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- October 2022
- Case
Driving Decarbonization at BMW
The case describes BMW’s electrification and decarbonization strategy, and how the company measured carbon emissions throughout the life cycle of its vehicles and used tools like carbon abatement cost curves to evaluate decarbonization opportunities. In mid-2022,...
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Keywords:
Decarbonization;
Climate Change;
Environment;
Sustainability;
Carbon Accounting;
Carbon;
Carbon Abatement;
Electric Vehicles;
Automobiles;
Transportation;
Environmental Accounting;
Environmental Management;
Environmental Sustainability;
Accounting;
Strategy;
Technological Innovation;
Supply Chain;
Business and Stakeholder Relations;
Transportation Industry;
Auto Industry;
Battery Industry;
Germany;
China;
United States;
Europe
- July 2022
- Case
David Crane’s Clean(er) Energy Strategy at NRG
By: George Serafeim, Michael W. Toffel and Tom Quinn
In 2015, David Crane was the CEO of NRG, the second-largest energy producer in the United States. NRG got most of its power from fossil fuels, but Crane – hired as CEO in 2003 as NRG emerged from bankruptcy – had invested heavily in alternative energy, loudly...
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- July 2022
- Case
FIJI Water: Carbon Negative? (Abridged)
In the midst of increasing press scrutiny of the bottled water industry’s environmentally harmful practices, FIJI Water made a series of sustainability promises. The boldest of these was a pledge to go “carbon negative.” The company said that not only would they offset...
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Keywords:
Carbon Footprint;
Carbon Offsetting;
Environmental Accounting;
Climate Change;
Environmental Sustainability;
Pollution;
Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues;
Misleading and Fraudulent Advertising;
Non-Governmental Organizations;
Brands and Branding;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Fiji;
United States
- June 2022
- Case
Michelin’s Green Gold Bahia Program: Leaving With Grace
By: Sandra J. Sucher, Shalene Gupta and Susan J. Winterberg
In 2015, the top management of French tire-maker Michelin, was evaluating Michelin’s approach to divesting its rubber plantations ten years after incorporating a novel strategy.
In 2004, Michelin had a Brazilian rubber challenge. Its Bahía plantation had been hit...
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- June 2022 (Revised August 2022)
- Case
Sustainability Reporting at Dollar Tree, Inc.
By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni
The cases discusses the ESG strategy of Dollar Tree Inc., a U.S. Fortune 500 company in the deep discount retail industry and the and shareholder pressure faced by the company. In 2022, the company faced a shareholder resolution from a renowned shareholder advocacy...
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Keywords:
ESG;
Sustainability;
Shareholder Activism;
Dollar Tree;
Sustainability Reporting;
ESG Reporting;
Board Of Directors;
Shareholder Engagement;
GHG;
Environmental Accounting;
Integrated Corporate Reporting;
Trends;
Communication;
Announcements;
Voting;
Environmental Management;
Climate Change;
Environmental Sustainability;
Values and Beliefs;
Corporate Accountability;
Corporate Disclosure;
Corporate Governance;
Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms;
Policy;
Reports;
Business or Company Management;
Risk Management;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Outcome or Result;
Strategic Planning;
Business and Stakeholder Relations;
Situation or Environment;
Opportunities;
Civil Society or Community;
Social Issues;
Public Opinion;
Strategy;
Adaptation;
Alignment;
Business Strategy;
Corporate Strategy;
Value Creation;
Retail Industry;
United States;
Virginia
- 2022
- Working Paper
Machine Learning Models for Prediction of Scope 3 Carbon Emissions
By: George Serafeim and Gladys Vélez Caicedo
For most organizations, the vast amount of carbon emissions occur in their supply chain and in the post-sale processing, usage, and end of life treatment of a product, collectively labelled scope 3 emissions. In this paper, we train machine learning algorithms on 15...
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- Article
We Need Better Carbon Accounting. Here's How to Get There.
