Search results
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Why You Need to Align Your Business With the Biosphere's Rules
Unruh, Gregory C.Book Chapter HBS-5934BC-EService and Operations ManagementDon't use too many fossil fuels. Don't waste paper. For years, companies have been hearing what not to do when it comes to making their business practices more sustainable. But what can you do to make your company both ecologically responsible and financially profitable? Turn to the oldest model of efficient profit-making in existence: the Earth. The same principles that allow nature to continuously produce value are the same ones that will help ...Starting at €8.20
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Power Autonomy: Using the Biosphere's Rules to Renew Your Company With Renewable Energy
Unruh, Gregory C.Book Chapter HBS-5938BC-EService and Operations ManagementExcessive global dependence on fossil fuels is a zero-sum competition that can cost your business dearly. While scientists may disagree about the impact of current levels of climate-changing greenhouse gases, they are essentially unanimous that the forecasted increases will be environmentally ruinous-and potentially ruinous for your company's productivity and reputation. Just as plants carry their energy technology within their structure, your co...Starting at €8.20
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Building the Ecosystem: A Lesson from the Biosphere-Your Business's Green Growth Can Cause Creative Destruction in Your Industry
Unruh, Gregory C.Book Chapter HBS-5946BC-EService and Operations ManagementThe process of release and restructuring-of creative destruction-is what keeps the biosphere productive and allows it to fill even the most extreme environments. As you steer your business toward green growth, you may be undertaking innovations that can foster similar destruction in your industry. You don't have to wait for conditions to change, however, because business doesn't respond only to the external environment. This chapter outlines how ...Starting at €8.20
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Value Cycles: Use Nature's Value-Adding Self-Sustaining Cycle to Revolutionize Your Value Chain
Unruh, Gregory C.Book Chapter HBS-5939BC-EService and Operations ManagementThe value chain model has long served the needs of business production, but today we know it is built on faulty assumptions about what happens at both ends of the chain-inputs won't always be abundant and cheap and the environment cannot limitlessly accept the consumer and industrial waste at the other end. Now compare this overtaxed and costly model to nature's value cycle in which literally everything we see is made of recycled elements which h...Starting at €8.20
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Function over Form: Using Nature's Rules to Fulfill Customers' Functional Needs and Achieve Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Unruh, Gregory C.Book Chapter HBS-5945BC-EService and Operations ManagementIf you have already developed a sustainable product platform based on an economically viable value cycle, your traditional business model may no longer serve the full needs of your business. When you are selling a product that you want to recover in the future in order to provide the raw materials necessary for the next production cycle, what exactly is happening in the sales transaction? You need to adopt a business model that takes this recover...Starting at €8.20
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Cavanaugh's Kubbs
Elizabeth M.A. Grasby; Julie GosseCase IVEY-9B13D005-EEntrepreneurship, Service and Operations ManagementA carpenter was trying to decide how to arrange his production process for manufacturing the increasingly popular Swedish lawn game known as “Kubb.” The carpenter had handcrafted several game sets for his friends and family, and, since demand for the game had grown, he planned to sell his kubbs to the general public. The carpenter needed to increase production efficiency, but he was unsure of the best way to arrange the production process. Additi...Starting at €8.20
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Sew Sew Sweet
Elizabeth M.A. Grasby; Julie GosseCase IVEY-9B14D003-EEntrepreneurship, Service and Operations ManagementA self-taught seamstress based in Barrie, Ontario, must decide how to organize the production process for manufacturing her custom-made baby onesie – a one-piece, close-fitting, lightweight garment worn by a young child, typically with either long or shorStarting at €8.20
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London’s Green Bin Program
Elizabeth M.A. Grasby; David HouseCase IVEY-9B11D008-EService and Operations ManagementThe general manager of environmental and engineering services in London, Ontario, is preparing a recommendation regarding the implementation of green bins to collect organic waste from city households. When making this decision, he must consider the costs to the taxpayer to implement this program along with other qualitative issues. The case is written for an engineering economics unit in a general business course for engineering students as an i...Starting at €8.20
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The Biosphere Rules
Unruh, Gregory C.Article HBS-R0802H-EService and Operations ManagementSustainability, defined by natural scientists as the capacity of healthy ecosystems to function indefinitely, has become a clarion call for business. Leading companies have taken high-profile steps toward achieving it: Wal-Mart, for example, with its efforts to reduce packaging waste, and Nike, which has removed toxic chemicals from its shoes. But, says Unruh, the director of Thunderbird's Lincoln Center for Ethics in Global Management, sustainab...Starting at €8.20
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Las reglas de la biosfera
Unruh, Gregory C.Article HBS-R0802HService and Operations ManagementSostenibilidad, definido por los científicos naturales como la capacidad de los ecosistemas saludables para funcionar indefinidamente, se ha convertido en un llamado de atención para los negocios. Las empresas líderes han tomado medidas de alto nivel para lograr que: Wal-Mart, por ejemplo, con sus esfuerzos para reducir los residuos de envases, y Nike, que ha eliminado los productos químicos tóxicos de sus zapatos. Pero, dice Unruh, el director d...Starting at €8.20