Business Sustainability (MSc)

About the Course

Sustainability is a word for our time. It is vital for the business world and economy. Sustainability is a global challenge, which requires collective action from government, businesses and citizens. As King Charles III recently commented the “…most existential challenge of all [is] that of global warming, climate change and the catastrophic destruction of nature”.

There is a constant political focus on ensuring that business is transparent and accountable in respect of sustainable development. Business leaders, global corporates and SME businesses are acting to clean their production and take part in the green transition. They recognise that ‘good business is good business’.

80% of business leaders are positive about the green transition, considering that it offers more opportunities and jobs than challenges to employment. Yet, only half of businesses are implementing staff-related green skills programmes. The shortage of green skills is creating a bottleneck towards enhanced sustainability.

Liverpool Hope Business School has a two-decade track record in teaching and researching on good business and sustainability. We look at business sustainability under the rubric of 4 Ps: People, Purpose, Planet and Profit. Consequently, in studying on our new Masters in Business Sustainability you will be ideally placed to secure employment in businesses that need further expertise in meeting the sustainability challenge, both in relation to the green transition and in-the-round.

Curriculum Overview

The Masters is delivered through three 60 credit blocks.  Each block represents c 70 hours of taught content, normally within 2-hour sessions.  The first two blocks are each divided into 4 x 15 credit Modules.  Four Modules are taught in each 10-week term, with one Reflection week per term.  The third 60 credit block will usually comprise the student undertaking training in sustainability consultancy, following which they work with a local business.

Each teaching session includes lecture, seminar and interactive workshop elements.  You will, usually, have one formal summative assessment at the end of each Module.  In addition, students are expected to read and prepare for several formative assessments throughout the Module. Students will, standardly, have 8 hours of taught sessions per week, with an expectation of a further 30 hours per week, of personal study, reading and assessment preparation. 

The sessions are taught by members of Liverpool Hope Business School’s senior academic staff, augmented by visiting lecturers, from local and regional businesses, with experience in implementing sustainability practices.  There are, also, occasional fieldwork visits to local companies and other sustainability institutions across the Liverpool city region.

Modules

Term One: Common Core Modules

Global Human Resource Management Practice and Organisational Behaviour

The module develops functional knowledge and critical understanding of key perspectives on human behaviour in the workplace. It focuses on processes of organising, leading, planning and managing human activity, in business settings. The module considers core organisational HRM policy and practice.

Leading with Purpose

This module equips students with the knowledge and skills to lead organizations with purpose, aligning leadership strategies with organizational values, ethics, and societal impact. Through theory and practice, students will understand how to mobilize teams towards meaningful and sustainable goals.

Strategic Management

This module provides an opportunity to reflect on contemporary issues surrounding strategic management. Through critical insight and outlook, the topics will enable an understanding and critical examination of current and relevant challenges faced by organizations.

International Marketing in the Digital Age

The module provides an overview of international marketing strategies and practices, that businesses face when operating in the global marketplace. Students will learn to develop, implement, and manage marketing strategies related to international trade, cultural differences, and global market trends.

Term Two: Specialist Modules

Sustainable HRM, Enterprise and Society

The module provides an overview and case examples of sustainable human resource management, entrepreneurship, and communities, for social and environmental enterprises. Students will gain an understanding of major themes shaping society for entrepreneurship and sustainability, applied to their own context.

The Business of Purpose

The module examines the principles and practices of the meaningful economy. It explores how ‘Purpose’ has become a currency for market trading. Case studies of values-driven, and meaningful businesses are examined, for students to reflect on their own values for business development.

Valuing Sustainable Development

The module examines the intersection of business, economics, and environmental concerns. It considers how understanding natural capital and inclusive wealth provides a coherent perspective for businesses, and economic policy, to be constructed for enhancing inter-generational prosperity, for planet, and people.

Sustainable Finance, Accounting and Reporting

The module addresses issues concerning changes to sustainability accounting, reporting and financial management. It examines voluntary codes and mandatory regulations, to account for inward and outward business impacts. It introduces the Business Sustainability Cycle as a tool for sustainability consulting.

Term 3: Sustainability Consulting Project

The final 60 credit block involves students conducting a 4-month sustainability consultancy with a business from the Liverpool City Region. The module requires students to be placed with a business client, to undertake practical and real-world experience in business and management consultancy. Students use the Business Sustainability Cycle as their consultancy template, to develop skills in consultancy for business sustainability.

Entry Requirements

A minimum of a Second-Class Honours degree in a relevant discipline awarded by a UK university, or an equivalent higher education qualification. or Professional Equivalent, in subjects related to Business, Accounting, Marketing, Economics, Environmental Studies, Economic Geography, Sociology or Social Policy.

In addition to the entry requirements, it is expected that applicants will have at least two years post initial graduation working in industry, in which they will have demonstrated an interest in issues and application of sustainability principles and practices.

Experience in any professional and/ or management setting, where issues of sustainability are part of the work and industry agenda, is relevant for an application to study on the new MSc in Business Sustainability.

International Entry Requirements

For students whose first language is not English there is a language requirement of IELTS 6.0 overall (reading 5.5, writing 5.5). In addition to this, we also accept a wide range of International Qualifications, for more information please visit our English Language Requirements page.

For additional information about country specific entry requirements visit the your country page

*Part time study is not available for Non-EU International applicants

Teaching and Research

The Liverpool Hope Business School has a vibrant teaching and research community of scholars, business practitioners and trainers.  We have focused on business ethics, ethical business and, more recently, business sustainability, for more than two decades. 

Through our sustainability consultancies - a core part of the Masters - our students identify the real-world opportunities and challenges that businesses face, in the green transition. As such, we work with a range of partner stakeholders to develop sustainability practices.

Liverpool Hope’s Business Management degrees have a record of 93% employability, 6 months post graduation.  Equally, employment site Total Jobs lists more than 700 sustainability manager posts, in the UK, on any given day.  So, the chances of walking into a graduate-level position, from the Masters in Business Sustainability, are very high.

The Masters is taught by a team of senior academics at the Liverpool Hope Business School.  The Course Director is Revd Dr Tony Bradley, Senior Lecturer in Business Sustainability.  Tony is the author of more than 30 books, chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles.  He is contracted to Edward Elgar Publishing for two new books on business sustainability, from which much of the Masters has been developed.  Additionally, we are working with global sustainability consultancy Spectreco, through The Transition Academy, and our unique Business Sustainability Cycle, to deliver sustainability education and guidance on a global platform.

UK/Channel Island Tuition Fees

2025/26

Tuition fees for Home students are £9,500

Funding

We offer a number of scholarships and loans to help fund your postgraduate studies. Visit our scholarships pages for more details.

EU/Non EU International Tuition Fees

2025/26

Tuition fees for EU/Non-EU International students for 2025/26 are £15,250

Please be aware that the UK’s departure from the EU may affect your tuition fees. Learn more about your fee status and which tuition fees are relevant to you.

Careers

Every day more than 700 Sustainability Manager posts are advertised on the leading U.K. employment sites.  These are in industry, government, and the third sector.  The MA in Business Sustainability will equip graduates with the knowledge, skills and tools – through the unique Business Sustainability Cycle - to go into sustainability consultancy.  Equally, learners can apply their learning to their current employment, enhancing their career path and development.  Graduates of the Masters will be equipped for a range of opportunities in business and organisational management in any sector that is seeking to contribute to the green transition, to 2030 and beyond.