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- October 2023
- Case
Driving Sustainability at AB InBev
By: Ethan Rouen and Antonio Manuel Oftelie
It was the height of the summer in 2022, and Michel Doukeris, the CEO of Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), and Peter Kraemer, the company’s Chief Supply Officer, gazed across the vast desert surrounding Zacatecas, Mexico. They were visiting their Grupo Modelo Brewery,... View Details
- September 2023
- Background Note
Amager Bakke: Municipal Waste to Energy
By: Willy Shih, Michael W. Toffel and Kelsey Carter
This background note describes the Amager Bakke waste-to-energy (WtE) plant in Copenhagen, which merges traditional waste incineration with a combined heat and power (CHP) plant and air pollution control (scrubbing) technology, and had plans to add carbon dioxide (CO2)... View Details
Keywords: Decarbonization; Innovation; Innovation Focused Strategy; Environmental Operations; Circular; Waste Heat Recovery; Waste Management; Carbon Regulation; Buildings and Facilities; Energy Generation; Environmental Sustainability; Pollution; Climate Change; Wastes and Waste Processing; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Energy Industry; Denmark; Netherlands; Europe; European Union
- September 2023
- Case
FoodCloud: Tackling Food Insecurity and Climate Change in One Bite
By: Brian Trelstad and Emer Moloney
In 2013, Aoibheann O’Brien and Iseult Ward founded FoodCloud, a non-profit social enterprise that aimed to address food waste and food insecurity issues. Through its technology platform, Foodiverse, FoodCloud connected surplus food from retailers with community groups... View Details
- September 2023 (Revised October 2024)
- Case
Forecasting Climate Risks: Aviva’s Climate Calculus
By: Mark Egan and Peter Tufano
In late 2021, Ben Carr, Director of Analytics and Capital Modeling at Aviva Plc (Aviva)—a leading insurer with core operations in the UK, Ireland and Canada,—was preparing for an upcoming presentation before the company's board which included its CEO, Amanda Blanc,... View Details
- September 2023
- Teaching Note
Apple’s iPhone Revolution: Pioneering the Circular Economy
By: George Serafeim
Teaching Note for HBS Case 123-089. The case describes the Trade-In system for iPhones that allow iPhones to be refurbished and reused or to be recycled. The case provides information for the students to analyze the financial attractiveness of the Trade-In system and... View Details
- September 2023 (Revised January 2024)
- Case
Helmy Abouleish: Making a Desert Bloom
By: Geoffrey G. Jones and Maxim Pike Harrell
This case examines the history of prominent Egyptian-based social enterprise SEKEM from its foundation in 1977 until the COP27 conference held in Sharm El-Sheikh in 2022. Led by father and son team Ibrahim and Helmy Abouleish, SEKEM turned desert into farmland using... View Details
- 2025
- Working Paper
Global Harms, Local Profits: How the Uneven Costs of Natural Disasters Affect Support for Green Political Platforms
By: Silvia Pianta and Paula Rettl
Large-scale fires are becoming increasingly common due to climate change. While conventional
wisdom suggests that firsthand experiences with natural disasters foster green coalitions
by raising awareness of environmental degradation, we propose an alternative... View Details
Keywords: Climate Impact; Politics; Environmental Issues; Environmental Protection; Economic Analysis; Economic Behavior; Economic Geography; Economy; Economics; Climate Change; Environmental Management; Political Elections; Natural Disasters; Green Technology; Environmental Sustainability; Latin America; Brazil
- August 2023 (Revised July 2024)
- Technical Note
Power-to-X
By: Willy Shih, Michael W. Toffel and Kelsey Carter
To reduce greenhouse gas emissions that were contributing to climate change, the world needs to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. Power-to-X (PtX) refers to an array of processes that convert electricity (power) to various gaseous and liquid... View Details
- August 2023 (Revised January 2024)
- Supplement
Arla Foods: Data-Driven Decarbonization (A)
By: Michael Parzen, Michael W. Toffel, Amram Migdal and Susan Pinckney
Arla implemented a data-based price incentive system to measure, track, and influence climate friendly changes to reduce CO2 emissions across the world’s fourth largest dairy cooperative. View Details
Keywords: Dairy Industry; Business Earnings; Earnings Management; Environmental Accounting; Agribusiness; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Acquisition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Decision Making; Decisions; Voting; Environmental Management; Climate Change; Environmental Regulation; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology; Pollution; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Financial Strategy; Price; Profit; Revenue; Food; Geopolitical Units; Global Strategy; Ownership Type; Cooperative Ownership; Performance Efficiency; Performance Evaluation; Problems and Challenges; Natural Environment; Science-Based Business; Business Strategy; Commercialization; Cooperation; Corporate Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Europe; United Kingdom; European Union; Germany; Denmark; Sweden; Luxembourg; Belgium
- August 2023 (Revised March 2024)
- Case
Arla Foods: Data-Driven Decarbonization (A)
By: Michael Parzen, Michael W. Toffel, Susan Pinckney and Amram Migdal
The case describes Arla’s history, in particular its climate change mitigation efforts, and how it implemented a price incentive system to motivate individual farms to implement scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions mitigation measures and receive a higher milk price. The... View Details
