iPhotoIn an interview about his recent book Profits and Sustainability, which portrays the iconoclastic entrepreneurs who built green startups in the 19th century, Harvard Business School historian Geoffrey Jones notes that being a business-environmentalist can be hard work.
"The green entrepreneurs in this book broke with multiple conventions. Not surprisingly, they were often treated by contemporaries as crazy. It turns out that yesterday’s crazies are the historical origins of the sustainable world of the future," says Jones.
With growing awareness that planet-friendly values don't necessarily conflict with making a profit, business leaders today don't face such formidable challenges to their views. Still, what can managers do to ensure that their industries, their companies, their workplaces, their work, support the environment? Here are ideas from HBS researchers.
Follow your values
Stella McCartney Combines High Fashion with Environmental Values
Fashion designer Stella McCartney shows that luxury and sustainability need not be mutually exclusive in a case study by Anat Keinan.
Demonstrate bottom-line returns
3 Ways Firms Can Profit From Environmental Investments
Rebecca Henderson lays out three ways for firms to profit from investing in environmental sustainability: forestalling risk, increasing operational efficiency, and selling to the environmental niche.
Build a new role for yourself
Who Is the Chief Sustainability Officer?
There are only a few dozen chief sustainability officers in American companies, although their number has been growing rapidly. A new study by George Serafeim and Kathleen Millerexplains who they are, where they come from, and how to make them more effective.
Think big
More Than 900 Examples of How Climate Change Affects Business
MBA students participating in Harvard Business School’s Climate Change Challenge offer ideas on how companies can negate impacts from a changing environment.
Understand that solutions don’t come easily
‘Big Teaming,’ Audacious Innovation, and the Uncompleted Dream of a Smart City
How do you organize a project that spans professions, industries, and even nations? A new book by Amy Edmondson and Susan Salter Reynolds describes the approach of 'big teaming' with a case study of a high-profile smart city.
Don’t be afraid to be a little out there
Meet the Oddball Entrepreneurs Who Invented Green Businesses
It was entrepreneurs from the fringes-of-society who gave birth to the green business movement starting in the 19th century, Geoffrey Jones tells us.
Teach
Teaching Climate Change to Skeptics
The Business and Environment Initiative at Harvard Business School aims to shift the debate about climate change from a political discussion to a practical conversation about risk and reward.
Identify eco-friendly partners
Should Industry Competitors Cooperate More to Solve World Problems?
George Serafeim has a theory that if industry competitors collaborated more, big world problems could start to be addressed. Is that even possible in a market economy?
Research Papers
The Environmental Legacies of The North Face's Doug Tompkins and Patagonia's Yvon Chouinard
Shareholder Activism on Sustainability Issues
How do you incorporate earth-friendly values into your work? Add your comment to this story below.