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.
- Case Description
Using the financing history and exit choices of a German clean-tech startup as a lens, this case explores the reasons why venture-backed entrepreneurship is much lower in Germany than the US, despite a robust SME sector and large-corporate innovation in Germany…
- Topics on: Investing, Statistics, Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
In the three years since Bishop and Button purchased Verengo in a leveraged buyout (LBO), the company had gone through dramatic changes. Initially a residential windows and insulation firm, after the economic recession of 2008 the company switched gears and…
- Topics on: Investing, Statistics, Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
In 2010, for the first time in 23 years, PepsiCo did not invest in Superbowl advertising for its iconic brand. Instead, the company diverted this $20 million to the social media-fueled Pepsi Refresh Project: PepsiCo’s innovative cause-marketing program in which…
- Topics on: Investing, Statistics, Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
Warren Adams founded Patagonia Sur in 2007 as one of the world’s first for-profit land conservation businesses. His goal was to purchase over 100,000 acres of land in southern Chile and to run a variety of sustainable businesses to generate annual returns for…
- Topics on: Investing, Statistics, Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
Entrepreneur wrestles with business model using SMS and RFID technology, franchising, and leasing to rapidly grow off-the-grid water purification business without subsidies. The company seeks to provide potable water services to rural and urban India where…
- Topics on: Investing, Statistics, Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
Arcadia Biosciences is seeking to introduce genetically modified rice to China that will lower farmers’ costs and generate environmental benefits through reduced greenhouse gas emissions. The case describes challenges facing this small agricultural biotechnology…
- Topics on: Investing, Operations, Statistics, Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
Having begun improving the environmental performance of its own operations, Aspen Skiing Company is considering “greening” its supply chain and lobbying for greenhouse gas regulations. A world renowned ski resort vulnerable to global climate change, Aspen’s…
- Topics on: Investing, Statistics, Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
Patagonia was deeply committed to the environment. This commitment, at times, conflicted with the company’s goal to create the most innovative products in its industry. Patagonia’s founder and executives welcomed imitation of both its environmental commitment…
- Topics on: Investing, Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
In early 2010, cleantech investment pioneer Tsing Capital was planning for the China Environment Fund IV and considering how to maintain its commitment to social and environmental practices. Tsing Capital embraced its philosophy of “Doing Well by Doing…
- Topics on: Investing, Statistics, Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
The case focuses on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the $38 billion of stimulus funding the DOE received to encourage clean tech. They focus on “bridging the valley of death” (i.e., helping young, innovative companies finance technically risky and very…
- Topics on: Investing, Statistics, Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
Woolf Farming Company, a privately owned family farming business in California’s Central Valley, found its business threatened by a lack of water, brought on by a combination of drought, poor quality well water and unavailability of surface water due to federally…
- Topics on: Investing, Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
Just months after declaring their intent to become a solar cell equipment supplier, van Mierlo and Sachs were again revisiting the issue of what the company should be. Becoming a successful solar cell manufacturer would potentially be much more lucrative…
- Topics on: Analytics, Justice, Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
Suntech, a Chinese manufacturer of photovoltaic cells and solar panels, is the third largest solar company in the world. About 90 percent of its sales have been in Europe—especially Germany and Spain. But with its new “pluto” technology, and with new governmental…
- Topics on: Analytics, Investing, Statistics, Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
This case describes Millipore Corporation’s approach to becoming a more environmentally sustainable company. As he prepared for his quarterly meeting with the CEO, the Director of Sustainability needed to develop positions on several issues. Tactically,…
- Topics on: Investing, Statistics, Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
Three pressing challenges (equity split, extent of commitment to social responsibility, and product discoloration) confront VeeV, the world’s first alcoholic beverage infused with acai berries. Brothers Courtney and Carter Reum founded VeeV in 2007 and the…
- Topics on: Analytics, Justice, Strategy
- Case Description
This case is about Colbún, Chile’s second largest electricity generator, which is facing significant uncertainty regarding the cost and availability of alternative energy sources. Problems with the contracted supply of natural gas and the volatility of oil prices, coupled…
- Topics on: Investing, Statistics, Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
This case describes how a company improves resource efficiency and process quality in its manufacturing process by developing a waste by-product into a new product. The case describes how CCP cleans production equipment between batches using styrene, which…
- Topics on: Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
With prices of oil, coal and gas at historically high levels, the wind industry had installed more than 20,000 MW of wind energy, representing a $37 billion investment in 2007. Besides high prices, wind energy represented a solution for consumers seeking an energy…
- Topics on: Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
Cape Wind is an extreme example of NIMBY–not in my backyard syndrome. This is the first offshore wind project planned for the United States, in Nantucket Sound, just south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Initially proposed six years ago, in 2001, the wind farm…
- Topics on: Statistics, Strategy, Technology
- Case Description
On August 1, 2007, 61-year-old Jan-Olaf Willums’ plane was flying along the Greenland coastline on his way back to Norway after intense discussions with several prominent U.S. venture capital investors, among them Kleiner Perkins and Rockport Capital Partners,…
- Topics on: Statistics, Strategy