News & Highlights

  • May 2025
  • Climate Rising Podcast

Designing for Circularity at Scale: IKEA Featured on Climate Rising

How does a global retailer like IKEA embed circularity into its products, business model, and operations? In this Climate Rising episode, Harvard Business School Professor Mike Toffel speaks with Karen Pflug, Chief Sustainability Officer of Ingka Group, about IKEA’s efforts to extend product life cycles, support secondhand retail, and scale mattress recycling. The episode is tied to ongoing case work supported by the Europe Research Center (ERC) and highlights how design, policy, and customer engagement can accelerate circularity across 31 countries.
  • May 2025
  • HBS Business & Environment Blog

On the Ground in Iceland: HBS Energy & Environment Club’s Climate Trek

What does it look like when an entire country runs on renewables? This past February, 50 MBA students from the HBS Energy & Environment Club traveled to Iceland to explore how clean energy, circular systems, and climate innovation are shaping the country’s future. In this reflection, MBA student Sabrina Montovanelli (HBS MBA 2026) reports on the trek, highlighting insights shared by local hosts—including several HBS alumni—who are helping drive Iceland’s bold energy transition.
  • April 2025
  • Climate Rising Podcast

Reimagining Reuse: The Vytal Case Featured on Climate Rising

How can businesses shift consumer behavior to reduce packaging waste—and make reuse work at scale? In this episode of Climate Rising, Harvard Business School Professor Mike Toffel speaks with Fabian Barthel, Co-Founder of Vytal, about the company’s packaging-as-a-service model. Supported by the Europe Research Center (ERC), the case at the heart of the episode explores behavioral science, regulatory shifts, and business model innovation driving circular solutions in the food industry.

New Research on the Region

  • August 2025
  • Teaching Material

Social Enterprise in Europe

By: Brian Trelstad, Hugo Etchegoyhen and Tonia Labruyere

  • June 2025
  • Teaching Material

SWEN Blue Ocean: Impact Investing Goes to Sea

By: Vikram S Gandhi and David Allen

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 325-013

  • June 2025
  • Case

(Family) Size Matters: Nico Oprée and the Decreasing Power of Family Unity over Time

By: Lauren Cohen, Octavian Graf Pilati, Dominik V. Eynern and Sophia Pan

Nico Oprée, a fourth-generation (G4) member of his family’s heavy manufacturing business, found himself reflecting on how the firm would navigate a deepening shareholder conflict. While the second generation (G2) had managed the business in harmony, dynamics shifted dramatically by the third generation (G3). Beginning in 2019, sentiments toward the sitting CEO became increasingly divided, eventually culminating in a rift: four G3 shareholders backed replacing the CEO with Nico’s father, while two opposed the change and supported the incumbent. Though Nico’s father ultimately took over as CEO, the underlying family tensions remained unresolved—prompting the involvement of lawyers. The family now faced a critical decision: Should they hire an external CEO, sell the business entirely, or continue operating as they were? At stake was not only the future of the business but also the integrity of family relationships. Did the expansion of the family branches in G3—where cousins and siblings might find themselves at odds—further complicate the path forward?

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