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- Faculty Publications (282)
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- All HBS Web (735)
- Faculty Publications (282)
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- October 2008
- Article
Risk Frameworks and Biomonitoring: Distributed Regulation of Synthetic Chemicals in Humans
By: Arthur A. Daemmrich
The ability to detect and measure the presence of synthetic chemicals at trace levels in humans coupled to increased environmental NGO mobilization concerning chemical exposure has challenged risk and regulatory frameworks built up over the past quarter-century. This... View Details
Keywords: Chemicals; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Risk Management; Natural Environment; Pollutants; Non-Governmental Organizations; United States
Daemmrich, Arthur A. "Risk Frameworks and Biomonitoring: Distributed Regulation of Synthetic Chemicals in Humans." Environmental History 13, no. 4 (October 2008): 684–694.
- October 1992 (Revised August 1994)
- Case
Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk
By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Edward Prewitt
Allied-Signal, Inc., one of the world's oldest chemical companies and today a diversified conglomerate, is liable for clean-up costs of old hazardous waste sites. These costs are substantial: reserves grew to nearly $500 million in 1991. Attempting to avoid further... View Details
Keywords: Wastes and Waste Processing; Environmental Sustainability; Programs; Cost Management; Policy; Government Legislation; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Governance Compliance; Legal Liability; Chemical Industry; United States; Europe
Vietor, Richard H.K., and Edward Prewitt. "Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk." Harvard Business School Case 793-044, October 1992. (Revised August 1994.)
- 2021
- Working Paper
The Green Bonding Hypothesis: How Do Green Bonds Enhance the Credibility of Environmental Commitments?
By: Shirley Lu
This paper proposes and provides evidence on a green bonding hypothesis, where green bonds act as a commitment device that subjects firms to institutions holding them accountable to their environmental promises. I find that green-bond issuers face higher climate change... View Details
Keywords: Bonding Hypothesis; Sustainable Finance; Climate Change; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Bonds; Corporate Accountability
Lu, Shirley. "The Green Bonding Hypothesis: How Do Green Bonds Enhance the Credibility of Environmental Commitments?" SSRN Working Paper Series, No. 3898909, December 2021.
- April 2025
- Article
How Central Banks Manage Climate and Energy Transition Risks
By: Esther Shears, Jonas Meckling and Jared Finnegan
Central banks have begun to examine and manage climate risks, including both transition risks of moving from fossil fuels to clean energy and physical climate risks. Here we provide a systematic assessment of how and why central banks address climate risks on the basis... View Details
Shears, Esther, Jonas Meckling, and Jared Finnegan. "How Central Banks Manage Climate and Energy Transition Risks." Nature Energy 10, no. 4 (April 2025): 470–478.
- 25 May 2007
- Working Paper Summaries
Self-Regulatory Institutions for Solving Environmental Problems: Perspectives and Contributions from the Management Literature
Keywords: by Andrew King & Michael W. Toffel
- 20 Oct 2010
- Research & Ideas
HBS Workshop Encourages Corporate Reporting on Environmental and Social Sustainability
financial and accounting professionals, regulators, corporate executives, educators, fund managers and environmental sustainability advocates around the topic, according to the organizer, HBS professor Robert G. Eccles. Eccles, a pioneer... View Details
- 2013
- Case
Travelers Insurance: Focusing on Climate Change and Natural Catastrophe Risk
By: Andrew J. Hoffman
The dilemma Evan Blue faces stems from a report by sustainability advocacy group Ceres that calls on companies to take climate change into consideration in their risk models and develop response strategies. The fictional vice president of Traveler's Insurance is tasked... View Details
Hoffman, Andrew J. "Travelers Insurance: Focusing on Climate Change and Natural Catastrophe Risk." William Davidson Institute Case 1-429-347, 2013.
- April 22, 2021
- Article
Shareholders Are Pressing for Climate Risk Disclosures. That's Good for Everyone
By: Caroline Flammer, Michael W. Toffel and Kala Viswanathan
Does shareholder activism induce firms to voluntarily disclose climate change risks? And how do markets respond to these disclosures? New research finds that the extent of climate-risk disclosure increases by approximately 4.6% for each environment-related proposal... View Details
Keywords: Reporting; Transparency; Activism; Shareholder Activism; Shareholder Engagement; Climate Change; Corporate Disclosure; Investment Activism; Business and Shareholder Relations
Flammer, Caroline, Michael W. Toffel, and Kala Viswanathan. "Shareholders Are Pressing for Climate Risk Disclosures. That's Good for Everyone." Harvard Business Review Digital Articles (April 22, 2021).
- Article
Hurry or Wait: The Pros and Cons of Going Fast or Slow on Climate Change
By: Eleanor Denny and Jurgen Weiss
Climate change risk will likely force the de-carbonization of our electricity sector and thus involve massive investments in long-lived assets using many new and emerging technologies. Since technological progress (independent or dependent on deployment) will likely... View Details
Keywords: Electricity Sector; Environmental Risks; Fat Tails; Greenhouse Gas Emissions; Climate Change; Information Technology; Investment; Technological Innovation; Cost vs Benefits
Denny, Eleanor, and Jurgen Weiss. "Hurry or Wait: The Pros and Cons of Going Fast or Slow on Climate Change." Economists' Voice 12, no. 1 (August 2015): 19–24.
