Explore Materials
Discover climate course materials and resources.
Search the shared repository of simulations, case descriptions and course syllabi to enhance your own climate-related teaching.
- Course
This elective will explore current developments and trends in sustainable finance & investment, with a special focus on capital markets, institutional investment and emerging markets. Sustainable finance has rapidly become a major growth area in the capital markets, with annual sustainable debt issuance alone forecast to grow to US1.5 trillion in 2022 from a virtual standing start only six years ago. Investor and lender interest in environmental, social & governance (ESG) issues as well as concerns about climate change and other externalities has led to rapid policy and regulatory response with substantial changes proposed to the financial ecosystem.
Meanwhile a new sustainable finance assessment and data industry has sprung up to provide the market with information on the sustainability credentials of entities as well as innovative new financial instruments. Emerging themes such as transition finance, adaptation and resilience, net zero portfolio alignment and nature-based investing have also become increasingly mainstream in the finance community.
- Topics on: Climate Finance, Climate Sustainability
- Course
Climate change presents one of the central challenges of our generation, with a wide range of effects on financial markets and the broader economy. At the same time, financial markets play an important role in financing the transition to a net-zero economy. In this class, we study the interaction between climate change and firms, financial markets, energy markets, regulators, and policy makers.
Given that climate change and sustainability issues more generally are affecting nearly every aspect of the corporate, regulatory, and non-profit worlds, the class will be valuable for students with a wide range of backgrounds and career goals, whether they are directly interested in climate and sustainability issues or primarily want to gain a better understanding of how these issues influence more traditional roles in the corporate and financial sector.
The class is very applied in its outlook—for example, a range of guest speakers from industry, regulators, and nonprofits will visit the classroom—but we will frame the analysis through the lens of economic frameworks that help students think through the interactions between climate change and the broader economy in a systematic way. The objective is that the broad selection of topics and guest speakers will provide a variety of complementary perspectives on how climate change will shape economics and finance over the coming decades.
- Topics on: Climate Finance, Climate Sustainability
- Course
Pressure for sustainable development has significant implications for firms, particularly large multinational corporations. With free trade on the rise, long-term opportunities exist for firms able to identify, develop, and deploy technologies, products, and services that contribute to sustainable practices and resource use in the developing world. This course examines how long-term competitive positioning can be secured through strategies such as positioning can be secured through strategies such a environmental partnerships, technology cooperation, and collaborative planning.
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Corporate Sustainability Strategy
- Course
This course is designed and delivered by the Erb Institute and tailored specifically for incoming Erb students – including both first-year students, as well as second-year Ross and SEAS students who joined Erb as midyear admits. This is a survey course, which presents a high-level introduction to a wide range of sustainability issues rather than a theoretical analysis or deep-dive into any one particular issue area. A combination of Erb speakers, university faculty and invited sustainability practitioners will lead the sessions.
The discussions are designed to be interactive and engaging – which means that the full learning experience will depend on both speaker and student involvement. The Erb Institute’s perspective on “robust sustainability” covers a broad range of economic, social, environmental, labor, and human-rights risks and opportunities for business. Our stakeholder-based view of the firm (contrasted with the traditional shareholder-based view) recognizes the role of both internal and external stakeholders in helping companies to better understand sustainability issues, minimize risks and leverage business opportunities.
- Topics on: Climate Justice, Climate Sustainability
- Course
The goal of this course is to give students a solid grasp of the environmental and social impacts of, and the institutions that govern, energy use, so that you can play a more effective role in shaping future policy or business decisions. We will begin with basic scientific and technological facts regarding the major uses for and sources of energy. We will then study energy markets (including spot and future markets), and what they are capable of accomplishing; we will also study the ways energy markets may fail.
This will lead into an overview of the role of government in influencing energy decisions, starting with a high-level perspective, and then working with a series of case studies that examine in depth what government has accomplished in the area of energy policy. The course will wrap up with several current policy/business issues such as renewable portfolio standards, markets for renewable energy credits, and integrating the transportation sector into a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions.
