Take a look at operations-related case studies from the Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit at 星空传媒.
Wal-Mart's Sustainability Strategy
Company: WalMart
Publisher: Stanford
Call Number: OIT-71
Year Published: 2007
In October 2005, in an auditorium filled to capacity in Bentonville, Arkansas, Lee Scott, WalMart's president and CEO, made the first speech in the history of WalMart to be broadcast to the company's 1.6 million associates (employees) in all of its 6,000+ stores worldwide and shared with its 60,000+ suppliers. Scott announced that WalMart was launching a sweeping business sustainability strategy to dramatically reduce the company's impact on the global environment and thus become "the most competitive and innovative company in the world." He argued that, "Being a good steward of the environment and being profitable are not mutually exclusive. They are one and the same."
What is the dilemma or tough decisions?
Decision to make sustainability an important part of WalMart's operations.
Website where case study can be found
Viridity Energy: The Challenge and Opportunity of Promoting Clean Energy Solutions
Company: Viridity Energy, Inc.
Publisher: Ivey
Call Number: 9B12M035
Year Published: 2012
Viridity Energy, a smart grid company, is engaged in sustainability for two reasons. On one hand, it finds profitable opportunities by helping its customers cut energy bills. And on the other hand, it鈥檚 getting credit for that environmental responsibility. This case highlights the challenges and opportunities of smart grid companies to promote clean energy solutions, especially the challenge of doing less harm to include progressively greater eco-effectiveness in competitive markets.
What is the dilemma or tough decisions?
Viridity Energy, a smart grid company, is engaged in sustainability for two reasons. On one hand, it finds profitable opportunities by helping its customers cut energy bills. And on the other hand, it鈥檚 getting credit for that environmental responsibility. This case highlights the challenges and opportunities of smart grid companies to promote clean energy solutions, especially the challenge of doing less harm to include progressively greater eco-effectiveness in competitive markets.
Website where case study can be found
Verne Global: Building a Green Data Center in Iceland
Company: Verne
Publisher: Harvard
Call Number: 9-509-063
Year Published: 2009
Verne Global, a pioneering startup created to build the first large-scale data center in Iceland, faces critical challenges regarding its green strategy.
What is the dilemma or tough decisions?
How can Verne best integrate its Green strategy into its Sales and Marketing message?
Website where case study can be found
The ReUse People: Turning Scrap into Sales
Company: The ReUse People
Publisher: Oikos
Call Number: N/A
Year Published: 2009
This case discusses The ReUse People, an organisation that specialises in deconstruction of buildings, with the aim of reusing as much of the materials as possible, hence keeping them out of landfill. The organisation is facing a classical growth-related dilemma: should it grow organically, keeping most of the work in-house but hence limiting its growth rate, or should it 鈥渇ranchise鈥 its deconstruction approach by certifying other companies in the deconstruction process? The mission of The ReUse People is squarely environmental, but the organisation is increasingly aiming to provide social benefits too by reaching out to community organisations and providing employment opportunities.
What is the dilemma or tough decisions?
Which expansion strategy is better for TRP?
Website where case study can be found
The Ambrose Hotel: Eco-labeling Strategy for Sustainable Lodging
Company: The Ambrose Hotel
Publisher: Oikos
Call Number: N/A
Year Published: 2009
The case traces the story of the Ambrose Hotel, a hotel based in California whose owner has invested in green practices and is interested in pursuing an eco-labeling strategy in order to better communicate her environmental achievements. It emphasises the difference between the adoption of environmental management practices and their communication through eco-labels. It highlights the challenges associated with the use of eco-labels as an environmental differentiation strategy when several emerging eco-labels are in competition.
What is the dilemma or tough decisions?
How should Ambrose go about convincing customers that they are truly green?
