Business & Environment
Business & Environment
The vital connection between the natural environment and the business world has long been a central focus of our research at HBS – from Richard Vietor’s study of business-government relations in U.S. energy policy in the 1980’s to Michael Porter’s new concept of the relationship between the environment and competition in the 1990’s. Today, our faculty members focus on corporate environmental strategy, operations and reporting; sustainable cities and infrastructure; the role of government and environmental policy; clean energy generation and demand-side energy efficiency; and the effective management of natural resources essential to human prosperity.
Initiatives & Projects
The Business & Environment Initiative and the Social Enterprise Initiative deepen business leaders’ understanding of today’s environmental challenges and assist them in developing effective solutions.
Business & Environment Social EnterpriseRecent Publications
Hippo: Weathering the Storm of the Home Insurance Crisis
- March 2024 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Continuity & Change at Boston Consulting Group
- February 2024 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Principles and Content for Downstream Emissions Disclosures
- 2024 |
- Working Paper |
- Faculty Research
The paper uses several consumer-product examples to develop three principles for corporate disclosure of downstream emissions. Principle 1: Only companies whose products are directly used by end-consumers (B2C companies) should be required to disclose downstream emissions. Principle 2: Only B2C companies with products that require energy for consumer use, and for which a reasonable causal link exists between the product’s sourcing and design decisions and the emissions from consumer use, should be subject to downstream disclosure. Principle 3: Since companies have limited influence on consumers’ quantity of use of their products, a B2C company’s downstream disclosures should focus on emissions per unit of consumer use, not on total emissions. The paper concludes by explaining why reports of downstream emissions are “disclosures” not “accounting.”
Generation Investment Management
- January 2024 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Financial Constraints and Short-Term Planning Are Linked to Flood Risk Adaptation Gaps in U.S. Cities
- 2024 |
- Article |
- Communications Earth & Environment
Private Regulation, Institutional Entrepreneurship and Climate Change: A Business History Perspective
- 2024 |
- Working Paper |
- Faculty Research
ECOALF: Fashion for the Future
- January 2024 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Christiana Figueres and the Paris Climate Negotiations (A)
- 2024 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
As UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Christiana Figueres was tasked with a seemingly insurmountable challenge of putting together an impactful, global climate agreement. Coming out of the dramatic failure of the Copenhagen summit five years before, many believed that such an agreement was not possible. However, with persistent optimism and careful, targeted interventions, in 2015 the Paris Agreement was adopted by the 196 participating nations and set forth a new global consensus framework for international climate action that was anything but a “least common denominator” agreement.
Figueres had to personally undergo a transformation to let go of her identity as a Costa Rican diplomat so she could approach the negotiations from a global perspective and meet each participating nation from their perspective. The negotiation process itself was not just the two-week conference in Paris but instead was a years-long series of actions “away from the table" taken by Figueres and others years before the Paris talks to enhance the probability of a successful outcome at the negotiating table. By bringing different coalitions of countries and non-state actors together to lead the way, a more expansive agreement became possible. Here are the stop-action “negotiation challenges" for classroom discussion:
Negotiation Challenge #1: Given the controversy surrounding the “consensus” decision-making process in Cancun and prior Conferences of the Parties (“COPS”), how should Figueres handle this issue in Paris?
Negotiation Challenge #2: How could Figueres create a “fourth concentric circle of mobilization” that would involve stakeholders who were historically considered outsiders into the process, including non-state actors, so that they could influence the trajectory of the negotiations?
Negotiation Challenge #3: How could Christiana Figueres get the Saudis, who had been staunch opponents of a climate deal, to change their minds and support a meaningful agreement in Paris?
Negotiation Challenge #4: How should Figueres handle the traditional timing of the visits of heads of state to the Paris COP?
Christiana Figueres and the Paris Climate Negotiations (B)
- 2024 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
As UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Christiana Figueres was tasked with a seemingly insurmountable challenge of putting together an impactful, global climate agreement. Coming out of the dramatic failure of the Copenhagen summit five years before, many believed that such an agreement was not possible. However, with persistent optimism and careful, targeted interventions, in 2015 the Paris Agreement was adopted by the 196 participating nations and set forth a new global consensus framework for international climate action that was anything but a “least common denominator” agreement.
Figueres had to personally undergo a transformation to let go of her identity as a Costa Rican diplomat so she could approach the negotiations from a global perspective and meet each participating nation from their perspective. The negotiation process itself was not just the two-week conference in Paris but instead was a years-long series of actions “away from the table" taken by Figueres and others years before the Paris talks to enhance the probability of a successful outcome at the negotiating table. By bringing different coalitions of countries and non-state actors together to lead the way, a more expansive agreement became possible. Here are the stop-action “negotiation challenges" for classroom discussion:
Negotiation Challenge #1: Given the controversy surrounding the “consensus” decision-making process in Cancun and prior Conferences of the Parties (“COPS”), how should Figueres handle this issue in Paris?
Negotiation Challenge #2: How could Figueres create a “fourth concentric circle of mobilization” that would involve stakeholders who were historically considered outsiders into the process, including non-state actors, so that they could influence the trajectory of the negotiations?
Negotiation Challenge #3: How could Christiana Figueres get the Saudis, who had been staunch opponents of a climate deal, to change their minds and support a meaningful agreement in Paris?
Negotiation Challenge #4: How should Figueres handle the traditional timing of the visits of heads of state to the Paris COP?
Christiana Figueres and the Paris Climate Negotiations: Figueres the Negotiator (C)
- 2024 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
As UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Christiana Figueres was tasked with a seemingly insurmountable challenge of putting together an impactful, global climate agreement. Coming out of the dramatic failure of the Copenhagen summit five years before, many believed that such an agreement was not possible. However, with persistent optimism and careful, targeted interventions, in 2015 the Paris Agreement was adopted by the 196 participating nations and set forth a new global consensus framework for international climate action that was anything but a “least common denominator” agreement.
Figueres had to personally undergo a transformation to let go of her identity as a Costa Rican diplomat so she could approach the negotiations from a global perspective and meet each participating nation from their perspective. The negotiation process itself was not just the two-week conference in Paris but instead was a years-long series of actions “away from the table" taken by Figueres and others years before the Paris talks to enhance the probability of a successful outcome at the negotiating table. By bringing different coalitions of countries and non-state actors together to lead the way, a more expansive agreement became possible. Here are the stop-action “negotiation challenges" for classroom discussion:
Negotiation Challenge #1: Given the controversy surrounding the “consensus” decision-making process in Cancun and prior Conferences of the Parties (“COPS”), how should Figueres handle this issue in Paris?
Negotiation Challenge #2: How could Figueres create a “fourth concentric circle of mobilization” that would involve stakeholders who were historically considered outsiders into the process, including non-state actors, so that they could influence the trajectory of the negotiations?
Negotiation Challenge #3: How could Christiana Figueres get the Saudis, who had been staunch opponents of a climate deal, to change their minds and support a meaningful agreement in Paris?
Negotiation Challenge #4: How should Figueres handle the traditional timing of the visits of heads of state to the Paris COP?