This case elucidates the need for water for businesses, with a focus on beverage companies. The global scarcity of water as a resource and the conflicts that surround its usage is elaborated. The water footprint of the cola companies and two other major companies of Nestle and Unilever are highlighted along with the strategies they have used to try and circumvent the problem, since they rely extensively on water as it is the main ingredient in their final products. The case also provides rich data to discuss and analyze the risks associated with water usage be it financial social, reputational etc.

The case as the title reveals is about a collaborative program called ACE which combines technology, with a social need through a creative business model to empower the autorickshaw driver community to improve their livelihoods. Launched in Bangalore South India, the empowerment of the auto driver community is through paid advertising panels fixed at the back panel of the autos. The autos are monitored with real time feeds and forwarded to advertisers. With traditional advertising media fast losing credibility and patronage by big brands, ACE aimed at providing advertisers visibility, transparency and capabilities to plan and predict campaign outcomes better. The case details how the unique and novel initiative provided a non-disruptive, cross-sector ecosystem for the auto community.

Partnerships between companies and non-profit causes are viewed as a key means to tackle many sustainable development challenges, and cause-related marketing (CRM) is a valuable if sometimes controversial way to align corporate and sustainability agendas. This case charts the launch and first year of the "ONE Water" brand, an ethical bottled water marketed in the United Kingdom. The money raised through sales of the product contributes to the funding of water development schemes in Africa via the Roundabout charity. The case follows the progress of the founder, Duncan Goose, and his efforts to launch an unknown brand from a new business (Global Ethics) into an already crowded and competitive market. It demonstrates that success can be derived from a combination of brave entrepreneurship, and innovative approaches to both developing relationships with others in the supply chain and to developing the marketing mix. Although the case is UK-based and reflects aspects of UK markets (such as the retailers involved or the Live8 event), the marketing of bottled water and the rise of ethical products is common across many industrialized economies and the issues raised by the case should be equally meaningful within many countries

The case "Mother Earth - Great Design, Great Values" can be used in a Competition and Strategy course to illustrate a firm employing a focused differentiation strategy and to explore the growth and execution strategies employed by the firm. The case also has a specific focus on the bottom of the pyramid and can be used to study sustainability issues in electives pertaining to Corporate Strategy and the Environment and Social Enterprises. Besides this, the case can also be used in entrepreneurship and marketing courses. The case describes the journey of Mother Earth (ME) since its inception as a company that believes in social sustainability and aims at discussing the strategic challenges at the end of 2010. The focus at the beginning was to utilize market mechanisms to create demand for Indian craft both in India and globally. The export markets turned out to be inconsistent in terms of demand and the financial downturn further aggravated matters; hence ME shifted its focus to expand domestically. The focus was now on giving artisanal products a new contemporary identity with better design and increased utility. ME had achieved significant growth over the last couple of years but was yet to turn profitable. With investment from Future Group, the company is poised for rapid expansion in the local market with significant efforts on building the brand ME and what it stands for.

Vaatsalya has created a no-frills, low-price model of health care to address medical needs in semi-urban and rural India. In India, 80% of health-care facilities are located in urban areas even though close to 70% of the total population resides in villages and small towns. Vaatsalya bridges this gap by creating a viable business model, making good quality health care accessible at affordable prices. The explicit objective of Vaatsalya's business is to provide primary and secondary care services in rural and semi-urban areas. It aims to become a leading provider of low-cost but high-quality health-care services in the country by expanding its network.

SELCO India is a Bangalore-based social enterprise that makes solar lighting technology accessible to the economically impoverished people of India. SELCO was founded in 1995 by H. Harish Hande. Since his graduate student days, Harish firmly believed in the potential of solar energy for improving productivity of rural households. This case describes the evolution of SELCO as an organization and the various challenges that Harish and SELCO had to face before they could build a viable business model of providing solar light to the poor. Two critical success factors of SELCO's business model have been its ability to customize its products to address specific needs of the poor and to arrange finance for its customers. To date, SELCO has sold solar lighting to 120,000 rural homes and several other institutions, such as clinics, seminaries, and schools in the Indian state of Karnataka. Employing about 170 people, SELCO services these households from 25 service centers scattered all across rural Karnataka. Although SELCO has been able to establish a sustainable business model that realizes Harish's vision of bringing a low-cost energy solution to the economically impoverished, its challenge today is to create greater impact by scaling its business and creating an organization that sustains its success beyond the tenure of its founding members.