Website where case study can be found
Sustainability at Tetra Pak: Recycling Post-Consumer Cartons
Company: Tetra Pak
Publisher: Ivey
Call Number: 9B12M069
Year Published: 2012
Tetra Pack India aimed to uphold its image of an environmentally responsible company by meeting its goals for recycling post consumer cartons (PCC). While Tetra Pack鈥檚 鈥楻enew鈥, 鈥楻educe鈥, 鈥楻ecycle鈥, 鈥榖e Responsible鈥 philosophy succeeded in other regions of the world, the particular geographical, socioeconomic and political climate in India posed various challenges. Tetra Pak India鈥檚 team redefined its strategy by forging partnerships and alliances with non-governmental organizations, scrap dealers, rag-pickers, commercial establishments and organizations that champion the cause of the environment.
What is the dilemma or tough decisions?
With ever-changing mindsets, increasing regulations and growing customer expectations, how can Tetra Pak face the future challenges to ensure that its success from the PCC recycling initiative can be sustained and scaled up?
Website where case study can be found
Taj Hotels: Building Sustainable Livelihoods
Company: Taj Hotels
Publisher: Ivey
Call Number: 9B13C032
Year Published: 2013
This case explores issues faced by the corporate sustainability manager at the corporate headquarters of a large hotel group in a developing nation as she implements her company鈥檚 corporate sustainability strategy through supplier partnerships with bottom-of-the-pyramid (BoP) social organizations. Under the rubric of responsible purchasing, the hotelier鈥檚 鈥淐reating Sustainable Livelihoods鈥 initiative engaged cause-based nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) by exploring opportunities where the products or services of such organizations could substitute for similar products or services sourced from for-profit suppliers.
What is the dilemma or tough decisions?
The case illustrates the challenges inherent in a Base-of-the-Pyramid responsible purchasing strategy, including the delicate balance between meeting business objectives while supporting social causes. These challenges revolve around developing and implementing cross-sector partnerships with BoP nonprofit producer organizations in the Indian context. Discussion is likely to center less on differences in partners鈥 missions, cultures, and long-term objectives, and more on the difficulties present in organizing even when those differences are reconciled, especially through symbiotic long-term obj
Website where case study can be found
Starbucks and Conservation International
Company: Starbucks
Publisher: Harvard
Call Number: 9-303-055
Year Published: 2004
Starbucks developed a strategic alliance with Conservation International to promote coffee-growing practices of small farms that would protect endangered habitats. The collaboration emerged from the company's corporate social responsibility policies and its coffee procurement strategy. Starbucks was reviewing the future of this alliance and its new coffee procurement guidelines aimed at promoting environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable coffee production.
What is the dilemma or tough decisions?
How does Starbucks use its alliance with Conservation International to develop its socially and environmentally sustainable coffee system?
Website where case study can be found
Pyramyd Air: Looking through the Scope of Values
Company: Pyramyd Air
Publisher: Ivey
Call Number: 9B13C038
Year Published: 2013
Pyramyd Air, a small and growing online airgun retailer serving the shooting community, wants to broaden its sustainability practices from its current internal initiatives in order to communicate an even stronger value proposition: sustainability isn鈥檛 just about recycling and efficiency, it is about a thriving environment leading to more engaged employees and more loyal premium customers. Pyramyd Air recognizes that some sustainability practices are vital to its customers鈥 long-term enjoyment of a flourishing outdoor sporting industry.
What is the dilemma or tough decisions?
For a company with strong customer relationships but operating in a sector not usually frequented by pro-environment types, can sustainability strengthen the relationship between employees and customers by building on the inherent industry values of the great outdoors and a sense of community? How can the company鈥檚 culture and employee perspectives evolve in order to frame sustainability in a new light leading to specific sustainability initiatives that the company could pursue in order to resonate with customers and increase profits?
Website where case study can be found
Procter & Gamble: Children's Safe Drinking Water (A, B)
Company: Procter & Gamble
Publisher: UVA
Call Number: 0315
Year Published: 2008
In 1995, Procter & Gamble (P&G) scientists began researching methods of water treatment for use in communities facing water crises. P&G was interested in bringing industrial-quality water treatment to remote areas worldwide, because the lack of clean water, primarily in developing countries, was alarming. With a long history of scientific research and innovation in health, hygiene, and nutrition, P&G considered ways it could address the safe drinking-water crisis as the new millennium approached.
What is the dilemma or tough decisions?
How P&G can take the business of pure, clean drinking water to other geographies.
Website where case study can be found