Many HBS students extend their learning beyond the classroom through faculty-supervised Independent Projects (IPs). IPs take many forms—for example, students have advised companies on their sustainability strategies, written business plans for environmental ventures they would like to launch, and co-authored teaching cases with faculty.

Current students can find details on registering for Independent Projects here (login required). IP registration must be completed by 8:30 am on the first Thursday of the relevant term and is not part of EC preregistration. Students planning for fall may want to connect with a potential faculty supervisor before leaving campus for the summer; those planning for spring IPs may want to plan their projects before leaving for winter break. It’s up to the student or student team to scope and find a faculty supervisor. A few recent projects are summarized below.

Mitigating the Municipal Waste Management Crisis in Emerging Markets: A Cost-Benefit-Analysis of Enhanced Waste Management Interventions

The objective of this project was to build a cost-benefit-analysis of converting substandard landfills in emerging markets to sanitary landfills and establish a more compelling business case for municipalities and other key stakeholders to make this shift.

Project ReGeneration — Power Plant Repurposing

There are over 130 coal-fired power plants in the United States that are already or soon-to-be retired. While some plants may be suitable for conversion to natural gas-based generation, the preponderance will need be remediated and redeveloped as public parks, multi-family residential housing, and office space. This independent project, sponsored by Professor John Macomber, explored the market opportunity, site selection criteria, unit economics, and related issues, with an eye toward potential investment strategies and business formation possibilities.

Encouraging Water Conservation Among Consumers of Personal Care Products

This IP helped a large consumer goods company develop a consumer-facing platform to encourage people to save water while showering. The student worked with an internal team to research key success factors in sustainable messaging and social marketing, survey existing domestic water conservation messaging, examine consumer attitudes towards water use and conservation, and benchmark other companies’ approaches to encouraging sustainable water use. The company used insights from this work to develop content for their platform and promotional messaging tied to some of its relevant products. The faculty supervisor of the project was Nien-he Hsieh.

Foreign Investment and Economic Development in the Manufacturing Sector in Lesotho

Lesotho, a tiny country in southern Africa, presents a fascinating case of the confluence of global value chains, foreign trade policies, market niches, and economic development. There has been disagreement as to whether foreign trade policies such as the U.S.’s Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has resulted in real economic development in Lesotho or whether it is simply an artificial and temporary boon that will lead to an eminent bust. Since the development of the 2006 “The Market and the Mountain Kingdom” case on Lesotho, it is high time that someone went back to understand what has happened in the past ten years. What does the industry look like today? Has Lesotho managed to diversify? Has technology transfer and local ownership taken root? Has foreign investment led to sustainable development? The faculty supervisor for the project was Sophus Reinert.

Cocoa Bean Sustainability and Value Chain

Over the course of one year, the project examined the cocoa bean industry at a high-level to assess stakeholders and determine how macro trends are affecting the economics of cocoa. The student spent ten days in Ecuador with different cocoa farmers to assess the cocoa bean value chain at a local level. A final paper made recommendations to the Ecuadorian government in order to prevent the decay of their cocoa industry. The faculty supervisor for the project was Rebecca Henderson.

Electric Boiler in China

On Nov 8th 2015, as the winter heating season just began, Shenyang, China recorded a historical high of particulate matter air pollution. Emissions from coal-fired boilers in the winter season had been identified as one of the main contributors to these high pollution levels. This project shed light on how to reduce emissions by focusing on retrofitting existing coal-fired boiler facilities with pulverized coal-fired boilers and integrating wind power to provide for the heating needs of people during the winter. The faculty supervisor for this project was Joseph Lassiter.

WWF Commodities Financing Project

This project looked at the capital structures of firms that work producing at least one of the commodities targeted by the World Wildlife Fund. This involved examining the equity structure and holders, as well as identifying the lenders and debt-holders for these firms. The end goal was to use this information towards determining the role of the finance community in promoting sustainable mandates within target commodity firms.