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About - Business & Environment

materials about business & environment More on Curriculum Leadership Michael Toffel Faculty Chair; Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management Professor Michael Toffel has been interested in how companies can reduce their... View Details

07 Jul 2009
First Look

First Look: July 7

corporate environmental ratings that guide investors to select "socially responsible," and avoid "socially irresponsible," companies. We examine how several hundred firms respond to corporate View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

6 Jul 2021
Interview

Best Buy's Hubert Joly on Walking the Talk of Stakeholder Capitalism

By: Hubert Joly and Alison Beard

Hubert Joly, former chairman and CEO of Best Buy, says that now is the time for companies to get serious about operating to benefit not just shareholders but also employees, customers and broader society. In the face of environmental crisis, racial turmoil, and rising... View Details

Keywords: Stakeholder Capitalism; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Mission and Purpose; Leadership; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

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Creating Shared Value - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

HBS ISC Creating Shared Value CSV Creating Shared Value CSV Explained Emerging Topics CSV in Practice Published CSV Cases Creating Shared Value Capitalism is suffering from a crisis of trust. Today’s businesses take the blame for many of society’s economic, social and... View Details

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MBA Experience - Business & Environment

MBA Experience Take advantage of environmentally related academic, career, extracurricular & entrepreneurial opportunities. Curriculum A list of our environmentally-related elective courses, first-year cases, cross-registration courses,... View Details

July 2017
Case

A Green Forest Grows in Brooklyn: Joint Venturing with the Chinese

By: Charles F. Wu

MaryAnne Gilmartin, President and CEO of Forest City Ratner (“Forest City”) was planning for yet another protracted discussion over the merits of a green roof for part of her $5 billion dollar new development in Brooklyn. While the low seven-figure cost overrun was to... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate Development; Real Estate; EB-5; Sustainability; Promote; Waterfall; Joint Ventures; Environmental Sustainability; Relationships; Real Estate Industry; China

09 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

Could Clean Hydrogen Become Affordable at Scale by 2030?

Hydrogen is poised to move from the sidelines of global clean energy as the industry learns to produce it more efficiently and at lower cost, according to newly published research led by Gunther Glenk, a climate fellow with Harvard Business School's Institute for the... View Details

Keywords: by Desmond Dodd; Energy; Green Technology

December 2004 (Revised February 2005)
Case

Cheetah Conservation Fund Bush Project, The

Laurie Marker, head of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, is trying to form a for-profit institution, the Bush Project, to control the bush encroachment problem in Namibia. Bush encroachment not only destroys the general ecosystem, but it also has a harmful impact on the... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; For-Profit Firms; Emerging Markets; Environmental Sustainability; Financial Strategy; Africa

13 Jan 2023
Research & Ideas

Are Companies Actually Greener—or Are They All Talk?

Most companies now account for social good in their financial reports in some way, but with regulation scattershot and evolving, it’s complicated for investors to assess so-called ESG reports. The disclosures, known as Environmental, Social, and Governance reports,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

Research Summary

Overview

My research is at the intersection of organizational strategy, global sustainability governance, and social change. It explores the diffusion of sustainability standards to non-traditional sectors (e.g. jewelry, cannabis, plastics, pets) and the relationship between... View Details

21 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

People Trust Business, But Expect CEOs to Drive Social Change

Public trust in business remains relatively unshaken amid economic turbulence and a lingering pandemic, even as faith in the media and government falters, but leaders could do more to address social issues, a new global opinion survey shows. However, not everyone... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

November 2023 (Revised June 2025)
Case

Aviva plc: Examining Net Zero

By: Peter Tufano, Brian Trelstad and Matteo Gasparini

The board of Aviva Plc, one of the world’s largest insurers, must review its climate risk exposures and evaluate next steps. Risk experts at the firm have conducted a robust set of analyses prepared for its regulator, the Bank of England, simulating how various climate... View Details

Keywords: Analysis; Climate Change; Insurance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Risk Management; Adaptation; Financial Services Industry; Insurance Industry; Europe; United Kingdom

July 2019 (Revised November 2022)
Case

Momofuku Ando and the Globalization of Noodles

By: Geoffrey Jones and Megumi Takada

This case examines the entrepreneurial career of Momofuku Ando, the Taiwanese-born Japanese entrepreneur who pioneered instant boodles with his Chicken Ramen (1958) and Cup Noodle (1971) products. It begins by reviewing his many previous unsuccessful ventures,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Failure; Success; Globalization; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Food and Beverage Industry; Japan

Web

Latin America - Global

expanding equity ownership, poverty alleviation, and fostering deeper community collaborations. October 2024 EVENT Entrepreneurship Event in Mexico City LARC hosted a breakfast in Mexico City, bringing together a diverse group of social View Details

October 2021 (Revised May 2023)
Case

Project Maji: Pricing Water in Sub-Saharan Africa

By: Elie Ofek, Marco Bertini, Dilyana Karadzhova Botha and Esel Çekin

In July 2021, Sunil Lalvani, founder and CEO of Project Maji, a non-profit social enterprise headquartered in Dubai that had already provided sustainable, clean water solutions to 80,000 people living in rural communities across Ghana and Kenya, was facing an important... View Details

Keywords: Water; Pricing; Nonprofit Organizations; Projects; Price; Decision Making; Social Enterprise; Growth and Development Strategy; Equity; Green Technology; Social and Collaborative Networks; Africa; Dubai

October 7, 2021
Article

Carbon Might Be Your Company’s Biggest Financial Liability

By: Robert G. Eccles and John Mulliken

The price of carbon may be zero in many places today, but it’s unlikely to remain zero for long. That means that many companies have hidden liabilities on their books. To cover their carbon short position, executives can take several steps: Measure the position in... View Details

Keywords: Climate Risk; Climate Finance; Risk Management; Governance; Environmental Accounting; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability

2018
Book

Business and the Natural Environment: A Research Overview

By: Andrew J. Hoffman and Susse Georg

The fields of corporate environmentalism, green business and corporate sustainability have grown significantly over the past twenty-five years, such that the academic research domains of business decision-making, accounting, organizational behaviour, and the protection... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Environmental Regulation; Research

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2018
Book

Re-engaging with Sustainability in the Anthropocene Era

By: Andrew J. Hoffman and P. Devereaux Jennings

Re-engaging with Sustainability in the Anthropocene Era applies organization theory to a grand challenge: our entry into the Anthropocene era, a period marked not only by human impact on climate change, but on chemical waste, habitat destruction, and despeciation. It... View Details

Keywords: Organization Theory; Environmental Management; Policy; Social Issues; Social Entrepreneurship; Pollutants

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