Sustainable Marketing, Communications and Brand Management

Sustainable Marketing, Communications and Brand Management, offered by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership through GetSmarter, is an online short course designed to help marketing, media, and creative professionals use their roles to drive sustainability transformation. The course responds to growing pressure on brands and organisations to meet rising consumer expectations around sustainability and ethical practice, while also addressing the risks of greenwashing and unsustainable growth-led marketing. It equips learners with the knowledge and strategies needed to re-align marketing, communications, and brand management with long-term wellbeing for people and planet.

Core Content

The curriculum explores how marketing can become a force for sustainable transformation and meaningful brand differentiation in a crowded marketplace. CISL explains that learners examine marketing’s influence on people, the planet, and human behaviour, while engaging in challenging discussions on growth, consumption, and greenwashing. The course blends academic insight with practical application and helps participants understand how organisations can respond to changing sustainability expectations through more credible, ethical, and strategically aligned brand and communication practices.

Key Skills

Participants will develop the ability to understand the sustainability challenges facing marketing and brand functions, assess how communications influence behaviour and culture, and build strategies that align brand credibility with environmental and social responsibility. The course also helps learners strengthen their ability to debate issues such as growth, greenwashing, and ethical practice, while developing a practical Strategy for Action that can support measurable impact and industry change.

Target Learners

This course is designed for marketing, media, and creative professionals who want to be at the forefront of sustainability transformation. It is particularly relevant for learners seeking to challenge conventional marketing norms and develop more responsible approaches to brand strategy, communications, and influence. CISL’s course listings position it clearly for professionals who want to connect marketing practice with wider sustainability goals and positive systems change.

Learning Format

Hosted on GetSmarter, the course is delivered in a flexible online format over eight weeks, excluding orientation. The learning experience is designed for working professionals and combines academic insight with practical application, helping learners build understanding step by step while fitting study around a busy schedule. CISL also presents the course as delivered in collaboration with GetSmarter as an interactive and supported online learning experience.

Additional Benefits

The course offers strong practical value for professionals who want to turn sustainability from a communications challenge into a source of credibility, differentiation, and positive impact. Its focus on ethical practice, consumer expectations, and greenwashing makes it especially useful in a marketplace where trust and accountability are increasingly important. As a CISL course, it also benefits from the institute’s broader sustainability education expertise and its close connection to current research and practice in sustainable marketing.

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