Environmental Management | Environmental & Energy Management

Learn to contribute to the greening of the industry with management strategies towards environmental and social sustainability.

The transition towards a green economy is a challenging one, as it requires a fundamental transformation of the way our economy works, including industrial processes, the use of resources, and consumption patterns. How can you deal with this complexity and devise strategies to deliver sustainable products and services? What does it take to promote circular and social entrepreneurship, and how can you enhance corporate social responsibility? And what kind of incentives and regulations could encourage sustainable behaviour amongst consumers? If you want to study how we can move towards a more sustainable, circular industry, focusing on production and consumption, the specialisation in Environmental Management is right for you.

What is Environmental Management?

Within this specialisation, you will gain insights into the key concepts and principles that guide management strategies towards environmental and social sustainability. How can you find smart ways to balance the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainable development? What kind of policy approaches could be effective to enhance sustainable industrial production and consumption from a government perspective? And how can you identify and include relevant stakeholders and find collaborations to work towards the greening of the industry together? These are just some challenges you might deal with within this specialisation.

Research topics you can focus on within this specialisation:

Developing regulatory standards for managing e-waste
Analysing the effects of corporate social responsibility on consumer loyalty and perceived value
Exploring the potential of used furniture to bridge the wood shortage in a country like Kenya

The course Environmental Management will provide you with fundamental knowledge in the domain of (corporate) sustainability and circularity and will be followed by all MEEM students. If this field has caught your interest and you choose the specialisation in Environmental Management, you will delve deeper into relevant cases regarding environmental management. The breadth of this specialisation makes the research areas you could focus on highly diverse. For example: what does it take to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in the landfill? What sustainable business models are adequate to integrate circular and bioeconomy principles in the agricultural sector? What kind of government regulations can contribute to a longer lifecycle of electronic devices such as phones or laptops? Or, on a more sociocultural and philosophical level: what is the relation between well-being and consumerism, and how can we shift our perception of well-being – which is currently much related to economic factors?

What will you learn?

As a graduate of this Master’s and this specialisation, you have acquired specific, scientific knowledge, skills and values, which you can put to good use in your future job.

Knowledge
After completing this Master’s specialisation, you:
- understand the problems and challenges involved in the greening of industry strategies regarding environmental, economic and social sustainability;
- have knowledge of (the criteria of) Environmental Management Systems that organisations can use to enhance their environmental performance;
- have knowledge of environmental policy approaches and theoretical frameworks and tools regarding sustainable development, corporate social responsibility, circular economy, etcetera.
Skills
After successfully finishing this Master’s specialisation, you:
- can analyse the management strategies at different scales (firm, supply chain, sector and region) towards a more socially inclusive (stakeholder engagement) and greener industry;
- are able to design environmental and socially inclusive management systems that cope with the industrial challenges of delivering sustainable products and services;
- can manage the greening of industry transition by systematically engaging the relevant stakeholders and by designing and implementing an adequate sustainable management strategy.
Values
After completing this Master’s specialisation, you:
- have the ambition to contribute to responsible, inclusive and fair solutions in environmental management;
- are imbued with the understanding that the greening of the industry is essential to counter climate change;
- are aware of the collaborative nature of addressing social environmental challenges.

Other master’s and specialisations

Is this specialisation not exactly what you are looking for? Maybe one of the other specialisations suits you better. Or find out more about these other Master’s:

- Master’s in Public Administration

Courses & research