Scaling Reuse with Vytal: A Circular Economy Conversation with CEO Fabian Barthel
- 23 APR 2025
- |
- Climate Rising
Fabian Barthel, Co-Founder of Vytal, a circular economy packaging-as-a-service startup,
joins host Mike Toffel to explore the innovation, behavioral science, and regulations
shaping the market for reusable containers for take-out food and beverages. Fabian
shares how Vytal is tackling packaging waste by building a reusable container system
for restaurants, canteens, and major events. He explains why deposit-based systems
often fail, how Vytal’s “borrow and return” model changes consumer behavior, and how
data, technology and behavioral science underpin their service design. Fabian also
discusses the evolving regulatory landscape, including Germany’s reuse mandates and
emerging municipal single-use taxes. He closes by offering advice to circular economy
entrepreneurs about how to align impact with profit.
Fabian Barthel, Co-Founder of Vytal, a circular economy packaging-as-a-service startup,
joins host Mike Toffel to explore the innovation, behavioral science, and regulations
shaping the market for reusable containers for take-out food and beverages. Fabian
shares how Vytal is tackling packaging waste by building a reusable container system
for restaurants, canteens, and major events. He explains why deposit-based systems
often fail, how Vytal’s “borrow and return” model changes consumer behavior, and how
data, technology and behavioral science underpin their service design. Fabian also
discusses the evolving regulatory landscape, including Germany’s reuse mandates and
emerging municipal single-use taxes. He closes by offering advice to circular economy
entrepreneurs about how to align impact with profit.
Climate Change Is Messing up Our Home Insurance Prices. What Can States Do?
Re: Ishita Sen
- 08 Apr 2025
- |
- PBS
Central Banks Are Not Independent on Climate Policy, Study Shows
Re: Jonas Meckling
- 21 Mar 2025
- |
- Green Central Banking
Hurtigruten: Sea Zero
- MARCH 2025
- |
- Case
Hurtigruten was deciding whether the next ship they built should be fully electric. But such a vessel's battery, the size of electric cars, needed to be charged on the ship's multi-day voyage along the Norwegian coast. Before making such a $250 million investment, the company needed to understand where en route it needed charging infrastructure and how it could access sufficient power at ports. These considerations had to be balanced against the uncertainty around the government's emissions targets for Hurtigruten's fleet, and customers' desire for sustainable tourism.
Calyx Global: Rating Carbon Credits
- MARCH 2025
- |
- Case
This case describes how rating agencies and other organizations are seeking to improve the quality of carbon credits sold in the voluntary carbon market to organizations seeking to use them to supplement their internal decarbonization efforts to meet their net zero commitments. The case profiles one carbon credit rating company, Calyx Global, and describes its business model, its approach to ratings, and its emerging competitive landscape. The case protagonists face a series of dilemmas on how to lead Calyx Global through some challenging times for the industry, including whether changing its business model to tap new revenue streams jeopardize the firm's carefully crafted reputation of avoiding perceptions of conflicts of interest, and whether and how it should refine its target market clients.
The Changing Climate on Wall Street
- MARCH 2025
- |
- Case
Increasing and conflicting regulatory requirements and political pressures regarding climate change tested the leaders of U.S. financial institutions, as they struggled to determine how best to comply while managing their business and its risks. In October 2024, Hurricanes Helene and Milton were each predicted to surpass $50 billion in damages across the U.S. Southeast, making them some of the costliest weather disasters in American history. Research attributed about 45% of their economic costs to climate change. Months later, in January 2025, neighborhoods in Los Angeles experienced wildfires of unprecedented scale, forcing evacuations and destroying over 15,000 structures at a cost that could reach $250 billion. Researchers concluded that climate change raised the region’s chances of dry weather, strong winds, and other environmental conditions conducive to wildfires by around 35%. Banks, asset managers, insurance companies, and other financial firms had made varying efforts since the 1990s to assess financial and non-financial risks from the effects of climate change and to adjust business models accordingly. Regulatory requirements and pressures—especially starting in the late 2010s—added to companies’ urgency. The European Union and the United Kingdom put in place comprehensive mandates for financial institutions to report on many aspects of climate risks. U.S. financial regulators introduced climate risk disclosure rules for financial institutions and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) established climate related reporting requirements for publicly listed companies. In the 2020s, skepticism about climate change in the U.S.—exhibited by a sizable share of Americans—translated to influential policies targeting “ESG,” an acronym standing for environmental, social, and governance. In 2022, Florida’s Department of Financial Services pulled $2 billion from asset manager BlackRock in alignment with new legislation aimed against ESG investing. Other states, including Texas and West Virginia, adopted similar measures as part of a larger campaign against “woke capitalism,” a phrase suggesting that progressive political agendas were compromising the corporate pursuit of profits.
Preparing Business Leaders for an Era of Climate Instability: Understanding and Managing Physical Climate Risk
- FEBRUARY 2025
- |
- Teaching Material
In this compelling video, Spencer Glendon, founder of Probable Futures and Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School, describes the profound implications of climate change for businesses, the economy, and societies around the world. Drawing from his background in systems engineering, economics, and asset management, Glendon underscores how a once-stable climate enabled the rise of predictable infrastructure, industry, and culture. Now, with escalating climate variability, he reveals that the assumptions underpinning our global systems subject to increasing risk. Using data from climate model projections and real-world examples, Glendon demonstrates the urgency for organizations to integrate an understanding of climate change into their decision-making to foster more resilient and adaptive strategies. This video serves as an essential resource for faculty aiming to engage students in understanding climate risks and the future of strategic, informed adaptation across sectors. This video can be paired with the "Physical Climate Risk" background note (624-059) written by Glendon with Michael Toffel and Alison Smart.
Supporting a Community of Learners
MBA Experience
As an MBA student at HBS, you will prepare yourself for leadership in a rapidly changing world in which natural resources are increasingly scarce and the threat of climate change ever more urgent.
Alumni
The Business & Environment Initiative connects alumni with students, faculty, and each other for learning, careers, and impact.
Executive Education
An advanced curriculum for corporate and nonprofit executives from all over the world to prepare them for new levels of leadership.
As we increasingly experience the effects of climate change – predicted by scientists over 50 years ago – business is vital.