Environmental Operations - Publications - Faculty & Research

12 Nov 2021
News

Alumni Business Leaders on Confronting the Climate Change Challenge

world has ever seen. The current climate crisis is far beyond an environmental issue—it is an existential crisis. Moreover, it converges with—and exacerbates—the crises we face in biodiversity, global health, and social justice. As... View Details

2018
Dictionary Entry

Communicating about Climate Change with Corporate Leaders and Stakeholders

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

Within the corporate sector, climate change represents an unfolding market shift, one that is driven by policy but also by pressures from a variety of market constituents such as consumers, suppliers, buyers, insurance companies, banks, and others. The shift takes... View Details

Keywords: Adaptation; Climate Change; Transition; Innovation Strategy; Markets

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19 Sep 2016
Research & Ideas

Why Isn't Business Research More Relevant to Business Practitioners?

the Practical Relevance of Research, forthcoming in Production and Operations Management. “This is my soapbox message to academics: be more relevant,” says Toffel, the Senator John Heinz Professor of View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Education

January 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Colbún and Chile’s Energy Transition

By: Forest Reinhardt, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Mariana Cal

In May 2023, Colbún, Chile’s second-largest electricity generator, plans capacity expansions using renewable energy and storage. This strategy supports Chile’s commitment to carbon neutrality (also known as net zero emissions) by 2050. The case delves into the... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Energy Generation; Renewable Energy; Climate Change; Investment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Infrastructure; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Expansion; Business Strategy; Energy Industry; Utilities Industry; Latin America; South America; Chile

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Industry Information - Alumni

operates a separate paid version of their free public database called Crunchbase Pro. Fast Company Launched in November 1995 by Alan Webber and Bill Taylor, two former Harvard Business Review editors, Fast Company magazine tends focus on... View Details

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Harvard Business School

assistant buyer and rose to overseeing buying in Europe and Asia. He was one of the first Black executives at Macy's. Wilkinson later moved to the New York City Transit Authority, becoming executive officer for surface transit with View Details

24 Jun 2021
Blog Post

Celebrating the Past, Crafting the Future Part 2: The First HBS/HKS Class

regulation,” said Gupta. “At the same time, the MBA toolkit of leadership, running a business (interpreting accounts, evaluating investments, hiring, etc.), and decision-making has been really helpful in starting and operating... View Details

30 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

Real Estate: The Most Imperfect Asset

harder. It also means the day-to-day business may be less fun. Further, as in all evolving industries, the risks are not apparently clear in this new world of securitization. The second main trend has been in the environmental arena from... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston; Construction; Real Estate

01 Mar 2023
News

Step Change

At Consoleya, a coworking space in Cairo’s former French Consulate, multiple levels of meeting rooms and workspaces operate at capacity, from a ground-floor café to a rooftop deck. The scene—coders bent over laptops, concepts scrawled on... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; photographed by Abdelrahman Gabr – Koree; entrepreneurship; women; venture capital; Egypt; developing economies; Finance

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Frequently Asked Questions | HBS Online

Digital certificates are issued within weeks of course completion. Sustainability : Shifting to digital-first delivery helps reduce our environmental impact. Flexibility : You can choose the certificate format that best suits your needs.... View Details

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2024 Reunion Presentations - Alumni

a software company that encourages households to reduce their energy consumption. From Opower's earliest days, its managers utilized experiments to amplify their environmental impact and enhance customer value. We will revisit some of... View Details

Person Page

Course Development

By: Debora L. Spar

Managing International Trade and Investment

Despite the ease with which it is often conducted, doing business across borders is not the same as doing it at home. Rather, it entails a whole new set of managerial challenges: re-assessing competitive... View Details

01 Dec 2018
News

Combating Climate Change

problems. Supply chains will be disrupted. There will be new conflicts over water, resources, and human migration. The very physical integrity of factories and buildings will be threatened. So what can businesses do? For most firms, View Details

01 Dec 2019
News

Shaping Leaders Who Understand Business and the Environment

Michael Toffel, the Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management and chair of the Business and Environment Initiative Five years ago, as George Serafeim recalls, if he had walked into the classroom on the first day and... View Details

Keywords: April White

01 Dec 2017
News

The Business Case (Or Not) for Sustainability

Image by John Ritter Is there a business case to be made for companies to act in environmentally friendly ways? Rebecca Henderson: If one can imagine that all business in the entire world was run by one person, it’d be pretty... View Details

05 Jun 2013
Op-Ed

Corporate Leaders Need to Step Up on Climate Change

governments can provide, firms serious about addressing it have a critical role well beyond greening their own operations. They must spur government action. But few are. "Green business" as currently practiced focuses on limited View Details

Keywords: by Michael Toffel & Auden Schendler

01 May 2020
In Practice

COVID-19’s Hard Lessons Might Prepare Business for Climate Change

The coronavirus pandemic caught the business world by surprise, but the catastrophe might force companies to face a crisis that has been unfolding in plain sight: climate change. We asked faculty members affiliated with the Business and Environment Initiative at... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

Student-Profile

Kala Viswanathan

cohesive.” Research Building on the professional experience she gained before joining the Technology and Operations Management program, Kala’s research focuses on the intersection of business strategy and View Details

15 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

Going Green Makes Good Business Sense

business is simplistic, said Reinhardt. Companies always operate based on imperfect information about their competitive arena. To succeed as a viable concern with an environmental conscience, "you have... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

01 Sep 2011
News

The City Solution

mitigation. And because cities are discovering that the greener they are, the better their quality of life and the greater their competitive advantage, they have by necessity become innovative, reality-based drivers of environmental... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Administration of Environmental Quality Programs; Administration of Environmental Quality Programs; Administration of Environmental Quality Programs; Administration of Environmental Quality Programs

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