- 30 Jun 2020
- Book
Capitalism Is More at Risk Than Ever
The book Capitalism at Risk first appeared in 2011. The problems it identified with social inequality, global trade strife, and environmental degradation have only accelerated by 2020. The new edition of Capitalism at Risk, subtitled How Business Can Lead, is expanded... View Details
Keywords: by Martha Lagace
- 13 Nov 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
Shareholder Activism and Firms’ Voluntary Disclosure of Climate Change Risks
- June 2010 (Revised October 2014)
- Teaching Note
Enterprise Risk Management at Hydro One (A)
By: Anette Mikes
Teaching Note for 109-001 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
Keywords: Corporate Sustainability; Environmental Strategy; Climate Risk; Target-setting; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Accountability; Policy; Measurement and Metrics; Strategic Planning; Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact
Shih, Willy C., Michael W. Toffel, and Kelsey Carter. "Corporate Climate Targets." Harvard Business School Background Note 624-041, November 2023. (Revised February 2025.)
- Research Summary
Self-environment relationship and its effect on decisions under risk and uncertainty
My research seek to better understand the main cognitive and social abilities that guide our judgments, and the ways they interact with aspects of the situation to shape humans' decisions. It is currently comprised of three related... View Details
- September 2010 (Revised October 2014)
- Teaching Note
Enterprise Risk Management at Hydro One - Multimedia
By: Anette Mikes
Teaching Note for 110-707 View Details
- 2016
- Working Paper
Does Firm Innovation Affect Corporate Social Responsibility?
By: Rui Shen, Yi Tang and Ying Zhang
This study examines the relationship between firm innovation and CSR. Stakeholders’ concern over transaction-specific investments exacerbates when firms engage heavily in innovation activities. To secure stakeholders’ support, firms adopt CSR effectively as an ex ante... View Details
Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility; Firm Innovation; Transaction-specific Investments; Firm Risk; Environmental Munificence; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Innovation and Invention
Shen, Rui, Yi Tang, and Ying Zhang. "Does Firm Innovation Affect Corporate Social Responsibility?" Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 16-096, February 2016.
- 2024
- Article
Financial Constraints and Short-term Planning are Linked to Flood Risk Adaptation Gaps in U.S. cities
By: Shirley Lu and Anya Nakhmurina
Adaptation is critical in reducing the inevitable impact of climate change. Here we study cities’ adaptation to elevated flood risk by introducing a linguistic measure of adaptation extracted from financial disclosures of 431 US cities over 2013–2020. While cities with... View Details
Keywords: City; Natural Disasters; Climate Change; Adaptation; Risk and Uncertainty; Strategic Planning
Lu, Shirley, and Anya Nakhmurina. "Financial Constraints and Short-Term Planning Are Linked to Flood Risk Adaptation Gaps in U.S. Cities." Art. 43. Communications Earth & Environment 5 (2024).
- September 2023 (Revised October 2024)
- Case
Forecasting Climate Risks: Aviva’s Climate Calculus
By: Mark Egan and Peter Tufano
In late 2021, Ben Carr, Director of Analytics and Capital Modeling at Aviva Plc (Aviva)—a leading insurer with core operations in the UK, Ireland and Canada,—was preparing for an upcoming presentation before the company's board which included its CEO, Amanda Blanc,... View Details
Keywords: Climate Risk; Climate Finance; Forecasting; Insurance; Risk Measurement; Climate Change; Risk Management; Forecasting and Prediction; Insurance Industry; United States
Egan, Mark, and Peter Tufano. "Forecasting Climate Risks: Aviva’s Climate Calculus." Harvard Business School Case 224-025, September 2023. (Revised October 2024.)
- 2025
- Working Paper
Climate Risk and the U.S. Insurance Gap: Measurement, Drivers and Implications
By: Parinitha Sastry, Tess Scharlemann, Ishita Sen and Ana-Maria Tenekedjieva
In a world with rising risk, how much are U.S. households willing to pay for homeowners insurance, and what does their demand imply for the future of insurance markets? We provide the first estimates of household willingness to pay for homeowners insurance and the... View Details
Keywords: Climate Change; Risk and Uncertainty; Insurance; Personal Finance; Consumer Behavior; Mortgages
Sastry, Parinitha, Tess Scharlemann, Ishita Sen, and Ana-Maria Tenekedjieva. "The Limits of Insurance Demand and the Growing Protection Gap." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 25-054, February 2025.
- February 2025
- Tutorial
Preparing Business Leaders for an Era of Climate Instability: Understanding and Managing Physical Climate Risk
By: Michael W. Toffel and Spencer Glendon
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... View Details