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Discover climate course materials and resources.
Search the shared repository of simulations, case descriptions and course syllabi to enhance your own climate-related teaching.
- Case Description
This series of six cases (labeled A through F, UVA-E-0233 through UVA-E-0238) presents the various dilemmas that arose in the spring of 2001 when engineers at the Seattle-based Boeing Company, unhappy with management decisions, contemplated and undertook a strike, the first “white-collar” work stoppage in the history of American business.
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Social Impact and Sustainability
- Case Description
This case presents the issues and dilemmas that Monsanto faced in deciding how to market its genetically modified products. It also covers patent issues, intellectual property, and licensing strategies.
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Social Impact and Sustainability
- Case Description
Judy Wiles, president and owner of First Impressions, Inc., needs new ideas to market her temporary-food-service employment agency to lucrative private accounts in suburban Detroit.
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Social Impact and Sustainability
- Case Description
The year was 1994, and Tienz sat at his desk contemplating the enormous scope of the job that was in front of him. Eskom and the provision of electricity had always been an integral part of the economic and social evolution of the South African nation.
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Social Impact and Sustainability
- Case Description
Neemix is a natural biopesticide developed by W. R. Grace from the neem tree, which is indigenous to rural India. Because of its medicinal and religious use by rural Indians for more than 1,000 years, the Foundation on Economic Trends is protesting Grace’s patenting of Neemix.
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Social Impact and Sustainability
- Case Description
The Marriott Corporation, family owned and run, has always had a nonunion stance. Its “welfare-to-work” programs have angered unions but have also created a more reliable low-wage workforce. These cases (see also the B case, UVA-E-0130) deal with the company’s efforts to reduce turnover in its low-wage positions (thus saving money), help those on welfare find employment, and maintain its traditionally high standards of operation.
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Social Impact and Sustainability
- Case Description
This case presents the social dilemmas that can result from technological innovation. Video programming offered by the Baby Bells in the 1990s was not made available to poor and rural neighborhoods. The case promotes discussion of “haves” versus “have nots,” potential costs of poor deployment, regulatory delays, and public relations.
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Social Impact and Sustainability
- Case Description
From 2017 to 2018, the Connecticut Green Bank (“CGB”) experienced a dramatic change in fortunes. In July of 2017, the Harvard Kennedy School of Government gave the bank its prestigious Ash prize in policy innovation…
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Social Impact and Sustainability
- Case Description
In 2014, the four largest palm oil trading companies signed an agreement to end deforestation, development of peat lands and exploitation of locals not only with their own operations, but also from all of their suppliers…
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Social Impact and Sustainability
- Case Description
Throughout the world, Cummins Inc. meant diesels. The company designed, manufactured, distributed, and serviced diesel and natural gas engines, for transportation, construction, and power generation…
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Social Impact and Sustainability
- Case Description
In 2015, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) discovered that German automaker Volkswagen A.G. (VW) used software to cheat air emissions testing in about 590,000 “clean diesel” vehicles under the Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche nameplates in the United States. All told, VW included the software defeat switch in about 11 million diesel cars worldwide. Some assessed that up to 1,000 employees in the organization had known about the fraud and kept silent for over a decade.
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Social Impact and Sustainability
- Case Description
Standing at water’s edge, Marina Bay Sands (MBS) annually attracted 45 million visitors who came to lodge, to gamble, to shop, to relax, to attend meetings or weddings, to eat, or simply to gawk at the facilities…
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Social Impact and Sustainability
- Case Description
Under the leadership of Chairperson Catherine Brown and CEO Ulanbek Termechikov, Kompanion grew from a small company to a market leader in the Kyrgyz MFI sector with over 120,000 clients. As it grew, Kompanion continued to adhere to the humanitarian philosophy of its parent company, Mercy Corps, an NGO focused on economic aid and disaster relief.
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Social Impact and Sustainability
- Case Description
In September 2012, Nikhil Jaisinghani poured over Mera Gao Power’s (MGP) records in his small office on the third floor of one of Sitapur district’s tallest buildings.
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Social Impact and Sustainability
- Case Description
Honey Care guided farmers through the entire honey supply chain – producing and selling modern hives to farmers, managing the hives from installation to harvest to ensure quality, and purchasing honey from the farmers.
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Social Impact and Sustainability
- Case Description
This case investigates LaCroix sparkling water and its connection to perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), as a study of chemical compounds in carbonated beverages has captured the public’s attention.
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Corporate Sustainability Strategy
- Case Description
This case focuses on Ferrero SpA’s sustainable palm oil sourcing strategy in light of its acquisition of Nestlé’s U.S. confectionery brands, which in many ways does not comply with Ferrero’s sustainable sourcing commitments.
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Corporate Sustainability Strategy
- Case Description
Stripe, a San Francisco-based financial and software as a service (SaaS) company, is launching a platform to encourage its clients to invest in carbon removal technologies.
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Corporate Sustainability Strategy
- Case Description
This case analyzes the University of Michigan (U-M) Endowment Fund’s capability and potential responsibility to divest from fossil fuels. Similar educational institutions, such as the University of California system, had cut fossil fuels from their portfolios, posing the question of whether U-M President Mark Schlissel would be able to do the same amid the university’s stakeholder pressures.
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Corporate Sustainability Strategy
- Case Description
In 2017, Amazon began its search for a second headquarters location. From 20 finalists, after a bidding process that lasted nearly a year, Amazon selected two locations: Long Island City in the borough of Queens, New York City; and Arlington, Virginia.
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Corporate Sustainability Strategy, Sustainability Reporting and Measurement