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Corporate Sustainability Strategy, Energy
- Course
This course explores “sustainability” as an overarching framework for life in the 21st century— and how this integrated policy concept diverges from the approaches to environmental protection and economic development that were pursued in the 20th century. It will examine the interlocking challenges that stem from society’s simultaneous desires for economic, environmental, and social progress despite the tensions among these objectives.
A central focus of the course will be on the design and implementation of systems that can support a vibrant economy and rising quality of life and—at the same time—reduce pollution, address climate change, conserve natural resources, and mitigate the other negative impacts of industrialization and economic growth. Students will review the data and analyses that flow from the Earth’s recent economic growth trajectory, read the “sustainability canon” from John Muir and Aldo Leopold to Rachel Carson and Gro Harlem Brundtland, and participate in an experiential learning module on the intersection of climate change and international cooperation and development. Lectures, readings, and sections will then unpack the ecological, political, economic, legal, institutional, and historical elements of sustainability as a guidepost for the future.
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Social Impact and Sustainability
- Course
This course will examine the scientific, economic, legal, political, institutional, regulatory, and historical underpinnings of climate change as an issue and the related policy challenges of creating and sustaining a prosperous decarbonized modern society. Particular attention will be given to analyzing the existing U.S. and international framework of treaties, laws, regulations, and policies and the incentives they have created to address the build-up of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere.
The course will center on a set of critical questions including: What would a 21st century policy framework that is designed to deliver a successful response to climate change look like? Does the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement provide the right foundation for action? How should issues of (in)equity be addressed? How might incentives be structured to engage the business community in climate change problem-solving?
While designed as a lecture course, class sessions will be highly interactive. Required readings cover broad thematic territory, commensurate with the sweeping coverage of the course. Readings include several books and a number of articles, studies, and reports that will be available on the Canvas. Students are expected to come to each class prepared to engage in back and forth dialogue around critical topics and questions, which are provided for each class session in the syllabus below.
There are no prerequisites for this course, although some familiarity with environmental law and policy will be helpful, as would a basic understanding of climate change science. As the course will reference a wide range of current events, we recommend that you read a major daily newspaper to stay abreast of developments in the energy and environmental domains. The Yale University Library provides online access to The New York Times, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Affairs. The library also offers access to “survey” publications such as Energy & Environment Publishing, a well-regarded news service that specializes in energy and environmental topics.
Students are encouraged to enroll simultaneously in Professor Sue Biniaz’s four-week “Climate Change Negotiations” mini-course, which will cover complementary material – or her full semester course within the Jackson Institute. Students interested in attending the 2019 Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP25) in Santiago, Chile may also want to enroll in Professor Gordon Geballe’s half-semester “International Organizations and Conferences” course, which will cover practical details about the COP process. The Geballe course will prepare students to contribute as informed delegates at COP25. Students enrolled in the Geballe course will participate in a special weekly discussion section of FES 840a, led by Sophie Boehm (FES ’20).
- Topics on: Climate Policy, Climate Sustainability
- Course
5.S05 explores Building Sector Energy and Climate Innovations; such as technologies and services that strategically enhance building efficiency and electrification; incorporate site solar, battery storage, and electric vehicles; and are enabled to integrate with today’s increasingly renewable electric grids. Such innovations provide a foundation for a New Era for Energy Management: technology and business innovations supported by climate-centric public policies as well as a robust Green Capital market. These enable the energy management industry (over $200 billion worldwide) to rapidly grow due to: • Strong economics: with technology and price trends which are positive and dramatic. • Needed for Climate: Large scale energy management is a substantial and essential component of world carbon balance, and with no net cost (positive NPV).
Strong Demand for energy that is Digitized, Decarbonized, and Democratized: especially when market innovations make it costless (up front), riskless, effortless, and for some, a choice as to how and where their energy is produced (Prosumers). With enabling support from the instructors, materials, and assignments, class members examine and reflect on emerging technology, analytic, business, and policy innovations that help achieve today’s imperatives for a sustainable and equitable future. We then consider together strategies that may further advance Energy Management’s impact and benefits
- Topics on: Behavioral Economics, Climate Justice, Climate Sustainability, Climate Tech, Renewable Energy
- Course
Introduction to System Dynamics and this course have been combined as of 2020.
