Natural Resources - Publications - Faculty & Research

2020
Working Paper

Measuring the Cost of Corporate Water Usage

By: DG Park, George Serafeim and T. Robert Zochowski

We develop a methodology that calculates the impact that organizations have on the environment through their water consumption relating to water stress risk. Using the methodology, we derive estimates for four companies that show how assumptions on the geographic... View Details

Keywords: Water; Water Management; Environment; Sustainability; Environmental Impact; Impact-Weighted Accounts; IWAI; Organizations; Environmental Sustainability; Valuation

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2021
Working Paper

Two Case Studies on the Financing of Forest Conservation

By: Andrew Baxter, Connor Cash, Josh Lerner and Ratnika Prasad

A variety of factors is leading to fresh approaches to the ownership and management of forestland, with an emphasis on the combination of conservation goals and private investments. But the barriers to successfully achieving attractive financial returns and desirable... View Details

Keywords: Financing; Forestry; Environmental Management; Natural Resources; Financing and Loans

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11 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

Non-competes Push Talent Away

non-compete status in Michigan, they discovered a natural test bed, thanks to an inadvertent policy change. In 1905, during the initial automotive industry boom, Michigan passed Public Act No. 329, which prohibited "all agreements and... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Technology

17 Sep 2024
HBS Case

The Climate Targets Leaders Need to Know as Regulations Loom

As investor pressure mounts on companies to show their environmental impacts, leaders are encountering an unwieldy tangle of terms and approaches. Climate accounting basics and a dictionary of sorts can help demystify the calculations and voluntary targets that... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

14 Apr 2008
Research & Ideas

The Surprising Right Fit for Software Testing

If there is one job that many software analysts and programmers cannot stand, it is testing software on the path to launch. The grinding concentration and repetitive nature of the tasks serve to drive many techies around the bend.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Video Game; Web Services; Computer

30 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

Tuning Jobs to Fit Your Company

questions: "What resources do I control to accomplish my tasks?" "What measures will be used to evaluate my performance?" "Who do I need to interact with and influence to achieve my goals?" "How much... View Details

Keywords: by Robert Simons

19 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Designing Cities for a Sustainable Future

On a June day in Manhattan with temperatures heading into the 90s, a straphanger named Mike is taking his customary subway ride to work. People are grumbling about the heat, but hey, it's summer, it's supposed to be hot, and besides, "Whaddya gonna do?" New Yorkers... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Construction; Real Estate

23 May 2011
Op-Ed

Leading and Lagging Countries in Contributing to a Sustainable Society

more holistic view regarding financial, natural, and human resource allocation decisions, and the interdependencies between them. It also means taking a longer-term view, since improved financial performance from better use of View Details

Keywords: by Robert G. Eccles & George Serafeim

01 Feb 2001
News

Drilling Down

optimism could be considered another prerequisite for entry in an unpredictable industry that has surfaced only recently from a twenty-year depression. "The overall return is inadequate for the risk," concedes Kaiser, "yet the very nature... View Details

Keywords: Hanna, Julia; Matthew R. Simmons; Natural Gas Distribution; Natural Gas Distribution; Natural Gas Distribution; Natural Gas Distribution

15 Feb 2016
Research & Ideas

Want Your Employees to Plan Better for Retirement? Don't Do This

builds employee loyalty and bolsters company reputation, but requires effective tools to carry out. Beshears’s research sheds important light on the presumed efficacy of social norms marketing in the investment context and is applicable to a range of other human View Details

Keywords: Re: John Beshears; Financial Services

James R. Moffett

the discovery and exploration of natural resource deposits around the world, especially the Grasberg gold mine in Papua, Indonesia. As CEO, Moffett oversaw a massive growth plan for the combined entities and... View Details

Keywords: Agriculture & Mining

12 Jan 2009
Research & Ideas

The Value of a ‘Portable’ Career

League in the MIT Sloan Management Review. "As research on the National Football League reveals, sometimes the specific nature of a job determines whether a great performer at one company can replicate that performance at another," they... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Sports

02 Nov 2016
What Do You Think?

Are Employees Becoming Job 'Renters' Instead of 'Owners'?

Summing Up: Is Job Ownership Nature or Nurture? Employees increasingly are becoming “job renters.” For some, it is a disturbing trend. It doesn’t have to happen. And the phenomenon isn’t universal. These observations by respondents to... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

November 2011 (Revised January 2014)
Teaching Note

FIJI Water: Carbon Negative?

By: Michael W. Toffel and Francesca Gino

Keywords: Energy; Pollutants

Citation

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19 Mar 2006
Research & Ideas

Do I Dare Say Something?

enterprises as well. In this e-mail interview, Edmondson and Detert discuss their research and how managers can create environments that encourage and support "upward voice." Their paper is called "Latent Voice Episodes: The Situation-Specific View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

01 Feb 2008
What Do You Think?

How Sustainable Is Sustainability in a For-Profit Organization?

future. Gerald Nanninga, for example, commented that "If we deplete resources too quickly, the shortage of supply ... will make conservation issues more financially viable." Some felt that the free market might need some help.... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

23 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Are Great Teams Less Productive?

individual, or a work group, or an entire organization. Q: Is there a natural relationship between learning and performance? How and when does it become problematic and create tension? A: There is a natural... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

11 Jan 2016
Blog Post

Meet the Business and Environment Initiative

environment; educate MBAs on the value of natural resources and the opportunities of environmental innovations; inform and engage alumni to leverage their expertise relating to environmental issues; and... View Details

07 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Market Investors Pay More for Resilient Companies

The steep market drop in the early days of the COVID-19 crisis is being used as a laboratory to study the importance of companies investing in stakeholder relations with their employees, suppliers, and customers, and how those investments could be strategic resources... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Financial Services