Faculty & Research - Business & Environment

27 Results

January 2019 (Revised March 2019)
Case

Should a Pension Fund Try to Change the World? Inside GPIF's Embrace of ESG

By: Rebecca Henderson, George Serafeim, Josh Lerner and Naoko Jinjo

In the fall of 2018, Hiro Mizuno, the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of GPIF, the Japanese Government Pension Fund, was reflecting on his efforts to integrate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues into every aspect of GPIF’s portfolio. His efforts ranged...

April 2017
Cases with Notes

CLP: Powering Asia

By: George Serafeim, Rebecca Henderson and David Freiberg

Teaching Note for HBS No. 115-038.

November 11, 2016
Harvard Business Review (website)

The Fortune 500 Can't Go Along with a Rollback on Climate Policy

By: Rebecca Henderson

October 2016 (Revised January 2018)
Teaching Material

Climate Change in 2018: Implications for Business

By: Rebecca M. Henderson, Sophus A. Reinert, Polina Dekhtyar and Amram Migdal

This note provides general information about climate change and its implications for business. Included is an overview of climate change science and a number of its impacts, including rising sea levels, changing weather patterns and extreme weather, pressure on water...

April 2016 (Revised April 2017)
Case

Reimagining Capitalism: Towards a Theory of Change

By: Rebecca Henderson, Tony L. He and Brian Tomlinson

March 2016 (Revised June 2016)
Case

Gotong Royong: Toward Sustainable Palm Oil

By: Rebecca Henderson, Hann-Shuin Yew and Monica Baraldi

In late 2015, Jeff Seabright, chief sustainability officer at Unilever, had to report to Unilever CEO Paul Polman on the effort to transform palm oil cultivation. Historically, palm oil was produced using unsustainable methods that included burning large tracts of...

February 2016 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Greening Walmart: Progress and Controversy

By: Rebecca Henderson and James Weber

In 2005, Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, launched a sustainability initiative aimed at reducing waste and making the company more environmentally and socially conscious. By 2015, the company had made progress on multiple dimensions: energy efficiency in its...

June 2015 (Revised February 2017)
Teaching Material

Shanghai: GDP Apostasy

By: George Serafeim, Rebecca Henderson and David Freiberg

March 2015 (Revised March 2016)
Teaching Material

Note: Industry Self-Regulation: Sustaining the Commons in the 21st Century?

By: Rebecca Henderson, Amram Migdal and Tony He

Industry self-regulation has, in general, a lousy track record. Many studies have shown that it is often ineffective unless backed by the power of the state, and that in some cases it serves rather to forestall government intervention or to reduce competition than as...

March 2015 (Revised February 2017)
Cases with Notes

Shanghai: GDP Apostasy

By: George Serafeim, Rebecca Henderson and David Freiberg

Balancing economic growth alongside environmental sustainability and social inclusion was becoming increasingly important in China. The case describes Shanghai's decision to abandon growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as its primary metric of measuring success....