Focuses on developing the skills and tools needed to successfully apply systems thinking and simulation modeling in diverse real-world settings, including growth strategy, management of technology, operations, public policy, product development, supply chains, forecasting, project management, process improvement, service operations, and platform-based businesses, among others.
Uses simulation models, management flight simulators, and case studies to deepen conceptual and modeling skills beyond what is introduced in 15.871. Exploring case studies of successful applications, students develop proficiency in how to use qualitative and quantitative data to formulate and test models, and how to work effectively with senior executives to successfully implement change. Prepares students for further work in the field. Meets with 15.871 in first half of term when offered concurrently. Students taking 15.871 complete additional assignments
- Topics on: Behavioral Economics, Climate Policy, Climate Sustainability, Decision, Risk, and Operations
- Course
15.871 and 873 introduce you to system dynamics modeling for the analysis of business, strategy, and public policy problems. You will learn to visualize a business organization or environmental system in terms of the structures and policies that create dynamics and determine performance.
System dynamics allows us to create ‘microworlds,’ management flight simulators where space and time can be compressed, slowed, and stopped so we can experience the long-term side effects of decisions, systematically explore new strategies, and develop our understanding of complex systems. We will use simulation models, case studies, and management flight simulators to develop principles of policy design for successful management of complex strategies. Case studies of successful strategy design and implementation using system dynamics will be stressed. We consider the use of systems thinking to promote effective organizational learning and policy design.
- Topics on: Climate Finance, Climate Policy, Climate Sustainability, Corporate Sustainability Strategy
- Course
This course provides a framework to describe and formulate an operations. Furthermore, decisions about different areas of operations must be consistent with each other. Choices about facilities, capacity, vertical integration, process technology, control and information systems, sourcing, human resources, organization and other areas are all strategic choices that significantly affect what the business brings to the marketplace.
This course will examine how these strategic decisions can be made in a coherent manner to enable an organization’s business strategy. It will also emphasize operations design as a source of competitive advantage. The course will highlight the importance of the triple bottom line: how organizations should consider financial, environmental, and social performance/impacts in an integrated manner to achieve real sustainability.
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Decision, Risk, and Operations
- Course
In this course, we examine how labor markets work and how they are evolving over time, and analyze public policy interventions in labor markets. We focus primarily on contemporary urban labor markets in the US, but will also consider evidence from other contexts, time periods, and countries. We start by examining some of the most important trends in the US labor market over recent decades, including rising income inequality, falling employment and unemployment, technological change and changing skill demand, globalization, falling worker power, the fissuring workplace and the rise of the gig economy. We bring to bear core frameworks from labor economics to analyze these trends.
The primary focus of the course is public policy approaches to improve wages and increase employment. We start with education and training, critically analyzing evidence on the returns to
college and postgraduate education, and investigating ways the workforce development and on-the job training systems could be improved. We next move to policies which affect pay and its distribution across occupation, race, and gender lines, including minimum wages, work subsidies, unions, family leave, and anti-discrimination policies. Third, we consider employment, analyzing the design and effects of unemployment insurance, active labor market policies, and policies to tackle persistent non-employment. Finally, we cover the labor market effects of immigration and the determinants of pay for top earners (and other topics of interest to students, if desired).
- Topics on: Climate Finance, Climate Justice, Climate Policy, Climate Sustainability
- Course
The first one addresses questions of sustainability from a macroeconomic point of view. The underlying problem is how can standards of living be improved in a sustainable manner. In this context, sustainability has more than one dimension: (i) obviously sustainability from the environmental and resource use; but also from the (ii) social and political; (iii) institutions; (iv) economy and markets; (v) organizations; (vi) relations; (vii) and personal. Growth in standards of living and social wellbeing needs all dimensions to be internally consistent. The second part of the course deals with two topics. ESG measurement and Crypto Assets.
