10 MIT SMR Articles to Celebrate Earth Day
These articles from our sustainability library highlight opportunities for leaders to incorporate an environmental perspective into business practices.
Since 1970, the world has come together every year on Earth Day to raise awareness of the environmental issues affecting our planet. Taking the initiative to create innovative solutions to address the “wicked problems” that threaten sustainability and the environment is part of the ethos of the MIT Sloan School of Management, whose mission is to develop “principled, innovative leaders who improve the world.”
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For decades, MIT Sloan Management Review has been publishing on sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and climate change, in an effort to bring together expert-driven research and insights to our audience of business leaders. For us, the role of business in protecting the planet is not a topic du jour but rather a raison d’être. And as current conversations around corporate purpose and sustainability converge, we can look back at what MIT SMR editorial director of research David Kiron penned five years ago:
“As the effects of climate change become more prominent in daily life and in the economy more broadly, business needs to grapple with its own attitudes toward government as an enabler of, rather than a constraint on, their respective corporate purposes.”
In celebration of Earth Day 2022, we’ve brought together 10 of our most popular articles in our sustainability library for readers. For the rest of the month, these articles are free to all readers.
Businesspeople Must Reconnect With Nature to Save the Planet
George Ferns
Our distance from nature, whether emotional or physical, is likely one factor limiting efforts to protect the environment — and a detriment to advancing a nature-positive economy. The author discusses what business leaders can do to improve their relationships with nature, and how such connections can benefit both the environment and their organizations.
To Transition to Net Zero, Model the Alternative
Simon Glynn and Simon Cooper
Businesses should use scenario analysis to assess the costs of transitioning — or not — to net-zero carbon emissions.
Why Social Responsibility Produces More Resilient Organizations
Sarah Kaplan
Companies have more staying power when management decisions consider a diverse range of interests.
The Four Fatal Mistakes Holding Back Circular Business Models
Johan Frishammar and Vinit Parida
The authors’ analysis of how 15 large companies are adapting to circular business models reveals challenges in aligning incentives and motives among partners, identifying new partners, involving customers, and planning for extended implementation.