Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(421)
- Faculty Publications (121)
- September 2009 (Revised September 2010)
- Case
Genzyme Center (A)
By: Michael W. Toffel and Aldo Sesia
Genzyme Corporation is in the midst of planning its new corporate headquarters, which incorporates many innovative green building features. After learning that the building as planned would likely earn a LEED Silver rating, an intermediate score in the LEED green... View Details
Keywords: Green Building; LEED Rating System; Economic And Environmental Performance; Program Evaluation And Assessment; Tradeoffs Between Process- And Performance Standards; Buildings and Facilities; Business Headquarters; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Standards; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Improvement; Environmental Sustainability; Pollutants; Green Technology Industry
- July 2009 (Revised January 2014)
- Case
Sustainability at Millipore
By: Michael W. Toffel and Katharine Lee
This case describes Millipore Corporation's approach to becoming a more environmentally sustainable company. As he prepared for his quarterly meeting with the CEO, the Director of Sustainability needed to develop positions on several issues. Tactically, he needed to... View Details
- Article
How Well Do Social Ratings Actually Measure Corporate Social Responsibility?
By: Aaron K. Chatterji, David I. Levine and Michael W. Toffel
Ratings of corporations' environmental activities and capabilities influence billions of dollars of "socially responsible" investments as well as some consumers, activists, and potential employees. In one of the first studies to assess these ratings, we examine how... View Details
- November 2008 (Revised March 2009)
- Case
South Pole Carbon Asset Management-Going for Gold?
By: Forest L. Reinhardt, Jost Hamschmidt and Mikell Hyman
In late 2008, Christoph Sutter, CEO of South Pole Carbon Asset Management, reflects on his firm's early success at originating carbon credits in developing nations and selling them to governments and firms that seek to offset their greenhouse gas emissions voluntarily... View Details
- 2008
- Working Paper
Modern Management: Good for the Environment or Just Hot Air?
By: Nicholas Bloom, Christos Genakos, Ralf Martin and Raffaella Sadun
We use an innovative methodology to measure management practices in over 300 manufacturing firms in the UK. We then match this management data to production and energy usage information for establishments owned by these firms. We find that establishments in better... View Details
- June 2008 (Revised May 2017)
- Case
Cook Composites and Polymers Co.
By: Deishin Lee, Michael W. Toffel and Rachel Gordon
This case describes how a company improves resource efficiency and process quality in its manufacturing process by developing a waste by-product into a new product. The case describes how CCP cleans production equipment between batches using styrene, which becomes a... View Details
- June 2008 (Revised October 2008)
- Case
International Carbon Finance and EcoSecurities
By: Andre F. Perold, Forest L. Reinhardt and Mikell Hyman
In late 2007, EcoSecurities had to decide whether to undertake a new Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project in China. EcoSecurities was an aggregator of carbon credits and also invested directly in projects that produced carbon credits. Governments and firms... View Details
- October 2007 (Revised April 2009)
- Case
TH!NK: The Norwegian Electric Car Company
By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and David Kiron
On August 1, 2007, 61-year-old Jan-Olaf Willums' plane was flying along the Greenland coastline on his way back to Norway after intense discussions with several prominent U.S. venture capital investors, among them Kleiner Perkins and Rockport Capital Partners, about... View Details
- 2005
- Chapter
Social Pressures in Siting Conflicts: A Case Study of Siting a Radioactive Waste Repository in Pennsylvania
By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Howard Kunreuther
- 2005
- Chapter
Environmental Federalism in the European Union and the United States
By: David Vogel, Michael W. Toffel and Diahanna Post
The United States (US) and the European Union (EU) are federal systems in which the responsibility for environmental policy-making is divided or shared between the central government and the (member) states. The attribution of decision-making power has important policy... View Details
- March 2003 (Revised November 2009)
- Case
Hudson Manufacturing Company
By: Paul A. Gompers and Vanessa del Valle Broussard
Concerns the decision by Brett Keith and Owen Colligan to purchase Hudson Manufacturing, a maker of heaters and air filtration units for the military. Keith and Colligan have organized a search fund and identified Hudson as a potential buyout. The decline in the... View Details
- Article
The Growing Strategic Importance of End-of-Life Product Management
Requiring manufacturers to manage the their products when they become waste is an innovative form of regulation, one that has been adopted by countries in Asia, Europe, and North America on a variety of products that range from vehicles to appliances to batteries.... View Details
- 2003
- Article
Closing the Loop: Product Take-back Requirements and their Strategic Implications
In Asia, Europe, and North America, regulators are seeking to reduce waste disposal and develop recycling markets by requiring manufacturers to manage the end-of-life disposition of products they produce. Such policies attempt to "close the loop" for products ranging... View Details
- September 2002 (Revised March 2006)
- Case
Environmental Power Corporation: Changing Manure Into Gold?
By: Ray A. Goldberg and Laure Mougeot Stroock
In 2002, Environmental Power Corp. (EPC), a small company developing renewable energy projects, was attempting to commercialize its "digester," a facility that extracted methane from manure, reduced manure's environmental impact, and generated electricity. The company... View Details
- June 2001
- Case
NESWC (A)
Documents attempts to restructure a public-private partnership between the operator of a $200 million trash-to-energy cogeneration plant and a consortium of two dozen Massachusetts municipalities. Describes the process that led to a one-sided agreement, as well as the... View Details
- March 1998 (Revised December 1998)
- Case
BCI Growth III: May 1993
By: Josh Lerner
A Vermont solid-waste company seeks mezzanine financing to finance its strategy of acquiring and consolidating local competitors. The mezzanine private equity group must decide whether this investment offers an attractive risk-return tradeoff. View Details
- March 1998 (Revised June 1998)
- Case
BCI Growth III: November 1993
By: Josh Lerner
Supplements BCI Growth III: May 1993. View Details
- February 1997 (Revised May 1998)
- Case
3M: Negotiating Air Pollution Credits (A)
By: Michael A. Wheeler and Thomas Dretler
A proposed trade of air pollution emission credits between 3M (now Imation) and Procter and Gamble is described. Though such trading is encouraged under federal environmental laws, 3M had adopted a company-wide policy against such deals. Procter and Gamble needs the... View Details
- February 1997 (Revised September 2000)
- Case
3M: Negotiating Air Pollution Credits (B)
By: Michael A. Wheeler and Thomas Dretler
Supplements the (A) case. View Details
- February 1997 (Revised October 1999)
- Case
3M: Negotiating Air Pollution Credits (C)
By: Michael A. Wheeler and Thomas Dretler
An epilogue to the (A) and (B) cases, this describes the final steps in implementing the agreement 3M made with Procter and Gamble and with local public officials and interest groups. View Details