ENVIR 502
Business Strategy and the Natural Environment

Spring 2016

Kevin Laverty • laverty (at) u.washington.edu

ENVIR 502 syllabus (version 1.4 updated 4/6)

ENVIR 502 Canvas page: https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1040410


Assigned cases (purchase from Harvard Business School Publishing): http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/access/48906061

NEW 5/31: Paper #3 due June 8

NEW 4/4: Paper #1 due April 11

NEW 4/4: Dropbox for submitting all assignments

NEW 4/6: Research project overview -- Proposal due April 18

NEW 4/11: Notes on potential research project topics

Email archives: https://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/private/envir502a_sp16/


UPDATES 4/30: Link to KEY DATES for the quarter


Week 1
Monday MARCH 28
[a] Introduction and overview
Environmental sustainability
Typology of environmental issues/concerns

[b] Industry examples
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/21/business/dealbook/as-coals-future-grows-murkier-banks-pull-financing.html

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/31997-do-locavores-have-a-dilemma

https://newrepublic.com/article/131721/will-cheap-gas-pump-stall-progress-car-emissions

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2014/01/06/general-mills-drops-gmos-in-cheerios/

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/21/business/media/kraft-reveals-revamped-mac-and-cheese-50-million-boxes-later.html

Wednesday MARCH 30
Seminal ideas
1. Friedman, 1970. The social responsibility of business is to make a profit.
(On Canvas page)

2. Externalities
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Externalities.html
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2010/12/basics.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality

3. Hardin, 1968. The tragedy of the commons.
(On Canvas page)

4. Theory of moral sentiments
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/smith-moral-political/
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/smith-moral-political/

5. IPAT model
 http://www.sustainablescale.org/ConceptualFramework/UnderstandingScale/MeasuringScale/TheIPATEquation.aspx

Week 2
Monday APRIL 4
Systems view of sustainability
1. Daly, Herman E. 2005. Economics in a full world. Scientific American, 293(3) (September).

2. Lovins, Amory B., Lovins, L. Hunter, & Hawken, Paul. 1999. A road map for natural capitalism. Harvard Business Review, 77(3): 145-158.

3. Griggs, David, et al. 2013. Sustainable development goals for people and planet. Nature, 495: 305-307 (March 21).

Wednesday APRIL 6
The business case: An introduction
1. Reason.com. 2005. Rethinking the social responsibility of business (October).
http://reason.com/archives/2005/10/01/rethinking-the-social-responsi

2. Hoffman, Andrew J. 2005. Climate change strategy: The business logic behind voluntary greenhouse gas reductions. California Management Review

3. Davenport, Coral. 2014. Industry awakens to threat of climate change. New York Times (January 23).

4. Risky Business: The economic risks of climate change in the United States (June 2014) -- this is a long report; skim to understand essentials

5. American Business must act to reduce climate risk (June 17, 2014) -- this is an open letter from the co-chairs and risk committee members of the Risky Business Project

Week 3
Wednesday APRIL 13
Manufacturing (part 1)
1. Rosenthal, E. 2007. Can polyester save the world? New York Times (January 27).

2. McDonough, W., & Braungart, M. 2000. A world of abundance. Interfaces, 30 (3): 55-65.
(both readings on Canvas, "04_13 Manufacturing" folder)

Week 4
Monday APRIL 18
Manufacturing (part 2)
1. World Business Council for Sustainable Development. 2004. SC Johnson: Easing our ecological footprint.
(on Canvas, "04_13 Manufacturing" folder)

2. (CASE from HBPS site) Cradle-to-Cradle Design at Herman Miller: Moving Toward Environmental Sustainability
Download from http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/access/48906061

Wednesday APRIL 20
Group research project proposal meetings

Week 5
Monday APRIL 25
The Value Chain and embedded GHG emissions
1. Laverty, Kevin J. 2013. The Environmental Value Chain and strategic decision making for sustainability. (Extended abstract)

2. Accountability for climate action

3. Sustainable materials - With both eyes open
(all readings on Canvas, "04_25 Value Chain" folder)

Wednesday APRIL 27 Focus on Patagonia
1. Sathe, Vijay, and Crooke, Michael. 2010. Sustainable industry creation: A case study of the birth of the organic cotton industry and its implications for theory. Journal of Corporate Citizenship. (on Canvas, "04_27 Patagonia" folder)

2. (CASE from HBPS site) Patagonia: Driving Sustainable Innovation by Embracing Tensions.
Download from http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/access/48906061

Week 6
Monday MAY 2
Marketing: Focus on market segments
1. Ginsberg, Jill Meridith, & Bloom, Paul N. 2004. Choosing the right green marketing strategy. Sloan Management Review, (Fall) 79-84.

2. Natural Marketing Institute (NMI) - LOHAS Segmentation
http://www.nmisolutions.com/index.php/syndicated-data/segmentation-algorithms-a-panels/lohas-segmentation

3. (skim only) Peattie, K. 2001. Golden goose or wild goose? The hunt for the green consumer. Business Strategy and the Environment, 10(4): 187-199.

Preparation for in-class exercise May 2: Market segmentation
Make a list of all the people you know. (You will not be sharing this with anyone.) Not literally "everyone", but try to get to at least 50 people. Now, do a quick assignment of each person to one of the market segments as presented in Ginsberg and Bloom (2004) and the 5 categories in LOHAS segmentation. Come to class prepared to discuss the following:
1. Do the segments presented make sense to you?
2. Do the percentages in Ginsberg and Bloom (2004) seem accurate, or do you think they have changed in the past 12 years?

Wednesday MAY 4
Marketing and sustainability
1. Peattie, Ken. 2010. Green Consumption: Behavior and Norms. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 35(1): 195-228.

2. Wymer, Walter, and Polonsky, Michael Jay. 2015. The Limitations and Potentialities of Green Marketing. Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, 27(3): 239-262.

Week 7
Monday MAY 9
Interim progres reports and presentations

Wednesday MAY 11 TBA