification process as practical tools for embedding sustainability into products and strategies.
From this foundation, the course expands into circular economy strategies and business models, highlighting how circularity influences products, processes, and organisational transformation. Real-world cases—including the New Zealand-based ventures SaveBOARD, Greenbox and Ecostore—illustrate both the opportunities of circular innovation and the systemic barriers of infrastructure, procurement, and policy.
The course concludes with an exploration of ecosystem design, where students map the dynamics of sustainable business ecosystems and reflect on how collaboration, interdependence, and intentional design can drive circularity, resilience, and systemic transformation.
By the end of the course, students will be able to critically evaluate sustainability-oriented design principles, develop circular business strategies, and apply an ecosystem perspective to align and economically viable business strategy with societal and environmental impact.