Publications

June 2023 (Revised February 2024)
Case

Betting on Green Steel

By: George Serafeim and Sofoklis Melissovas

'Betting on Green Steel' traces the innovative journey embarked upon by a group of MBA students who have set out to conceive a novel steelmaker that pioneers the production of green steel. The ensemble is confronted with a series of critical choices that will shape the... View Details

Keywords: Decarbonization; Sustainability Management; Technology; Industrialization; Climate Risk; Energy; Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Technology Adoption; Climate Change; Innovation and Invention; Business Strategy; Family Business; Steel Industry; Middle East; India

Educators

Fall 2013
Article

Engaging Supply Chains in Climate Change

By: Chonnikarn Fern Jira and Michael W. Toffel

Suppliers are increasingly being asked to share information about their vulnerability to climate change and their strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Their responses vary widely. We theorize and empirically identify several factors associated with suppliers... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Sharing; Motivation and Incentives; Risk Management; Climate Change; Supply Chain Management; Environmental Sustainability

Find at Harvard

24 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

Tackling Climate Change Will Cost Less Than We Think

No one knows how much it will cost to keep the risks of significant climate disruption to a reasonable level. One commonly cited estimate puts the cost at roughly 1 percent of world GDP a year, or about $840... View Details

Keywords: by Rebecca Henderson; Energy; Utilities

15 Mar 2017
Lessons from the Classroom

More Than 900 Examples of How Climate Change Affects Business

This word cloud is composed of blog posts by more than 900 students describing how individual organizations are likely to be affected by climate change. Image by Patrick Clapp Last fall, first-year MBA students at Harvard Business School received a new assignment in... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Green Technology

2023
Working Paper

When Insurers Exit: Climate Losses, Fragile Insurers, and Mortgage Markets

By: Pari Sastry, Ishita Sen and Ana-Maria Tenekedjieva

This paper studies how homeowners insurance markets respond to growing climate losses and how this impacts mortgage market dynamics. Using Florida as a case study, we show that traditional insurers are exiting high risk areas, and new lower quality insurers are... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Natural Disasters; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Insurance Industry; Florida

SSRN

2020
Chapter

Climate Change Is Going to Transform Where and How We Build

By: John D. Macomber

As fires, floods, and droughts increasingly threaten homes, businesses, and other institutions, climate risk has become financial risk. This implies that homeowners and investors have been making location decisions without properly pricing the cost of potential peril,... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Housing; Mortgages; Geographic Location; Real Estate Industry

24 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

The ABCs of Addressing Climate Change (From a Business Perspective)

Change What role should business leaders play in trying to affect climate change? Harvard Business School faculty share their thoughts. A: Actuarial Thinking. Assessing probabilities and portfolio risk is... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber; Energy; Utilities

30 Apr 2020
Book

Fighting Climate Change Requires a New Capitalism

Rebecca Henderson spent her young adult years living two lives. At work, she preached the risks of resisting change to MBA students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, drawing on lessons she learned while watching factories close as a management consultant.... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Energy

07 Sep 2019
Op-Ed

Even for Non-Believers, These Are the Next Steps on Climate Change

More Than 900 Examples of How Climate Change Affects Business The Business of Saving the Planet What do you think are the next steps to prepare for the risk of climate change?... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber

June 2010 (Revised October 2014)
Teaching Note

Enterprise Risk Management at Hydro One (A)

By: Anette Mikes

Teaching Note for 109-001 View Details

Keywords: SWOT Analysis; Risk Management; Climate Change; Renewable Energy; Technology Adoption; Strategy; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Perspective; Goals and Objectives; Capital Budgeting; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Energy Industry

30 Jun 2020
Book

Capitalism Is More at Risk Than Ever

The book Capitalism at Risk first appeared in 2011. The problems it identified with social inequality, global trade strife, and environmental degradation have only accelerated by 2020. The new edition of Capitalism at Risk, subtitled How... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

07 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

The Case for Combating Climate Change with Nuclear Power and Fracking

and today we are each making a de facto decision through our collective inaction. But even the wealthy need to do some soul-searching. If the upper extremes of potential climate changes materialize, I no, we don't know what will happen.... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Energy; Utilities

2024
Article

Financial Constraints and Short-term Planning are Linked to Flood Risk Adaptation Gaps in U.S. cities

By: Shirley Lu and Anya Nakhmurina

Adaptation is critical in reducing the inevitable impact of climate change. Here we study cities’ adaptation to elevated flood risk by introducing a linguistic measure of adaptation extracted from financial disclosures of 431 US cities over 2013–2020. While cities with... View Details

Keywords: City; Natural Disasters; Climate Change; Adaptation; Risk and Uncertainty; Strategic Planning

September 2010 (Revised October 2014)
Teaching Note

Enterprise Risk Management at Hydro One - Multimedia

By: Anette Mikes

Teaching Note for 110-707 View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Climate Change; Adoption; Perspective; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Goals and Objectives; Strategic Planning; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Renewable Energy; Capital Budgeting; Managerial Roles; Problems and Challenges; Energy Industry

2021
Article

Decarbonizing Everything

By: Alex Cheema-Fox, Bridget LaPerla, George Serafeim, David Turkington and Hui (Stacie) Wang

We analyze how the use of different climate risk measures leads to different portfolio carbon outcomes and risk-adjusted returns. Our findings are synthesized in a rules-based investment framework, which selects a different type of climate metric across industries and... View Details

Keywords: Climate Risk; ESG; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; ESG Disclosure; ESG Disclosure Metrics; ESG Ratings; Investing; Investing For Impact; Investment Strategy; Environment; Decarbonization; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Environmental Management; Environmental Accounting; Investment; Strategy; Investment Portfolio; Investment Return

SSRN

Find at Harvard

01 Oct 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Responding to Public and Private Politics: Corporate Disclosure of Climate Change Strategies

Keywords: by Erin M. Reid & Michael W. Toffel

September 20, 2024
Article

It’s Time to Unbundle ESG

By: Aaron K. Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel

ESG is at an inflection point. It has come to represent a broad and inchoate aspiration for what business should be doing beyond maximizing shareholder value. With ESG advocates on the defensive, business leaders need a new roadmap to determine which factors to... View Details

Keywords: ESG; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; ESG Ratings; ESG Reporting; ESG Disclosure; Sustainability; Climate; Climate Finance; Climate Risk; Social Accounting; Investment; Governance; Safety; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Financial Services Industry