- Topics on: Climate Finance, Climate Policy, Climate Sustainability
- Course
The shape of work in the future will largely be determined by how we respond to circumstances today. The 20th century social contract is unraveling in the face of technological change, globalization, financial innovation, and political upheaval. The global pandemic has laid bare the growing wage and wealth gaps in our society, and the lack of voice, power, and resources available to the workers essential to our society’s functioning. But, this moment could be a turning point: a 21st century business order has yet to crystallize.
As business leaders you will help shape the future of work. Can we learn from the successes and failures of the past and present to shape an inclusive world of work? What are the choices you will make to create value for people as they contribute to firm profitability?
- Topics on: Energy
- Course
The course takes an operations point of view to look at companies and industries in the service sector. It builds on conceptual frameworks and draws upon examples from a wide range of service operations: health care, hospitality, transportation, retailing, food service, financial services, among others. Note that this course has a point of view. It focuses on how to design and manage operations to create value for customers, employees, and investors simultaneously. It is possible to create value for investors by leaving customers or employees behind. Consistent with the mission of MIT Sloan, we will not learn how to do that.
Introduction to Operations Management course (15.761) is a pre-requisite or co-requisite for this course. The course is primarily case based. There is also a course project (see below).
- Topics on: Climate Tech, Decision, Risk, and Operations
- Course
Energy Economics and Policy (EEP) is: about energy markets and policies applied to them. lt is designed to give class participants practical experience in making connections between economic concepts and real-world regulatory policy questions in a set of extremely important, interrelated market — energy market. Drawing on the tools of economics, this course will study the efficiency and public policy issues raised in energy markets, and in the environmental markets to which they are closely tied.
How do energy markets work? When and how should the government regulate energy markets? How should firms respond to these regulations? How should we think about carbon dioxide emissions and other environmental externalities? What is the role for energy efficiency, innovation, and incentives?
- Topics on: Climate Finance, Climate Policy, Climate Sustainability, Renewable Energy
- Course
The traditional financial reporting model is deficient in two fundamental respects: (i) we set the cost of natural capital used by the business to zero; and (ii) we either under-emphasize or ignore accounting for externalities, both positive and negative, imposed by the business on other stakeholders.
The objective of this class is exploring one major aspect of natural capital and its attendant risks—related to climate. The focus is mostly on how companies, both in the U.S. and elsewhere, measure, disclose, govern and hence manage (or sometimes mis-manage) climate risk exposures.
The Paris Agreement of 2015 was meant to mobilize a global response to the threat of climate change, amid growing concerns by scientific experts, as documented in a series of IPCC reports. Since the Paris agreement was signed, hundreds of firms have made net zero emissions promises. Regulators and the investment community has been pushing firms to evaluate their climate risk exposure and the impact thereof on the firm’s business model and value drivers.
- Topics on: Climate Sustainability, Decision, Risk, and Operations
- Course
The Impact Investing course provides students with an overview of the entire spectrum of investing approaches used by impact investors. This is done through a combination of cases and lectures by the professor, and guest presentations by leading impact investors and thought leaders. The substantive areas covered include: (1) how investors and investment managers and advisors select and structure their impact investments; (2) the differing financial return and social impact return expectations of impact investors; and (3) the challenges and methodologies for measuring impact.
This block week course is designed around the different types of impact investments from the perspective of investors, and is composed of four modules:
- Responsible Investing – socially responsible investing (SRI) is designed to screen public equity investments of companies or sectors believed to be causing social harm.
- Sustainable Investing – also referred to as ESG investing, is designed to select public or private equity investments using fundamental analysis that incorporates environmental, social, and governance factors.
- Thematic Investing –private equity and venture capital investments designed to earn a market risk-adjusted return while also addressing a specific social or environmental problem.
- Impact First Investing – private investments designed primarily to address a social or environmental problem, with no expectation of achieving market returns.
- Topics on: Climate Investing, Climate Tech