Managing Climate Change: Lessons from the U.S. Navy

Forest   Reinhardt; Michael W. Toffel

Article | Harvard Business Review

Managing Climate Change: Lessons from the U.S. Navy

by Forest Reinhardt and Michael W. Toffel

Abstract

The U.S. Navy operates on the front lines of climate change. It manages tens of billions of dollars in assets on every continent and on every ocean, which take many years to design and build and then have decades of useful life. This means that it needs to understand now what sorts of missions it may be required to perform in 10, 20, or 30 years and what assets and infrastructure it will need to carry them out. Put another way, it needs to plan for the world that will exist at that time. The navy is clear eyed about the challenges climate change poses. It knows that the effects of a warmer world will expand the geographic scope of its mission and increase demand for its military and humanitarian services. Climate change will also decrease its capacity to deliver those services, as the risk of damage to its bases and ports increases. This article examines the Navy’s approach to climate change and reflects on the implications for business.

Keywords: climate change; environment; military; disaster relief; refugees; Environmental Impact; environmental strategy; sustainability; Energy; Energy Conservation; Energy Sources; Energy Generation; Globalization; Innovation and Invention; Leadership; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Supply Chain; Operations; Logistics; Infrastructure; Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Service Industry;

Format: Print

Find at Harvard Register to Read

Citation:

Reinhardt, Forest, and Michael W. Toffel. "Managing Climate Change: Lessons from the U.S. Navy." Harvard Business Review 95, no. 4 (July–August 2017): 102–111.

This spreadsheet supplement accompanies 617-010 United Airlines: More Out-and-Back Flying? and is intended to provide students with an opportunity to apply analysis concepts with real operational data.

This case looks at United Airlines when it is facing a decision on whether to shift its aircraft routing to more "out-and-back" routing in order to try to improve its on-time performance. As one of the world's largest airlines, United had a very large fleet and hub-and-spoke network that provided passengers with a wide range of destination choices, but as with any complex system unless everything ran perfectly all the time, it inevitably faced cascading delays and missed passenger connection problems. While out-and-back routing tended to isolate operational issues, more traditional linear routings tended to offer high equipment utilization. The case offers students an opportunity to examine the effects of variability on different routing strategies.

Faculty & Research

Managing Climate Change: Lessons from the U.S. Navy

Abstract

Citation:

About the Authors

More from these Authors