Faculty & Research - Business & Environment

31 Results

May 2020
AEA Papers and Proceedings

Tackling Climate Change Requires Organizational Purpose

By: Rebecca Henderson and George Serafeim

Unchecked climate change presents a profound threat to economic growth and political stability but despite widespread public concern about the issue, global emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) have not declined. Indeed current “business as usual” predictions imply...

Forthcoming
Daedalus

Climate in the Boardroom: Struggling to Reconcile Business as Usual and the End of the World as We Know It

By: Rebecca Henderson

2020
Book Chapter

Interrogating Corporate Purpose: Values Based Firms and the Struggle to Build a Just and Sustainable World

By: Rebecca Henderson

Forthcoming
Book

Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire

By: Rebecca Henderson

Free market capitalism is one of humanity’s greatest inventions and the greatest source of prosperity the world has ever seen. But this success has been costly. Capitalism is on the verge of destroying the planet and destabilizing society as wealth rushes to the top....

January 2020
Teaching Material

Climate Change in 2020: Implications for Business

By: Rebecca M. Henderson, Sophus A. Reinert and Mariana Oseguera

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...

January 2019 (Revised February 2020)
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

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...