Pursuing decarbonization goals can feel like a frustratingly slow marathon with hidden curves. But leaders can learn by observing printer's running on the same track they are. The fast-paced decarbonization effort by the sustainability team of the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics is illuminating. As they raced to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by half compared with recent Games, the team had to learn on the fly. Here are key takeaways for organizations on their own sustainability journeys.
The case describes how the Danish company Zirq Solutions, a subsidiary of Norwegian NG Group, brought circular economy thinking to the pharmaceutical industry. Under CEO Thomas Morch and the inventive CTO Jesper Vinther Dueholm, Zirq Solutions established the only industrial process in the world capable of recovering materials from used medical pens (to inject insulin or for fertility treatment) - and recycled them to make new products. Encountering multiple roadblocks on the journey towards establishing the new circular business model, they found that the best way to overcome them was partnerships.
What steps must be taken to successfully developing and executing carbon emissions reduction in a global business school? What can other organizations learn from INSEAD's experience, which brought together academic and industry practice? The case study take a 'process view' that emphasizes the rigorous approach to planning carbon emissions reduction, and explains the challenges and enablers, particularly the need to balance different stakeholder views.
The case describes how the Greek oil-spill specialist Polygreen diversified into municipal waste management and turned the Aegean paradise of Tilos into the world's first zero-waste island. Focusing on the company's charismatic CEO, Athanasios Polychronopoulos, the case follows the implementation of a business model based on the principles of the circular economy. The project progresses from the selection of the location to negotiating a "free" contract with the municipality, to rebuilding a whole new team and raising awareness in a community where sorting and recycling are not the norm. A few months later, the operation has to scale up massively for the summer season to cope with thousands of tourists. The results of this apparently successful experiment enable Polygreen to bid for similar business in new municipalities and markets in the Middle East, where it can apply the learning from Tilos.
This case study tells the story of Ambienta, an Italy-based asset management company that was an early entrant in the field of sustainable investing. From the very beginning, founder and managing partner Nino Tronchetti Provera saw sustainability as a "mega-trend" with broad implications for the national economy. By contrast, Ambienta's competitors - a category that now includes some of the world's largest asset managers - apply ESG-based investment criteria that often present more questions than answers about how environmental sustainability can drive financial returns.
This is the second of a two-part case study about Ambienta, a leading European asset manager focused on environmental sustainability. Case A introduces students and participants to the company and its unique profile in the industry. Ambienta's mission statement is "Sustainability adds value." The company has developed a proprietary methodology (the Environmental Impact Analysis or EIA) to demystify the linkage between financial returns and doing good for the planet. Case B is an exercise in which participants put themselves into the shoes of Ambienta's Sustainability & Strategy head as he applies the EIA to four hypothetical companies (based upon investment candidates actually analysed by Ambienta).
ORTA Anadolu, a denim manufacturer based in Turkey that produces jeans for major global brands, is seeking to embrace the movement for a circular economy by redesigning its products and processes. How easy is the task facing director Sedef Uncu? What are the barriers to and enablers for 'circular' fashion?
What does it take to build the infrastructure to recycle plastic bottles that is economically viable? The case looks at the economics of the circular economy, focusing on the development of a business case for a beverage producer to create a closed-loop PET bottle recycling facility on the island of Malta.
More and more manufacturing companies are talking about what's often called the circular economy--in which businesses can create supply chains that recover or recycle the resources used to create their products. Shrinking their environmental footprint, trimming operational waste, and using expensive resources more efficiently are certainly appealing to CEOs. But creating a circular business model is challenging--and taking the wrong approach can be expensive. The authors argue that success depends on many factors, but perhaps the most important is choosing a strategy that aligns with the company's capabilities and resources--and addresses the constraints on its operations. In this article they identify the three basic strategies to achieve circularity and offer a tool to help manufacturers identify which is most likely to be economically sustainable. Their recommendations draw on decades of research and consulting with dozens of manufacturers across the world.
This mini case study focuses on one of the building blocks of a circular economy - design-for-circularity - either of an entire product or its components and materials. Rather than ending up as landfill, they are sent back to the production system to be re-made (into a copy of the original, for the same intended use). Students explore to what extent it makes sense to do so in different circumstances, using as an illustration a VHS tape to simulate a circularity transformation process through design.
Remanufactured products do not always cannibalize new product sales. To minimize cannibalization and create additional profits, managers need to understand how consumers value remanufactured products. This is not a static decision and should be re-evaluated over the entire product life cycle. While managers have a responsibility to maximize profits for the firm, this is not necessarily equivalent to maximizing new product sales. A portfolio that includes remanufactured products can enable firms to reach additional market segments and help block competition from new low-end products or third-party remanufacturers.
In essence, this the story of how two INSEAD MBA students had a great idea for an integrated service to take over companies' product return streams and how they turned this idea into a successful business. Cycleon was founded in 2005 to offer original equipment manufacturers an option to manage returns at a lower cost than was offered by express services, and with greater speed than possible by leveraging forward supply chain partners. It describes the reverse logistics market, Cycleon's strategic positioning, and the entrepreneurial challenges it faced.
In essence, this the story of how two INSEAD MBA students had a great idea for an integrated service to take over companies' product return streams and how they turned this idea into a successful business. Cycleon was founded in 2005 to offer original equipment manufacturers an option to manage returns at a lower cost than was offered by express services, and with greater speed than possible by leveraging forward supply chain partners. It describes the reverse logistics market, Cycleon's strategic positioning, and the entrepreneurial challenges it faced.