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In 2009 Mark Weick, Director of Sustainability at The Dow Chemical Company, faced a difficult decision. Dow had spent three years working steadily toward meeting its 2015 sustainability goals, but the recent acquisition of Rohm & Haas threatened to change all that. The ongoing 2009 global recession had diminished the capital resources Dow could use to improve sustainability. The acquisition increased the size of Dow and meant that the already diminished capital would need to be stretched further and that Dow would need to improve sustainability more than anticipated. Could Dow achieve its 2015 sustainability goal of improving energy intensity by 25% over 2006? Weick had an important decision to make. Should he adjust the 2015 energy intensity target, potentially weakening Dow's reputation as a leader in sustainable chemistry? Or should Dow aim to meet the 2015 goals, knowing that failure to do so could damage its reputation?

Monique Oxender, chief sustainability officer for Keurig Green Mountain Coffee, is carefully considering the criticism the company has received regarding its plastic K-Cups that deliver a single serving of coffee to consumers through the Keurig brewing system. Billions of the difficult-to-recycle K-Cup pods are ending up in landfills. Keurig Green Mountain has pledged to produce 100% recyclable K-Cups by 2020, but how will it achieve this goal? Oxender must address the environmental impact and public scrutiny of the company's signature product. However, she must find a way to overcome the inconsistent and sometimes inadequate recycling infrastructure in Keurig's markets. Students join Oxender in finding the best, workable solutions.

Birgit Skarsgard, head of sustainability and public affairs at Volvo Group, has successfully taken part in the ElectriCity cooperative experiment to integrate electric buses into Sweden's market using KPMG's True Value methodology. This methodology is employed by firms to understand future earnings at risk due to internalization of externalities. As part of the pilot program, Volvo's hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden has accepted electric buses with delight. The question is: Can the company scale the program to the Chinese market where the real opportunity lies? Students are asked how Volvo can leverage the True Value methodology to enter this market.

Erica Ocampo, sustainability and advocacy manager at The Dow Chemical Company, is getting ready to present her report on the pilot Energy Bag program to her boss. The waste-to-energy program has been met with success in converting plastics to energy, but Ocampo is wondering how she can take the project a step further and truly make Dow a participant and leader in the circular economy. Students are asked to identify with Ocampo and develop a plan of action for the company.

Ramé Hemstreet, vice president for operations and chief sustainable resource officer at Kaiser Permanente, is thinking about climate change and how he can improve the health of the community by fighting it. As a healthcare organization, Kaiser Permanente knows well that fighting climate change can decrease rates of asthma and other respiratory ailments, spread of infectious diseases, heat stress, and injuries from severe weather events. Hemstreet is looking to a power purchase agreement to green its operations, but he needs to persuade executives and the board of directors.

Martin Winterkorn, CEO of Volkswagen Group, has just been notified that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resource Board will begin investigating claims that some of the company's diesel engine vehicles have violated emissions standards. It seems that workers installed defeat devices on the vehicles, allowing them to pass emissions tests and meet the tough standards of the U.S. market. The questions students will need to answer are: Who is responsible? And Does Volkswagen take sustainability seriously or has it just been green-washing all along?

Jacob Madisson is wondering how General Mills will make it to its goal of sourcing 100% sustainable cocoa by 2020. Demand is increasing and some are wondering if the supply of the precious raw material will dry up. Prices will certainly increase, nevertheless. With only 10% of its African-based cocoa sourced sustainably, General Mills needs a new strategy. How will the company move forward?

Alexander Cooper is gearing up to lead an expansion strategy for the scrappy and super successful car sharing service, Uber. While the company has not been without its controversy, it is making headway in far off places like India. It is looking to scale its model in India, China, and the rest of Southeast Asia, but is increasingly running into regulatory hurdles. Cooper is forced to think hard about what Uber's expansion strategy should be and how it will impact the company's operations. Uber currently markets itself based on word of mouth, but in markets like China where two companies dominate 99% of market share, this may be unrealistic. What path should this sharing economy company take?

The race to lightweighting is well underway with the introduction of the aluminum body Ford F150. Raj Reddy, vice president of strategy for global rolled products at Alcoa, one of the biggest aluminum manufacturers in the world, knows, however, that the competition in the aluminum market will get stiffer with the introduction of more stringent CAFE standards. The company could look to newer bonding technologies and customization of services for its prized clients like Ford to diversify or invest in R&D to increase the ductility and strength of its core products. Students are asked to find strategies to define and boost Alcoa's value proposition.

Intel Corporation is a leading manufacturer of components found in nearly all electronics.Intel became aware that its supply chain for tantalum, tin, tungsten, and gold was fueling one of the deadliest conflicts since World War II. To remedy this, the company broke ground to develop a transparent and conflict-free mineral supply chain, but questioned if its efforts would be followed industry-wide. This case offers students the opportunity to evaluate the impact of a business's involvement in societal affairs to develop strategies for multiple-stakeholder engagements and in-depth analysis into supply chain management.