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Karthik Ramanna
Any effective system of greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting needs to measure each company’s supply-chain carbon impacts accurately. Such information would provide visibility and incentives for the company to make more climate-friendly product-specification and purchasing...
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- Other Article
Sustainable Strategies and Net-Zero Goals
By: Mark L. Frigo, Robert S. Kaplan and Karthik Ramanna
In a recent Harvard Business Review article, Kaplan and Ramanna describe a rigorous approach, the E-liability method, for companies’ ESG reporting, especially as it pertains to GHG emissions measurements. They argue that the current standards for measuring...
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- 2022
- Article
Which Corporate ESG News Does the Market React To?
By: George Serafeim and Aaron Yoon
Using a dataset that classifies firm-level ESG news as positive and negative, we examine how stock prices react to different types of ESG news. We analyze 111,020 firm-day observations for 3,126 companies and find that prices react only to issues identified as...
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- 2022
- Working Paper
Climate Solutions Investments
By: Alex Cheema-Fox, George Serafeim and Hui (Stacie) Wang
An increasing number of companies are providing products and services that help reduce carbon emissions in the economy. We develop a methodology to identify those companies and create a sample of publicly listed climate solutions companies allowing us to study their...
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Keywords:
Decarbonization;
Climate Finance;
Climate Impact;
Climate Risk;
Environment;
Sustainability;
Carbon Emissions;
Electric Vehicles;
Energy;
Renewables;
Climate Change;
Investment;
Environmental Sustainability;
Renewable Energy;
Transportation Industry;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Energy Industry;
Industrial Products Industry;
China;
United States;
Asia;
Europe
- Article
Accounting for Climate Change
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Karthik Ramanna
Corporations are facing growing pressure—from investors, advocacy groups, politicians, and even business leaders themselves—to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from their operations and their supply and distribution chains. About 90% of the companies in the S&P...
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- 2021
- Working Paper
How to Fix ESG Reporting
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Karthik Ramanna
Investors, advocacy groups, academics, and the 200 CEOs of the US Business Roundtable have asked corporations to take on an added purpose beyond a narrow pursuit of shareholder value. In response, many companies now issue ESG (Environmental, Societal, and Governance)...
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Keywords:
ESG Reporting;
Sustainability;
Corporate Purpose;
Greenhouse Gas;
Activity-Based Costing;
Environmental Sustainability;
Environmental Management;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Measurement and Metrics;
Goals and Objectives;
Agreements and Arrangements;
Corporate Accountability
- 2021
- Article
Decarbonizing Everything
By: Alex Cheema-Fox, Bridget LaPerla, George Serafeim, David Turkington and Hui (Stacie) Wang
We analyze how the use of different climate risk measures leads to different portfolio carbon outcomes and risk-adjusted returns. Our findings are synthesized in a rules-based investment framework, which selects a different type of climate metric across industries and...
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Keywords:
Climate Risk;
ESG;
ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance;
ESG Disclosure;
ESG Disclosure Metrics;
ESG Ratings;
Investing;
Investing For Impact;
Investment Strategy;
Environment;
Decarbonization;
Climate Change;
Environmental Sustainability;
Environmental Management;
Environmental Accounting;
Investment;
Strategy;
Investment Portfolio;
Investment Return
- July 2021
- Article
Material Sustainability Information and Stock Price Informativeness
By: Jody Grewal, Clarissa Hauptmann and George Serafeim
As part of the SEC’s revision of Regulation S-K, many investors proposed the mandatory disclosure of sustainability information in the form of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data. However, progress is contingent on collecting evidence regarding which...
