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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.
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Winner of the 2024 Business Book Awards (Change & Sustainability category)
Winner of the Bronze Axiom Business Book Award 2024 in the Philanthropy / Non Profit / Sustainability category.
This book should be core reading in every MBA and beyond!
Every manager and every employee in every function can embed climate solutions and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This book, written by experts in the field of sustainability in business, shows you how.
The climate crisis is one of the greatest challenges we face today, and it affects all aspects of business and society. Consequently, everyone needs to know the best high-impact climate solutions that can be embedded into their organisational area. In this book you will find ideas for your team, your department and your organisation to make this a reality. We provide you with implementation plans and inspiring case studies, with practical and helpful tools that will help you to scale up climate solutions effectively and efficiently. If you are an owner of a company or an executive in any organisation, you will benefit from this step-by-step guide on how to set up your own greenhouse gas management plan, how to set targets and how to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of your whole organisation. We explain key terms such as Net Zero, Carbon Neutral, carbon emissions equivalents and the three scopes. In order to halve our emissions worldwide by 2030 to achieve Net Zero by 2050, individual actions on a large scale are required, but also systemic changes. We look at the bigger picture in this book and also how you could effect change.
This is the first book to offer an easy-to-implement approach to decarbonise organisations and transform societies, and is appropriate for managers at any level. This book can also be used in business schools to inspire future managers and business leaders. Last, but not least, everyone can find ideas here that they can implement in their personal lives – let’s scale up together!
- Topics on: Finance, Investing, Policy
- Resource
Are you ready to boost your climate knowledge? This engaging, asynchronous e-learning course will help you discover key climate terms and mechanisms, prepare you with essential knowledge about hazards impacting your community and industry, and introduce you to effective adaptation and mitigation strategies at regional, national, and international levels. This 1.5-hour course is tailored to your location and industry and equips you to make a real impact in your field.
Learning Outcomes:
– Describe fundamental climate concepts including the greenhouse effect, feedbacks, mitigation, adaptation, and resilience
– Understand that humans depend on and are affected by Earth’s systems at the local, regional, and global level
– Describe the impacts of climate change on ecosystem health and human communities, including how those impacts are unevenly distributed
– Describe how human activities contribute to climate change and identify actions to reduce impacts
– Develop a basic understanding of how different industries interact with social equity, public health, economic prosperity, and environmental systems in the context of climate hazards
– Gain basic awareness of industry-specific, national, and global solutions to mitigate and adapt to climate change
– Explore credible sources of information about climate change
- Topics on: Adaptation, Impact, Mitigation, Science
- Resource
Sustainability case and module collection link within the Harvard Business Publishing website.
- Topics on: Finance, Strategy
- Case Description
The case describes the Greenest City 2020 Action Plan, formally launched by the city of Vancouver in 2011, which is intended to make Vancouver the greenest city on the planet. Gregor Robertson, mayor of Vancouver, is the main champion of the ambitious strategic plan. While he has a successful past as a social entrepreneur and has implemented several green urban initiatives as mayor, he struggles with some areas and aspects of the plan. Moreover, a recent report has indicated that the city’s reputation has suffered. This all happens in the context of imminent elections, and he has doubts about the plan’s true value as a valid vehicle for improving quality of life for Vancouver’s residents and as a tool for attracting voters.
- Topics on: Impact, Planning
- Case Description
In 2013, Hampton Creek entered the mayonnaise marketplace with the world’s first plant-based, vegan mayonnaise “Just Mayo”. The creation of an egg-free version of mayonnaise had the potential to upset the market, especially for Unilever’s Hellmann’s brand.
- Topics on: Food, Impact
- Case Description
This series of cases (see also the A [UVA-E-0107], B [UVA-E-0108], D [UVA-E-0110], and E [UVA-E-0147] cases) takes students through five design-and-manufacturing decisions confronting Albin Kalin, managing director of Rohner Textil AG, a textiles manufacturer in northeastern Switzerland.
- Topics on: Food, Impact
- Case Description
This case describes DuPont’s sustainable seaweed program, in partnership with the New England Aquarium, and discusses the changing market landscape for seaweed: an undervalued ingredient widely used in much of the world’s food supplies, fertilizers, industrial gums, pharmaceuticals, biofuels, plastic, and more.
- Topics on: Circular Economy, Food, Strategy
- Case Description
In 2018, the city of Montreal debated a ban on the commercial use of wood-burning ovens used by the city’s famous and iconic bagel shops.
- Topics on: Analytics, Food, Investing, Reporting and Measurement, Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
Aleph Farms, an Israeli food-tech start-up, was hoping to play a major role in disrupting the conventional meat sector.
- Topics on: Food, Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
- Topics on: Food, Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
After Mozambique’s independence in 1975 from nearly five centuries of Portuguese rule, the country’s development continued to be hindered by large-scale emigration, drought, and a brutal 15-year-old civil war. Beyond the emotional and social scars that continued…
- Topics on: Food, Impact, Strategy
- Case Description
- Topics on: Food, Impact, Investing, Technology
- Case Description
- Topics on: Food, Investing, Statistics, Technology
- Case Description
- Topics on: Food, Statistics, Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
- Topics on: Food, Impact, Operations, Statistics, Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
- Topics on: Food, Investing, Technology
- Case Description
With increasing attention from consumers surrounding food safety and public health, it comes at no surprise that Perdue Farms is considering eliminating antibiotic use in its poultry operations. Perdue is positioned to receive…
- Topics on: Food, Impact, Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, Michigan, began operations as a corner delicatessen selling sandwiches. It grew to become a community of ten businesses, establishing itself as a local favorite and a nationally known achiever…
- Topics on: Food, Impact, Investing, Statistics, Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
The “Whole Foods: A Luxury Grocer in Detroit?” case describes the various considerations store manager, Larry Austin, must make when the co-CEO requests a report on whether targeting store locations outside of the normal company demographic is advisable.
- Topics on: Food, Impact
- Case Description
This case focuses on Birgit Cameron, senior director of Patagonia Provisions, and her colleagues as they attempt to increase the scale of sustainable regenerative organic agriculture in two ways.
- Topics on: Food, Impact

