Publications

2014
Working Paper

Making the Business Case for Environmental Sustainability

By: Rebecca Henderson

Can a business case be made for acting sustainably? This is a difficult question to answer precisely, largely because there is no generally accepted definition of the term "sustainability". Is it acting sustainably to protect the human rights of the firm's workforce?... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Decision Making; Environmental Sustainability

Read Now

13 Jan 2012
News

The Dollar Payoff from CSR and Sustainability

26 Nov 2012
News

The future of integrated sustainability reporting

01 Jun 2022
News

A Sustainable Solution for Fashion

Ferdinand Stockmann (MBA 2021) and James Theuerkauf (MBA 2021) Photo courtesy Syrup Tech Fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world, says James Theuerkauf (MBA 2021), who worked in McKinsey’s retail sector before attending HBS. More than 8 percent of... View Details

Keywords: April White

November 2015 (Revised August 2016)
Case

Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

In January 2009, when Paul Polman was appointed CEO of Unilever, he inherited a company in long-term decline at the beginning of a major global financial crisis. As the first outsider ever recruited to lead the company, Polman lost little time in challenging the... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Competitive Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Consumer Products Industry

Educators

30 Mar 2015
News

Creating a sustainable world

Fabienne Herlaut (MBA 1984) is founder and managing partner of Ecomobilité Ventures, a 25 million multi-corporate fund committed to green mobility. Herlaut, who in fall of 2014 received the French National Order of Merit for her support of ecologically minded... View Details

25 Jul 2019
Blog Post

Advancing a More Sustainable World with an MBA/MPA-ID

of sustainability rested first and foremost on the financial benefits and cost savings. As a result, I decided to apply to Harvard Business School through the 2+2 admissions process as well as for the Masters in Public Administration... View Details

01 May 2013
News

The Performance Frontier: Innovating for a Sustainable Strategy

Making the Business Case for Environmental Sustainability

Can a business case be made for acting sustainably? This is a difficult question to answer precisely, largely because there is no generally accepted definition of the term “sustainability”. Is it acting sustainably to protect the human rights of the firm’s workforce?... View Details

2015
Chapter

Making the Business Case for Environmental Sustainability

By: Rebecca Henderson

Can a business case be made for acting sustainably? This is a difficult question to answer precisely, largely because there is no generally accepted definition of the term "sustainability." Is it acting sustainably to protect the human rights of the firm's workforce?... View Details

29 Jul 2011
News

How Mandatory Reporting on Sustainability Pays Off

June 2010 (Revised October 2010)
Course Overview Note

Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise

By: Willy C. Shih

This Module Note for Instructors outlines the structure and content of the Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise MBA second year elective course at the Harvard Business School. The course focuses on giving students a solid grounding in the construction of... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Business Growth and Maturation

2021
Article

The Sustainable Corporate Governance Initiative in Europe

By: Mark Roe, Holger Spamann, Jesse M. Fried and Charles C.Y. Wang

In July 2020, the European Commission published the “Study on directors’ duties and sustainable corporate governance” by EY. The Report purports to find evidence of debilitating short-termism in EU corporate governance and recommends many changes to support sustainable... View Details

Keywords: Short-termism; Hedge Funds; Shareholder Activism; Securities Regulation; Agency Costs; Political Economy; Payouts; Repurchases; Corporate Governance; Investment Funds; Investment Activism; Research and Development; Investment; European Union

SSRN

1999
Chapter

Building and Sustaining Success

By: Pankaj Ghemawat and Gary P. Pisano

Keywords: Success

November 2011
Teaching Note

InterfaceRAISE: Sustainability Consulting (TN)

By: Robert G. Eccles and Michael W. Toffel

Keywords: Consulting Industry

April 2006
Background Note

Designing Sustainable Service Models

By: Frances X. Frei

Taught as the second module in a Harvard Business School course on Managing Service Operations. Addresses the challenge of designing service models that effectively incorporate a customer operating role, as well as how to align operations to deliver value to both the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Customers; Design; Managerial Roles; Consumer Behavior; Service Operations; Power and Influence; Value

Educators

2013
Book

Constructing Green: The Social Structures of Sustainability

By: Rebecca Henn and Andrew J. Hoffman

Buildings are the nation's greatest energy consumers. Forty percent of all our energy is used for heating, cooling, lighting, and powering machines and devices in buildings. And despite decades of investment in green construction technologies, residential and... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology; Green Building; Transition; Social Issues