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Keywords:
Voluntary Disclosure;
Accounting Standards;
Sustainability;
Nonfinancial Information;
Corporate Social Responsibility;
Stock Price Informativeness;
Synchronicity;
Environmental Sustainability;
Corporate Disclosure;
Corporate Accountability;
Stocks;
Price;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Accounting;
Standards
- 2021
- Working Paper
Accounting for Product Impact in the Oil and Gas Industry
By: Katie Panella, George Serafeim and Katie Trinh
We apply the product impact measurement framework of the Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative (IWAI) in two competitor companies within the oil and gas industry. We design a monetization methodology that allows us to calculate monetary product impact estimates of...
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Keywords:
Product Innovation;
Impact;
Impact Investing;
Impact Measurement;
ESG;
ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance;
ESG Ratings;
Social Corporate Responsibility;
Corporate Social Responsibility;
Social Impact;
Oil;
Oil ＆ Gas;
Oil And Gas;
IWAI;
Impact-Weighted Accounts;
Product Design;
Product Positioning;
Society;
Environmental Sustainability;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Product
- 2021
- Working Paper
Accounting for Product Impact in the Pharmaceuticals Industry
By: Amanda Rischbieth, George Serafeim and Katie Trinh
We apply the product impact measurement framework of the Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative (IWAI) in two competitor companies within the pharmaceuticals industry. We design a monetization methodology that allows us to calculate monetary impact estimates of accessible...
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Keywords:
Product Innovation;
Impact;
Impact Investing;
Impact Measurement;
ESG;
ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance;
ESG Ratings;
Social Corporate Responsibility;
Corporate Social Responsibility;
Social Impact;
Pharmaceutical Companies;
Pharmaceuticals;
IWAI;
Product Design;
Product Positioning;
Society;
Environmental Sustainability;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Product;
Safety;
Pharmaceutical Industry
- 2021
- Working Paper
Impact Accounting for Product Use: A Framework and Industry-specific Models
By: George Serafeim and Katie Trinh
This handbook provides the first systematic attempt to generate a framework and industry-specific models for the measurement of impacts on customers and the environment from use of products and services, in monetary terms, that can then be reflected in financial...
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- 2021
- Working Paper
Accounting for Product Impact in the Interactive Media and Services Industry
By: DG Park, George Serafeim and Katie Trinh
We apply the product impact measurement framework of the Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative (IWAI) in two competitor companies within the interactive media and services industry. We design a monetization methodology that allows us to calculate monetary impact...
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Keywords:
Product Innovation;
Impact;
Impact Investing;
Impact Measurement;
ESG;
ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance;
ESG Ratings;
Social Corporate Responsibility;
Corporate Social Responsibility;
Social Impact;
Product Design;
Product Positioning;
Society;
Product;
Environmental Sustainability;
Measurement and Metrics;
Framework;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Social Media;
Technology Industry
- 2021
- Working Paper
Science-Based Carbon Emissions Targets
By: David Freiberg, Jody Grewal and George Serafeim
We examine the effect of voluntarily adopting a standard for setting science-based carbon emissions targets on target difficulty and investments to achieve those targets. We find that firms with a track record of setting and achieving ambitious carbon targets are more...
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Keywords:
Target;
Targeting;
Target-setting;
Target Efficiency;
Management Control Systems;
Management Accounting;
Environment;
Environmental And Social Sustainability;
Climate Change;
Environmental Management;
Environmental Accounting;
Environmental Sustainability;
Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques
- 2021
- Working Paper
Accounting for Product Impact in the Telecommunications Industry
By: George Serafeim and Katie Trinh
We apply the product impact measurement framework of the Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative (IWAI) in two competitor companies within the telecommunications industry. We design a monetization methodology that allows us to calculate monetary impact estimates of network...
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Keywords:
Product Innovation;
Impact;
Impact Investing;
Impact Measurement;
ESG;
ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance;
ESG Ratings;
Social Corporate Responsibility;
Corporate Social Responsibility;
Social Impact;
Telecommunications;
Product Design;
Product Positioning;
Society;
Product;
Environmental Sustainability;
Measurement and Metrics;
Framework;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Telecommunications Industry