June 6

In this session, you will learn a framework to develop your organization’s sustainability strategy based on a case related to carbon emissions but also drawing from best practices from a variety of industries. We will discuss how to define sustainability for your organization, how to set goals, and whether/how to publicly report your impact and progress towards your goals. You will also learn how to choose the right metrics, the right boundaries (Scope 1 and 2 vs. Scope 3), and the associated risks and opportunities with each of these decisions. We will also discuss the ramifications of recent events such as the SEC disclosure guidelines.

Reading: Driving Decarbonization at BMW (The case is available in the Harvard Coursepack. You will have to register for a free account.)

Sustainable business opportunities and risks quite often (if not in most of the cases) lie somewhere else in the supply chain. For some industries and firms, this may be upstream with their suppliers, for some this may be downstream with their immediate or end-consumers. Or both!

In this session, we will discuss supply chain sustainability through the example of IKEA. In particular, you will be asked to break out into your groups, discuss the IKEA case, and decide as a group, which option should IKEA group pursue to address IKEA’s Wood Supply Chain sustainability goals. You will decide your plan of action as a group. Subsequently, we will have a class discussion together to discuss your recommendations. We will also discuss other sustainability supply chain challenges faced by other companies, and identify different solutions to address them.

Reading: Sustainability at IKEA Group (The case is available in the Harvard Coursepack. You will have to register for a free account.)

With extreme social and environmental movements on the rise in the United States and worldwide, companies are caught in the crosshairs. From movements on the conservative right such as anti-ESG and anti-LGBT “naturalists;” to on the progressive left movements for gun control, reproductive rights and trans rights; to racial equality and voting rights movements spanning the spectrum, advocates are looking to CSR and business C-suite leaders to address causes in an era of increasingly divided government. But balancing the needs of multiple stakeholders is complicated: What do you do when business employees want to work for inclusive, diverse and tolerant companies, but product consumers and activists are calling for boycotts and rejecting “woke” capitalism? In this discussion, Georgetown Adjunct Professor of CSR and author of How Change Happens, Leslie Crutchfield, will present the latest trends and what to expect around movements rising today, with a focus on what to expect as we head into the U.S. 2024 presidential election season.

Companies are actively seeking out innovative ways to generate economic value from sustainable energy sources and technologies. Several startups and established companies are adopting innovative business models to elevate their profits while also increasing the adoption of new technologies, such as rooftop solar panels and electric vehicles. Motivated by the ambitious goal of meeting their energy needs entirely from renewable sources, such as wind and solar energy, large corporations are sourcing unprecedented levels of renewable energy. In this session, we will explore these exciting developments in sustainable energy and technology. The primary objective is to equip you with the tools and frameworks to assess economic and environmental viability of innovative business models for sustainable energy and technology. We will focus on the current challenges and the opportunities associated with the transformation to a sustainable energy future.