Publications

July 2018 (Revised August 2018)
Case

Project Helios: Harvesting the Sun

By: Mark Egan and E. Scott Mayfield

Aware of the impact that modern society was having on the environment, Ashley Telkes had always tried to be cognizant of her own impact on the environment and to take reasonable steps to mitigate her own effects. Having already implemented a number of passive measures... View Details

Keywords: Renewable Energy; Personal Finance; Decision Making; Environmental Sustainability

February 10, 2015
Article

Nonprice incentives and Energy Conservation

By: Omar Isaac Asensio and Magali A Delmas

We investigate the effectiveness of nonprice incentives to motivate conservation behavior. We test whether tailored information about environmental and health damages produces behavior change in the residential electricity sector. In a randomized controlled trial with... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Energy Conservation; Environmental Sustainability; Pollutants; Health Disorders; Knowledge Dissemination; Behavior

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April 3, 2023
Article

Getting a Clearer View of Your Company’s Carbon Footprint

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Karthik Ramanna and Stefan Reichelstein

E-liability accounting is a new technique that will help customers factor in a product’s environmental footprint into their purchasing decisions and will help create a competition dynamic that leads to reduced carbon outputs. This article describes two pilot studies—by... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Environmental Accounting; Supply Chain; Consumer Behavior

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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

February 2010
Case

Burt's Bees: Balancing Growth and Sustainability (Multimedia)

By: Christopher Marquis

The case examines sustainability initiatives at Burt's Bees, with video segments that detail the company's history, leadership, and implementation of ambitious 2020 sustainability goals. The company traces its roots to 1984, when Roxanne Quinby and Burt Schavitz teamed... View Details

Keywords: Balance and Stability; Leadership; Problems and Challenges; Business or Company Management; Growth Management; Organizational Culture; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Mergers and Acquisitions; Social Enterprise; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Ethics

14 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Water, Electricity, and Transportation: Preparing for the Population Boom

numbers in mind, several of the planet's top city planning and environmental business experts gathered at Harvard Business School earlier this month to discuss how to support the inevitable population growth. The conference—titled... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

11 Jan 2016
Blog Post

Meet the Business and Environment Initiative

The Business and Environment Initiative (BEI) at HBS launched back in 2010. It was founded in order to educate business leaders about the environmental challenges and opportunities confronting businesses today and to help them design... View Details

Video

What Is the Tragedy of the Commons?

04 Feb 2020
Video

Adi Godrej

Adi Godrej, Chair of the India-based Godrej Group, discusses the role of business and the importance of firms’ engaging in socially responsible projects. He discusses his company’s involvement in educational... View Details

May 2008
Article

Coerced Confessions: Self-Policing in the Shadow of the Regulator

By: Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel

As part of a recent trend toward more cooperative relations between regulators and industry, novel government programs are encouraging firms to monitor their own regulatory compliance and voluntarily report their own violations. In this study, we examine how regulatory... View Details

Keywords: Governance Compliance; Law Enforcement; Corporate Disclosure; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Environmental Sustainability; Programs; Power and Influence; Organizations; Decisions; Business and Government Relations; United States

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2019
White Paper

Impact-Weighted Financial Accounts: The Missing Piece for an Impact Economy

By: George Serafeim, T. Robert Zochowski and Jennifer Downing

Reimagining capitalism is an imperative. We need to create a more inclusive and sustainable form of capitalism that works for every person and the planet. Massive environmental damage, growing income and wealth disparity, stress, and depression within developed... View Details

Keywords: Impact-Weighted Accounts; IWAI; Background; Economic Systems; Economy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Measurement and Metrics; Financial Statements

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2013
Working Paper

Overcoming Organizational Barriers to Waste Heat Recovery

By: Chonnikarn Fern Jira and Deishin Lee

Waste heat recovery is a proven technology for improving energy efficiency and reducing the environmental impact of energy-intensive manufacturing firms. However, evidence suggests that opportunities for recovering waste heat are untapped. By showing how the process... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Energy; Capital Budgeting; Waste Heat Recovery; Manufacturing; Energy Industry; Manufacturing Industry

04 Jun 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Coming Clean and Cleaning Up: Is Voluntary Disclosure a Signal of Effective Self-Policing?

Keywords: by Michael W. Toffel & Jodi L. Short

05 Jun 2019
Working Paper Summaries

How Transparency into Internal and External Responsibility Initiatives Influences Consumer Choice

Keywords: by Ryan W. Buell and Basak Kalkanci

February 2006 (Revised November 2012)
Case

Corporate Responsibility & Community Engagement at the Tintaya Copper Mine (A)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Brooke Barton and Ezequiel Reficco

Located in the highlands of Peru, the Tintaya copper mine has long been a source of intense conflict between local community members and mine operators. The mine, which was owned and managed first by the Peruvian state and later by BHP Billiton, stands on 2,300... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Multinational Firms and Management; Agreements and Arrangements; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Community Relations; Non-Governmental Organizations; Conflict Management; Mining Industry; Australia; Peru

Article

Corporate Social Responsibility and Access to Finance

By: Beiting Cheng, Ioannis Ioannou and George Serafeim

In this paper, we investigate whether superior performance on corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies leads to better access to finance. We hypothesize that better access to finance can be attributed to a) reduced agency costs due to enhanced stakeholder... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility; Sustainability; Capital Constraints; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Stakeholder Engagement; Disclosure; Corporate Disclosure; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Capital

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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