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- January 2022
- Article
Why Is Corporate Virtue in the Eye of the Beholder? The Case of ESG Ratings
By: Dane Christensen, George Serafeim and Anywhere Sikochi
Despite the rising use of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings, there is substantial disagreement across rating agencies regarding what rating to give to individual firms. As what drives this disagreement is unclear, we examine whether a firm’s ESG...
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- December 2021
- Case
Danish Crown: Feeding the Future
By: David E. Bell, Damien P. McLoughlin, Daniela Beyersdorfer and Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej
Danish Crown, one of the world’s largest exporters of pork meat and one of Europe’s tops five producers of beef, faced increasing headwinds in 2021, making CEO Jais Valeur feel like the core of the meat business was under attack. As a cooperative and prominent player...
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Keywords:
Agribusiness;
Animal-Based Agribusiness;
Food;
Environmental Management;
Climate Change;
Environmental Sustainability;
Nutrition;
Cooperative Ownership;
Change Management;
Transition;
Leadership;
Leading Change;
Marketing;
Product Marketing;
Corporate Strategy;
Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Europe;
Denmark
- Working Paper
ESG: Hyperboles and Reality
By: George Serafeim
ESG has rapidly become a household name leading to both confusion about what it means and creating unrealistic expectations about its effects. In this paper, I draw on more than a decade of research to dispel several myths about ESG and provide answers to important...
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- November 2021
- Case
QuantumScape's Mission to Revolutionize Energy Storage for a Sustainable Future
By: William A. Sahlman, Allison M. Ciechanover and Jeff Huizinga
QuantumScape CEO Jagdeep Singh juggles the many activities required to lead the next-generation battery pioneer. Founded in 2010, QuantumScape’s mission was to develop new “solid-state” car batteries that would improve upon traditional lithium-ion batteries in key...
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- 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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- October 2021
- Case
Green Hydrogen in Chile
By: Tarun Khanna, Jenyfeer Martínez Buitrago and Mariana Cal
In 2020, the Chilean government wants to promote green hydrogen, a technology with high potential to help mitigate climate change. President Sebastián Piñera, aware of the country's advantages to produce green hydrogen competitively, asks Energy Minister Juan Carlos...
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- October 2021
- Article
Shareholder Activism and Firms' Voluntary Disclosure of Climate Change Risks
By: Caroline Flammer, Michael W. Toffel and Kala Viswanathan
This paper examines whether—in the absence of mandated disclosure requirements—shareholder activism can elicit greater disclosure of firms’ exposure to climate change risks. We find that environmental shareholder activism increases the voluntary disclosure of climate...
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Keywords:
Transparency;
Reporting;
Shareholder Engagement;
Shareholder Activism;
Climate Change;
Risk and Uncertainty;
Environmental Management;
Investment Activism;
Corporate Disclosure;
Communication Strategy;
Information Publishing;
Measurement and Metrics;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Problems and Challenges;
United States
- September 2021 (Revised October 2021)
- Case
Dream: Impact Through Real Estate
By: Michael Chu and John Masko
The Canadian city of Toronto had one of the largest housing affordability problems of any city in the developed world. One company trying to address this problem was Dream, one of the largest real estate groups in Canada. In 2021, Dream had just launched a new system...
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Keywords:
Impact Investing;
Real Estate Development;
Renewable Energy;
Energy Conservation;
Income;
Values and Beliefs;
Borrowing and Debt;
Equity;
Private Equity;
Public Equity;
Financing and Loans;
City;
Government Legislation;
Immigration;
Housing;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Mission and Purpose;
Property;
Business and Government Relations;
Civil Society or Community;
Human Needs;
Sustainable Cities;
Environmental Sustainability;
Social Enterprise;
Real Estate Industry;
Canada;
Toronto
- September 2021
- Article
Innovation in the 21st Century: Architectural Change, Purpose, and the Challenges of Our Time
Understanding the process of innovation has been a central concern of management researchers, but despite this progress, there remains much that we do not understand. Deepening our knowledge is critically important given the enormous environmental and social challenges...
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- August 2021 (Revised November 2021)
- Case
Allbirds: Decarbonizing Fashion
By: Michael W. Toffel, Ken Pucker and Eren Kuzucu
Allbirds is a footwear startup focused on simple design, comfort, and sustainable natural materials. The case describes the company’s product development process that works with suppliers to develop natural materials including wool and sugarcane to substitute for...
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Keywords:
Decarbonization;
Climate Impact;
Environmental Strategy;
Innovation;
Product Design;
Supply Chain Management;
Innovation Strategy;
Innovation and Management;
Product Development;
Climate Change;
Environmental Management;
Environmental Sustainability;
Apparel and Accessories Industry;
Fashion Industry;
United States;
California
- August 2021
- Case
Danone S.A.: Becoming a Mission-Driven Company (A)
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Emilie Billaud
Emmanuel Faber became CEO of Danone SA, the French food and beverage company, in 2014. Right from the start, he ran the company with a dual commitment to both profit and purpose (i.e., ESG objectives). In fact, in 2018, he said, “It’s time to make sustainable business...
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- August 2021
- Supplement
Danone S.A.: Becoming a Mission-Driven Company (B)
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Emilie Billaud
Describes the events that took place in the first six months after Danone became France’s first “entreprise à mission” (mission-driven company).
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- August 2021
- Supplement
Danone S.A.: Becoming a Mission-Driven Company (C)
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Emilie Billaud
Describes the events that took place in the first year after Danone became France’s first “entreprise à mission” (mission-driven company).
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- Article
Making Small Farms More Sustainable—and Profitable
By: Lino Dias, Robert S. Kaplan and Harmanpreet Singh
Smallholder farms provide a large proportion of food supply in developing economies, but 40% of these farmers live on less than U.S.$2/day and their deforestation produces environmental degradation. With a rapidly growing global population, it is imperative to improve...
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- August 2021
- Background Note
Oil: History, Present and Future
By: Jurgen Weiss
This background note is intended to provide context for a discussion of the strategies for big integrated oil companies in light of both oil’s current role in the global energy system and the uncertainty about changes going forward.
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- August 2021
- Case
Northvolt: Making the World's Greenest Battery
By: Jurgen Weiss and Emilie Billaud
In 2021, the demand for lithium-ion batteries increased rapidly, particularly for electric vehicles. Anxious not to be reliant on Asian players, Europe was keen on developing its own home-grown capacity to control the value chain, maintain employment in Europe, and get...
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Keywords:
Electric Vehicles;
Lithium-ion Batteries;
Business Ventures;
Energy;
Green Technology;
Technological Innovation;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Competitive Advantage;
Transportation;
Supply Chain;
Globalized Markets and Industries;
Goals and Objectives;
Factories, Labs, and Plants;
Battery Industry;
Energy Industry;
Green Technology Industry;
Transportation Industry;
Europe;
Sweden;
Germany;
Poland
- 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
- Teaching Note
Digital Transformation 2.0: CEO Elie Girard at Atos
By: Tsedal Neeley
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 421-024. Elie Girard has taken the helm as CEO of multinational IT giant Atos to lead the company into the next era of digital transformation. Noticing that customers’ digital needs were evolving to become even more specialized and global...
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- 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