Keywords: Dairy Industry; Business Earnings; Agribusiness; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Acquisition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Decision Making; Decisions; Voting; Environmental Management; Climate Change; Environmental Regulation; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology; Pollution; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Financial Strategy; Price; Profit; Revenue; Food; Geopolitical Units; Global Strategy; Ownership Type; Cooperative Ownership; Performance Efficiency; Performance Evaluation; Problems and Challenges; Natural Environment; Science-Based Business; Business Strategy; Commercialization; Cooperation; Corporate Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Europe; United Kingdom; European Union; Germany; Denmark; Sweden; Luxembourg; Belgium
- August 2023 (Revised January 2024)
- Supplement
Arla Foods: Data-Driven Decarbonization (B)
By: Michael Parzen, Michael W. Toffel, Susan Pinckney and Amram Migdal
The case describes Arla’s history, in particular its climate change mitigation efforts, and how it implemented a price incentive system to motivate individual farms to implement scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions mitigation measures and receive a higher milk price. The... View Details
Keywords: Dairy Industry; Earnings Management; Environmental Accounting; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Mergers and Acquisitions; Decisions; Voting; Climate Change; Environmental Regulation; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology; Pollution; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Financial Strategy; Price; Profit; Revenue; Food; Geopolitical Units; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Global Strategy; Cooperative Ownership; Performance Efficiency; Performance Evaluation; Problems and Challenges; Natural Environment; Science-Based Business; Business Strategy; Commercial Banking; Cooperation; Corporate Strategy; Motivation and Incentives; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Europe; United Kingdom; European Union; Denmark; Sweden; Luxembourg; Belgium
- 2024
- Working Paper
Migration, Climate Similarity, and the Consequences of Climate Mismatch
By: Marguerite Obolensky, Marco Tabellini and Charles Taylor
This paper examines the concept of “climate matching” in migration—the idea that migrants seek out destinations with familiar climates. Focusing on the US, we document that temperature distance between origin and destination predicts the distribution of migrants across... View Details
Keywords: Migration; Climate; Immigration; Residency; Weather; Ethnicity; Climate Change; Geographic Location; Policy; United States
- 2023
- Other Unpublished Work
If 3 Was 9
One determinant of where economies and markets are headed is how well we handle the climate crisis. Headlines on the climate tend to emphasize two points. First, average global temps are rising, with it being the hottest summer in 1,000 centuries per some estimates.... View Details
- July 2023 (Revised November 2023)
- Case
The Miccosukee Tribe and the Battle to Save the Everglades: A Miami Climate Action Story
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Joyce J. Kim
The Miccosukee Indians, a small tribe of indigenous people in South Florida, have a long-standing interest in protecting the land, waterways, and habitats of the Everglades, their ancestral home, which serves as a watershed for urban areas in Miami-Dade County and a... View Details
- July 2023 (Revised May 2024)
- Case
Vytal: Packaging-as-a-Service
By: George Serafeim, Michael W. Toffel, Lena Duchene and Daniela Beyersdorfer
The Germany-based startup Vytal operated the largest digital-native reusable packaging-as-a-service network globally, having raised nearly €15 million, established a large network of restaurant partners, and prevented the use of millions of single-use take-out food... View Details
Keywords: Climate Risk; Digital; Platform Strategies; Data; Packaging; Sustainability; Start-up; Startup; Entrepreneur; Impact; Circular; Growth Strategy; Innovation; Environmental Sustainability; Innovation and Invention; Business Growth and Maturation; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Startups; Resource Allocation; Risk Management; Adoption; Strategy; Performance Productivity; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Supply Chain; Distribution; Entrepreneurship; Climate Change; Green Technology Industry; Service Industry; Retail Industry; Germany; Europe
- July 2023
- Technical Note
Agricultural Innovation and Sustainability in the Netherlands
By: Willy C. Shih, Michael W. Toffel, Kelsey Carter, Jennifer Godfrey, Rafaella Mazza and Katrina Yeh
This note describes some of the most significant agricultural innovations in the Netherlands, their drivers, environmental performance implications, some challenges facing the sector, and the potential replicability of these innovations to other contexts. View Details
- July–August 2023
- Article
Accounting for Carbon Offsets
By: Robert S. Kaplan, Karthik Ramanna and Marc Roston
Markets for carbon trading function poorly, and many traded offsets do not actually perform as promised. Without robust protocols for monitoring offsets and in the absence of proper accounting mechanisms, market-based approaches to reducing atmospheric GHG will be... View Details
- June 2023
- Case
Investing in the Climate Transition at Neuberger Berman
By: George Serafeim and Benjamin Maletta
By mid-2023, Neuberger Berman (NB), an active asset manager, had grown its assets under management to about half a trillion dollars and took pride in its client centricity and innovative spirit. Responding to client demand for investment products that integrated... View Details
Keywords: Carbon Emissions; Sustainability; Decarbonization; Performance; Risk Assessment; Opportunities; Environmental Sustainability; Carbon Footprint; Business Analysis; Investing; Regulation; Asset Management; Investment Strategy; Climate Change; Transition; Analysis; Product Positioning; Strategy; Investment Portfolio; Financial Services Industry; Energy Industry
- June 12, 2023
- Article
How AI Will Accelerate the Circular Economy
By: Shirley Lu and George Serafeim
Despite living on a planet with finite resources, our economy remains largely linear and full of single-use products. The shift toward a circular economy, where companies recover or recycle resources, has hit roadblocks, including low value of used products and high... View Details
- 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