Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(120,057)
- Faculty Publications (350)
- July 2024 (Revised December 2024)
- Background Note
District Heating: An Overview
By: Willy Shih and Michael W. Toffel
This note provides an overview of district heating: systems in which central plants generate heat that is conveyed by steam or water through a set of insulated pipes to send heat to residential and/or commercial buildings. It describes key elements of the system (heat... View Details
- June 2024
- Simulation
Vehicle Lifecycle Emissions Calculator
This Vehicle Lifecycle Emissions Calculator calculates the greenhouse gas emissions over the lifespan of internal combustion engine (ICEs) vehicles, battery electric vehicles (BEVs), and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), including those associated with their... View Details
Keywords: Decarbonization; Environment; Carbon Accounting; Carbon; Carbon Abatement; Electric Vehicles; Automobiles; Environmental Accounting; Environmental Management; Environmental Sustainability; Strategy; Technological Innovation; Supply Chain; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Climate Change; Transportation; Transportation Industry; Auto Industry; Battery Industry
- May 2024 (Revised May 2024)
- Case
Market by Met Council: Revolutionizing Food Pantries in the Digital Age
By: Elisabeth Paulson and Michael W. Toffel
In fall 2023, the Food Program of Met Council—America’s largest Jewish charity dedicated to fighting poverty—completed the rollout of the newest version of its digital pantry platform to twelve food pantries in the Met Council food pantry network. The digital... View Details
- April 2024 (Revised April 2025)
- Supplement
Driving Decarbonization at BMW
- April 2024 (Revised October 2024)
- Case
New Belgium Brewing and Climate Change
By: Michael W. Toffel, Kenneth P. Pucker and Michael Norris
In 2023, Colorado-based craft brewery New Belgium Brewing was considering how best to meet its emissions reduction targets. After decades of growth, the beermaker had grown to become one of the largest craft brewers in the U.S., and was purchased in 2019 by Japanese... View Details
- March 2024 (Revised March 2025)
- Background Note
Physical Climate Risk
By: Michael W. Toffel, Spencer Glendon and Alison Smart
This note describes how managers can identify and manage their company’s physical climate risks, which can increase their operations and supply chain costs and risks, and affect demand for their goods and services. Can be paired with the video “Preparing business... View Details
- March 2024
- Article
Do Safety Management System Standards Indicate Safer Operations? Evidence from the OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety Standard
By: Kala Viswanathan, Matthew S. Johnson and Michael W. Toffel
Problem definition: Given the enormous disruptions and costs of occupational injuries, companies and buyers are increasingly looking to voluntary occupational health and safety standards to improve worker safety. Yet because these standards only require... View Details
- February 26, 2024
- Article
Making Workplaces Safer Through Machine Learning
By: Matthew S. Johnson, David I. Levine and Michael W. Toffel
Machine learning algorithms can dramatically improve regulatory effectiveness. This short article describes the authors' scholarly work that shows how the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) could have reduced nearly twice as many occupational... View Details
- December 15, 2023
- Article
What Every Leader Needs to Know About Carbon Credits
By: Varsha Ramesh Walsh and Michael W. Toffel
Many companies have begun to look into credits to offset their emissions as a way to support their net zero goals as their target years get closer and closer. As it stands, the carbon credit market is too small to bear the brunt of reducing companies’ impacts on the... View Details
- December 2023 (Revised November 2024)
- Supplement
Decarbonizing Shipping at A.P. Møller-Maersk (B)
By: Willy Shih, Michael W. Toffel and Kelsey Carter
This is a (B) case supplement to 624-049 Decarbonizing Shipping at A.P. Møller-Maetsk View Details
Keywords: Decarbonization; Shipping; Biofuel; Ship Transportation; Energy Sources; Shipping Industry
- December 2023
- Other Article
Introduction to the Special Section on Business and Climate Change
By: Rajesh Chandy, Glen Dowell, Colin Mayer, Erica Plambeck, George Serafeim, Michael W. Toffel, L. Beril Toktay and Elke Weber
- November 2023 (Revised November 2024)
- Case
Decarbonizing Shipping at A.P. Møller-Maersk (A)
By: Willy Shih, Michael W. Toffel and Kelsey Carter
Container shipping was responsible for moving more than 80% of globally traded goods, and almost 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. A.P. Møller-Maersk, one of the top three container lines, conducted an extensive lifecycle assessment (LCA) of alternative fuels,... View Details
- November 2023 (Revised August 2024)
- Background Note
Life Cycle Assessment: An Overview
By: Willy C. Shih, Michael W. Toffel and Kelsey Carter
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a holistic approach to quantifying the environmental impacts—including resources consumed and wastes produced—associated with the entire life cycle of a product, from the production or extraction of the raw materials used in its creation,... View Details
- November 2023 (Revised February 2025)
- Background Note
Corporate Climate Targets
By: Willy C. Shih, Michael W. Toffel and Kelsey Carter
Companies that are addressing climate change by mitigating their greenhouse gas emissions often set reduction targets. This note describes several types of widely used carbon reduction targets, including carbon neutral, science based, net zero, real zero, and carbon... View Details
- October 20, 2023
- Article
How ENGOs Can Support Corporate Climate Change Efforts
Nearly half of CEOs view climate change as affecting their companies now or within the coming decade, but there is also a wide gap between what CEOs say is progress on tackling climate change and what many of their investors believe are effective actions. Companies... View Details
- October 2023
- Article
Improving Regulatory Effectiveness Through Better Targeting: Evidence from OSHA
By: Matthew S. Johnson, David I. Levine and Michael W. Toffel
We study how a regulator can best target inspections. Our case study is a U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) program that randomly allocated some inspections. On average, each inspection averted 2.4 serious injuries (9%) over the next five years.... View Details
- September 2023
- Supplement
Arcos Dorados: Decarbonizing McDonald’s in Latin America – Alternative Protein Products
By: George Serafeim and Michael W. Toffel
- September 2023
- Supplement
Arcos Dorados: Decarbonizing McDonald’s in Latin America – Decarbonization Activities
By: George Serafeim and Michael W. Toffel