Publications

Educators

Research Summary

Environmental and Sustainability Issues in Real Estate

By: Arthur I Segel

Environmental and sustainability issues in real estate from green, brown, and gray fields development to green construction and new patterns of urban planning. View Details

7 Aug 2009 - 11 Aug 2009
Conference Presentation

Classical sociologists confront our environmental issues

By: Shon R. Hiatt and Pamela Tolbert

Keywords: Natural Environment

26 Apr 2011
Op-Ed

HBS Faculty Comment on Environmental Issues for Earth Day

Earth Day focuses the world's attention on the both the dangers and opportunities facing the planet. But sustainability and the intersection between business and the environment are issues that need to be addressed all the time, as cities grow, resources diminish, and... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Energy; Utilities

Article

It's Not Easy Being Green: The Role of Self-Evaluations in Explaining Support of Environmental Issues

By: Scott Sonenshein, K. A. DeCelles and Jane E. Dutton

Using a mixed methods design, we examine the role of self-evaluations in influencing support for environmental issues. In Study 1—an inductive, qualitative study—we develop theory about how environmental issue supporters evaluate themselves in a mixed fashion,... View Details

Keywords: Social Issues; Environmental Sustainability; Performance Evaluation; Cognition and Thinking

Read Now

February 1994 (Revised August 1994)
Background Note

Note on Contingent Environmental Liabilities

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Forest L. Reinhardt

Addresses contingent environmental liabilities that are the result of unforeseen environmental risks where the dollar amount of such liabilities is unknown and depends on future events. In contrast, fines for violating environmental laws are liabilities, but are not... View Details

Keywords: Legal Liability; Risk Management; Natural Environment; Laws and Statutes; Pollutants; Governance Compliance; United States

Educators

08 Sep 2008
HBS Case

The Value of Environmental Activists

There are many methods, most financial, to measure the success of companies in meeting goals. But the question becomes a lot harder at Harvard Business School when MBAs are challenged to measure the efforts of environmental organizations like Greenpeace and the World... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Energy; Utilities

Editorial

Societal and environmental issues are pressing and companies must transform if they intend to remain competitive

By: Ethan Rouen, Georgios Serafeim and Ronald Cohen

Register to Read

December 1993 (Revised April 1994)
Case

Polaroid: Managing Environmental Responsibilities and Their Costs

Costs relating to companies' impact on the environment are increasing at a dramatic rate. Thus, managing, measuring, and reporting of these costs has become an important issue for managers. Accounting for environmental responsibilities is one of the largest and most... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Accounting; Environmental Sustainability

Educators

2016
Working Paper

Shareholder Activism on Sustainability Issues

By: Jody Grewal, George Serafeim and Aaron Yoon

Shareholder activism on sustainability issues has become increasingly prevalent over the years, with the number of proposals filed doubling from 1999 to 2013. We use recent innovations in accounting standard setting to classify 2,665 shareholder proposals that address... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Activism; Activist Investors; Activist Shareholder; Corporate Social Responsibility; Environment; Corporate Performance; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Governance; Business and Shareholder Relations; Investment Activism

SSRN

08 May 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Corporate Environmental Impact: Measurement, Data and Information

Keywords: by George Serafeim, DG Park, David Freiberg, and T. Robert Zochowski

2000
Book

Competitive Environmental Strategy: A Guide to the Changing Business Landscape

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

Environmental concerns can greatly affect business success, regardless of whether a business person or corporation shares those concerns. Today's corporate managers must understand the power of environmental issues, and shift their mindset from one focused on... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Environmental Management; Social Issues; Organizational Change and Adaptation

09 Aug 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Shareholder Activism on Sustainability Issues

Keywords: by Jody Grewal, George Serafeim, and Aaron Yoon

2014
Working Paper

Making the Business Case for Environmental Sustainability

By: Rebecca Henderson

Can a business case be made for acting sustainably? This is a difficult question to answer precisely, largely because there is no generally accepted definition of the term "sustainability". Is it acting sustainably to protect the human rights of the firm's workforce?... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Decision Making; Environmental Sustainability

Read Now

13 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

3 Ways Firms Can Profit From Environmental Investments

Zipcar approach environmental issues with profit margins in mind. The paper lays out three ways for firms to profit from investing in sustainability: forestalling risk, increasing operational efficiency, and... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Energy; Utilities

2015
Chapter

Making the Business Case for Environmental Sustainability

By: Rebecca Henderson

Can a business case be made for acting sustainably? This is a difficult question to answer precisely, largely because there is no generally accepted definition of the term "sustainability." Is it acting sustainably to protect the human rights of the firm's workforce?... View Details

August 2009
Article

The Reality and Myth of Sacred Issues in Negotiations

By: A. E. Tenbrunsel, K A. Wade-Benzoni, V. H. Medvec, L. Thompson and M. H. Bazerman

This paper investigates the role of sacred issues in a dyadic negotiation set in an environmental context. As predicted, when negotiators focus on sacred issues, this negatively impacts the negotiation, producing more impasses, lower joint outcomes, and more negative... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Values and Beliefs; Negotiation Process; Negotiation Tactics; Conflict of Interests; Perception; Cooperation

2009
Case

The North America Environmental Fund (NAEF)

By: Roberto Charvel, Fernando Fabre and T. Putimahtama

NAEF was the first VC fund created in Latin America. It was also the first fund to focus on green technologies. The fund and its managers confronted several issues regarding the under-developed governance and cultural structures required for succesful VC investments. View Details

Keywords: Clean Tech; Emerging Market; Venture Capital; Business Startups; Energy; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Governance; Technology; Green Technology Industry; Financial Services Industry; Latin America; North and Central America

19 Mar 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

8 Ways To Be An Environmentally Conscious Manager

iPhoto In an interview about his recent book Profits and Sustainability, which portrays the iconoclastic entrepreneurs who built green startups in the 19th century, Harvard Business School historian Geoffrey Jones notes that being a business-environmentalist can be... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Energy

2012
Chapter

Institutional Pressures and Organizational Characteristics: Implications for Environmental Strategy

By: Magali A. Delmas and Michael W. Toffel

A broad literature has emerged over the past decades demonstrating that firms' environmental strategies and practices are influenced by stakeholders and institutional pressures. Such findings are consistent with institutional sociology, which emphasizes the importance... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Natural Environment; Business Strategy