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
Decarbonizing Health Care: Engaging Leaders in Change
- May 2023 |
- Article |
- NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery
Apple's iPhone Revolution: Pioneering the Circular Economy
- April 2023 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Strive Asset Management
- April 2023 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Getting a Clearer View of Your Company’s Carbon Footprint
- April 3, 2023 |
- Article |
- Harvard Business Review Digital Articles
Christiana Figueres and the Collaborative Approach to Negotiating Climate Action
- 2023 |
- 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 aimed at building momentum, in 2015 the Paris Agreement was adopted by the 196 participating nations and set forth a new global consensus framework for international climate action.
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 to help enhance the probability of a successful outcome at the negotiating table. These actions included coalition building discussions with private industry and civil society groups, like-minded nations, in which small teams of strategic influencers worked with partners behind the scenes to build support for an ambitious outcome. By bringing different coalitions of countries and non-state actors together to lead the way, a more expansive agreement became possible.
On
- March 2023 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Doing Business in Helsinki, Finland
- February 2023 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Accounting for Carbon Offsets – Establishing the Foundation for Carbon-Trading Markets
- 2023 |
- Working Paper |
- Faculty Research
Natura: Weathering the Pandemic at Brazil's Cosmetic Giant
- January 2023 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Elon Musk at Tesla
- January 2023 (Revised May 2023) |
- Case |
- Faculty Research