Graduate Curriculum Committee - zicklin : school of business - CUNY

CIS 9xxx: Sustainability and IT
Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, CUNY
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1.Course Description
This course examines the relationship between Information Technology and sustainability. Students will be
introduced to different theories and practices pertaining to business, Information Technology, and
sustainability. The course examines both ‘greening of IT’ and ‘greening by IT’. Greening of IT refers to the
impact of information systems on the environment including challenges such as carbon footprint of
information systems and e-waste. Greening by IT refers to IT-enabled solutions that focus on reducing greenhouse
gas emissions.
2.Learning Objectives
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
• Analyze the impact of IT on the environment
• Assess the business value of green IT
• Examine the relationship between IT, sustainability, and business strategy
• Assess energy needs of IT
• Identify challenges in reducing the environmental impact of IT
• Develop solutions that will help reduce environmental impact of IT
• Suggest the use of IT solutions to reduce green-house gas emissions
• Assess the impact of and discuss solutions to address issues related to e-waste
3.Learning Goals Addressed
MBA Learning Goals
• Information and Technology literacy: In examining the relationship between Information
Technology and sustainability, the course presents IT-based solutions to address
challenges to sustainability. Students will be able to develop recommendations for ITbased
solutions to address sustainability challenges.
• Ethical awareness: The course raises ethical awareness by presenting issues that require
ethical decision making (such as electronic waste and its adverse health impact).
• Communication, Teamwork, and leadership: The course requires the completion of a
project that involves student presentations and development of a written report that
involves group work.
• Global awareness: Presenting the challenges in sustainability pertaining to Information
Technology as a global issue rather than a localized issue (by including examples and case
studies that involve multiple stakeholders distributed globally), the course raises global
awareness.
• Information Literacy: The course requires students to prepare written reports as part of
their project. The project involves performing library research. Students should be able to
select appropriate sources, examine the credibility of the sources, search for relevant
publications, and draw upon those publications to develop their analyses in their projects.
• Knowledge integration: The course expects students to integrate knowledge from various
business disciplines, including other areas of Information systems in analyzing concepts
pertaining to sustainability and IT.