Publications

28 Apr 2020
Cold Call Podcast

Is the Healthiest Building in the World Worth the Rent?

Keywords: Re: John D. Macomber; Real Estate

March 1996 (Revised January 2002)
Case

Freeport Indonesia

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

In 1996, PT Freeport Indonesia, the mining subsidiary of Freeport McMoRan, had just completed an expansion of its copper and gold mine in the western half of New Guinea. The mine, which had dealt with numerous environmental and sociocultural problems over the past... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Mining; Environmental Sustainability; Business Strategy; Expansion; Social Issues; Mining Industry; Indonesia

September 1991 (Revised August 1996)
Case

Procter & Gamble Co., The: Lenor Refill Package

By: John A. Quelch

The assistant brand manager for Lenor, Procter & Gamble Germany's fabric softener brand, was preparing a presentation on the national launch of an environmentally friendly refill package. View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Environmental Sustainability; Product Launch; Brands and Branding; Consumer Products Industry; Germany; United States

03 Jan 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Financing the Response to Climate Change: The Pricing and Ownership of US Green Bonds

Keywords: by Malcolm Baker, Daniel Bergstresser, George Serafeim, and Jeffrey Wurgler

04 May 2021
Working Paper Summaries

Accounting for Product Impact in the Telecommunications Industry

Keywords: by George Serafeim and Katie Trinh; Telecommunications

28 Apr 2022
Blog Post

Harvard Team Wins Second Place in MIINT Impact Investing Competition

Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School joined together in teams of 5-6 students, sourced investments in high-impact startups, and conducted due diligence on the business opportunity, financial returns, and social and View Details

04 Feb 2020
Video

Gülsüm Azeri

Gülsüm Azeri, CEO of OMV Petrol Ofisi, a leading Turkish petroleum company, describes how how she took the very costly decision to change the environmentally hazardous production process for sodium bichromate. View Details

May 1999 (Revised November 2000)
Case

AES Global Values

By: Lynn S. Paine

Members of the development team for the AES Corp.'s power plant project in India must decide what plant technology to specify in their application for techno-economic clearance from the government of India's Central Electric Authority. Their choice is between more... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Energy Generation; Technology Adoption; Energy Industry; India; United States

14 Aug 2007
First Look

First Look: August 14, 2007

that were not litigated offer empirical evidence supporting the hypotheses. Purchase this case: http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=407001 Cradle-to-Cradle Design at Herman Miller: Moving Toward Environmental... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

30 Nov 2018
What Do You Think?

What’s the Best Administrative Approach to Climate Change?

Summing Up: Should a 'Montreal Protocol' for Administering Global Warming Be Pursued? Climate change and how to manage it is a daunting subject. Nevertheless, several readers of this month’s column were willing to venture a model or two for administering a system... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Energy

February 2023
Supplement

Graphic Packaging: Project Cowboy (A) Courseware

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Scott Mayfield

In July 2019, Graphic Packaging CEO Michael Doss was proposing a $600 million investment in a new machine to produce coated recycled board (CRB), a type of paper packaging used for consumer products (cups, cereal boxes, beverage boxes, etc.) that utilized recycled... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Growth Management; Demand and Consumers; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Expansion; Value Creation; Supply and Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States; North America

January 2024 (Revised May 2024)
Case

PortageBay and ESG Analytics

By: Vikram S. Gandhi and Radhika Kak

In 2023, sustainable investors faced several challenges. The first was the lack of access to standardized and vetted environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data, and equally, the interpretation of this data into investment-useful insights. Reducing reliance on... View Details

Keywords: ESG Ratings; Investment Funds; Governance; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

01 Nov 2019
Blog Post

Confronting Climate Change in the Classroom and Beyond

From the RC’s Finance I discussion on international carbon finance and EcoSecurities, to electives such as Sustainable Cities and Resilient Infrastructure, to cases such as “Climate change: Paris, and the road ahead,” Harvard Business... View Details

26 Jan 2018
HBS Seminar

John Helveston, Boston University

January 2007 (Revised November 2007)
Case

Organic Growth at Wal-Mart

By: Jan W. Rivkin and Troy Smith

In 2005, an executive vice president at Wal-Mart must decide whether to expand the retailer's selection of organic food. The decision is made in the context of wider attempts to move the giant retailer slightly upscale and to focus on environmental sustainability. View Details

Keywords: Food; Growth and Development Strategy; Product; Business Processes; Environmental Sustainability; Expansion; Retail Industry; United States

2021
Working Paper

Shareholder Activism and Firms’ Voluntary Disclosure of Climate Change Risks

By: Caroline Flammer, Michael W. Toffel and Kala Viswanathan

This paper examines whether—in the absence of mandated disclosure requirements—shareholder activism can elicit greater disclosure of firms’ exposure to climate change risks. We find that environmental shareholder activism increases the voluntary disclosure of climate... View Details

Keywords: Shareholder Activism; Climate Risk; Corporate Accountability; Climate Change; Corporate Disclosure; Corporate Governance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Shareholder Relations; Risk and Uncertainty; Natural Environment; Environmental Sustainability; Financial Services Industry; United States

SSRN

Read Now

September 1993 (Revised October 1994)
Case

Environment and International Trade

By: Forest L. Reinhardt

During the 1990s, environmental activists became interested in trade issues for the first time. Whereas GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, had previously been the province of trade specialists, a new poster popular among environmentalists depicted the... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Environmental Sustainability; Science-Based Business; Policy; Government and Politics; Agreements and Arrangements; Alliances; Globalization; International Relations; Conflict of Interests