A PBS documentary has uncovered a trove of recently discovered documents revealing a 1991 deal in which Firestone agreed to pay Liberian warlord Charles Taylor $2.3 million in exchange for keeping its profitable rubber farm in operation during a bloody civil war. This case explores the social and economic implications of a foreign company operating in a politically unstable and economically undeveloped country. Students are asked to address the public relations crisis and explore Firestone's responsibility for confronting past wrongs, striking a balance between social equity and economic prosperity.

Michiel Leijnse, global brand development director of Lipton Tea, faces a very important meeting with Unilever CEO Patrick Cescau in a few short hours, during which he will recommend strategies on how Lipton can become credible with consumers, obtain sustainable certification, integrate sustainable practices into its entire supply chain, and tell customers about it. He has to consider the financial implications of the decision and demonstrate a reasonable return on investment. Would there be a first-mover advantage for Unilever or would the company be paving the way for its competitors to sustainably source tea without the investment? He would also have to recommend a certification agency and craft a plan for implementation of the change.

Joe Whinney, founder and CEO of Seattle, Washington-based Theo Chocolate, has spent his entire professional career bringing sustainably harvested chocolate to developed nations. His company created the first organic, fair-trade, GMO-free chocolate bar in the U.S., and prides itself on the ethical sourcing of beans from growers mainly located in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Peru, and Panama. Whinney, however, faces questions at home in his Seattle factory after media reports allege the company engaged in "emotional blackmail" as well as "manipulation, guilt, (and) intimidation" in an attempt to convince employees not to unionize. Students are asked to put themselves in the shoes of the protagonist and find solutions to address employee and shareholder concerns in the wake of the media firestorm.

Paul Bulcke, CEO of Nestlé S.A., is confronted with an Internet firestorm after a comment made by his predecessor, Nestlé Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, in a 2005 interview resurfaces. In the interview Brabeck-Letmathe calls the human right to water an "extreme solution." Bulcke must make recommendations to lay the foundation for the company's future direction relevant to water use at its shareholder meeting the next day. The main questions facing him are: How should Nestlé frame its approach to water resource management? And, what type of public relations campaign should Nestlé engage in to counter the negative perception of its water rights policy? In their reading and discussion of the case, students are asked to outline the implications of water being deemed a human right as well as develop and defend a corporate water strategy.

Chevron Corporation invested in a Chadian-Cameroon oil pipeline consortium in the early 2000s. The project was extremely profitable through the decade, but it was subjected to claims of human rights violations that left a tarnish on Chevron's name. Chevron is considering divesting its stake in the pipeline as its strategy has shifted since initial investment and it isn't sure the future stability of the project. Students will gain an understanding of the role of human rights in a complex setting and will be able to articulate challenges of creating an industry within a developing country.

This case centers around Vodafone Egypt and its role in the political instability of Egypt in 2011. The then-president of Egypt asked telecommunication providers to terminate operations to help mitigate the abilities of citizens to rally rapport with the global media and organize local demonstrations. The core dilemma surrounds the idea of how much influence corporations should have on public policy and what a corporation's role is in relation to politics and/or the government, specifically in areas with political instability and conflict.

With increasing attention from consumers surrounding food safety and public health, it comes at no surprise that Perdue Farms is considering eliminating antibiotic use in its poultry operations. Perdue is positioned to receive positive responses from reducing antibiotic usage, but the question of feasibility in implementation remains as the producer had previously failed to phase-out antibiotics. From this case, students will structure argumentative thought around causes of CSR strategies and how CSR impacts business operations

Unilever has successfully rolled out an initiative to sustainably source Lipton tea, and Unilever CEO Paul Polman is wondering if the company could apply the same concepts to its wider portfolio of products. The move has triggered change throughout the industry, but questions remain as to whether sustainable sourcing would be as successful with other products. Lipton's strategy of maintaining price point (shrinking margins) while increasing sales may not be a viable option for Unilever's other brands. There may be pieces of the supply chain where a sustainability program would lead to higher costs. If Unilever scaled the initiative to the rest of the organization, it had to find a way to integrate sustainability into its corporate strategy, reduce environmental impact, and boost social good, all while increasing profits.

Interface ranks among the top three manufacturers in the carpet industry, measured by revenues per year. Through its sustainability program, the company has achieved astounding results. Still, while Interface has made tremendous strides, company leaders are not content to rest. Interface developed its Mission Zero with the objective of eliminating all negative environmental impacts. During their reading and discussion of the case, students are asked to find solutions that will allow the company to scale its sustainable sourcing program and use its purchasing power to drive the social impact investments of others.

It is five years since the Great Recession, and Morgan Stanley and its competitors are still trying to regain the confidence of investors. To that end, James Gorman, Morgan Stanley CEO and chairman, has taken the bold step of creating an institute for sustainable investing, for which Morgan Stanley will provide the initial $1 billion of investment capital in hopes of raising 10 times that amount. The pledge is the largest to date from an impact fund - toping Goldman Sachs' $250-million social impact fund as well as initiatives by UBS and JP Morgan & Chase. Students are tasked with assessing the plan's rollout and comparing and contrasting Morgan Stanley's strategy to that of its competitors. They are ultimately asked to answer the question of whether investment banking firms can drive sustainability in the marketplace.