Publications

26 Mar 2013
First Look

First Look: March 26

negatively related to the profitability of both Japanese and American firms, although the effect is less negative in Japan. We finally find that the adoption of cost orientation does not have an impact on the profitability of both... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Jul 2023
Blog Post

Harvard Innovation Labs: Where Passion and Purpose Meet

Heinz Professor of Management Practice in Environmental Management, Retired, and Srikant Datar, the George F. Baker Professor of Administration and Dean of the Faculty, served as faculty chairs. This mission-driven educational ecosystem... View Details

28 Jan 2020
Book

Advanced Leadership Requires More Than Outside-The-Box Thinking

ever seen before that challenges conventional wisdom and poses new approaches to big social or environmental issues. Leaders must continuously make adjustments, review premises, bring the flexibility to pivot if necessary, and find the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

2024
Working Paper

Principles and Content for Downstream Emissions Disclosures

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Karthik Ramanna

In a previous paper, we proposed the E-liability carbon accounting algorithm for companies to measure and subsequently reduce their own and their suppliers’ emissions. Some investors and stakeholders, however, want companies to also be accountable for downstream... View Details

Keywords: Carbon Emissions; Disclosure; Carbon Footprint; Climate Change; Measurement and Metrics; Corporate Disclosure; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

Read Now

01 Sep 2023
News

Made in Italy

HBS faculty members and students visited Lamborghini’s headquarters in Bologna during the immersion to learn how the company became experts in electric car technology. Photo courtesy Lamborghini IMMERSIVE FIELD COURSES OFFERED AS ELECTIVES IN 2023 Denmark and... View Details

Keywords: April White

2022
Working Paper

How Do Investors Value ESG?

By: Malcolm Baker, Mark Egan and Suproteem K. Sarkar

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives have risen to near the top of the agenda for corporate executives and boards, driven in large part by their perceptions of shareholder interest. We quantify the value that shareholders place on ESG using a revealed... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Investment Portfolio; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Shareholder Relations; Environmental Sustainability; Governance; Financial Services Industry; United States

May 2024 (Revised June 2024)
Case

Together for Sustainability

By: Ranjay Gulati, David Shin and Emily Tedards

This case documents the origin and development of Together for Sustainability (TfS), a chemical industry initiative dedicated to raising sustainability standards throughout the industry’s supply chains. In 2011, six Chief Procurement Officers (CPOs) from some of the... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Standards; Supply Chain Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Partners and Partnerships; Nonprofit Organizations; Corporate Accountability; Chemical Industry

Web

HBS - Key Metrics

Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Reporting Program. The GHG inventory consists of direct emissions from onsite fuel combustion (Scope 1) and indirect emissions from purchased electricity (Scope 2) sources. In addition to the reduced occupancy View Details

December 2012 (Revised August 2013)
Case

Nestlé: Agricultural Material Sourcing Within the Concept of Creating Shared Value (CSV)

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Lorin A. Fries

Corporate Head of Agriculture Hans Jöhr's mind raced in anticipation of the executive board meeting that afternoon. Jöhr recognized the meeting as a key opportunity to strategize far into the future, reexamining how his team's efforts in sustainable agricultural... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Value Creation; Quality; Supply Chain Management; Social Issues; Environmental Sustainability; Problems and Challenges; Growth and Development Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Health Industry

October 2020 (Revised February 2024)
Case

Divesting Harvard's Endowment

By: Daniel Green, Luis M. Viceira and Holly Fetter

By early 2020 Harvard University was facing growing pressure from students, faculty, and alumni to divest its $40 billion endowment of financial stakes in fossil fuel producers. Its previous policy of avoiding the issue was quickly becoming outdated—$21 trillion of... View Details

Keywords: Divestment; Harvard University; ESG; Higher Education; Investment Portfolio; Environmental Sustainability; Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

Web

Career Support - Business & Environment

MBA Experience Career Support 2ms Opportunities to make a difference in major environmental challenges If you aspire to make a positive impact on the world, there are many opportunities to do so through a... View Details

18 Nov 2002
Research & Ideas

Where Morals and Profits Meet: The Corporate Value Shift

conflicts of interest, myriad examples of bribery and extortion, unfair and predatory competition, theft and misappropriation of information, civic and environmental irresponsibility. Unfortunately, we have no reliable gauge of how the... View Details

Keywords: by Carla Tishler

23 Mar 2023
Blog Post

Arla Foods: How Sustainable Can A Dairy Company Be?

takeaway is the difficulty of embedding sustainability when there is an inherent tension in the business model—in this case growing their cow-based business while reducing inherent environmental impacts like... View Details

September 2023
Article

Stock Price Reactions to ESG News: The Role of ESG Ratings and Disagreement

By: George Serafeim and Aaron Yoon

We investigate whether ESG ratings predict future ESG news and the associated market reactions. We find that the consensus rating predicts future news, but its predictive ability diminishes for firms with large disagreement between raters. Relation between news and... View Details

SSRN

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Web

Electricity - Business & Environment

especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change: hurricanes, wildfires, and sea level rise pose immense risks for the reliable delivery of electricity. As one example, restoring electric power in Puerto Rico following Hurricane... View Details

March 2020 (Revised May 2020)
Case

Generation Investment Management

By: Vikram S. Gandhi and Sarah Mehta

By January 2020, sustainable investment firm Generation Investment Management (Generation), founded in London in 2004, had grown from a shared vision among seven founders to a 90-person firm managing $27 billion in public and private equity. Throughout its history,... View Details

2024
Working Paper

When Batteries Meet Hydrogen: Dual-Storage Investments for Load-Shifting Purposes

By: Christian Kaps and Simone Marinesi

Power systems account for nearly 40% of global emissions. As the world tries to reduce emissions by increasing renewable penetration, storage technologies are playing an increasingly important role in matching variable renewable supply with demand. Batteries have... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Renewable Energy; Transition; Utilities Industry; Battery Industry