Why I wouldn’t put my money in stocks in the clean tech space.

By Anonymous Upon reading the Dow and Nestle cases, I had the exact same response as Kayley – wondering if there is a link between investing in sustainability and financial outperformance. Her research points to the fact that investing in sustainable initiatives may be a proxy for other company practices that drive strong performance, but […]

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A Green Climate Fund for the USA

By Blake In the Katrina case, we discussed the challenges that cities face from climate change and how they can address them. Some of the proposals mentioned were to change building codes, use property taxes to discourage building in riskier locations, modify insurance policies, and redo zonings to discourage building in undesirable areas. All of […]

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Patagonia Sur and One Goal

By Hai The most important thing that I have learned from the Patagonia Sur case is that when the company is at an early stage, it is important for the company to set just one goal and devote itself to a path to achieve it. It is better to focus on one goal rather than […]

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Why Patagonia Sur should raise another fund, the pitch just needs work…

By Scott K. Warren Adams is a storied entrepreneur and environmentalist. After a successful exit with PlanetAll, he ventured into the world of for profit land conservation in Patagonia, on the Chilean side. He shared with the class some of his trials and tribulations with raising money, developing and refining an overly complex business model, […]

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Is there a link between investing in sustainability and financial outperformance?

By Kayley L. The Nestle and Dow cases served as examples of how some large corporations increasingly view investing in sustainable business practices as a source of innovation and an opportunity to develop a long-term competitive advantage and manage risk. However, as we discussed in the Nestle case, the magnitude and timing of the pay-off […]

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Why Verengo Margins May Never Be Positive – The Bear Story

By Scott Randy Bishop, Ken Button and the Verengo team have done an excellent job capturing value from the massive growth in residential solar adoption. Recognizing a favorable regulatory / renewable credit environment in CA, executing flawlessly and patiently on the home improvement acquisition of Jemstar to leverage their internal sales expertise and pioneering a […]

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How can we keep Clean Tech in North America?

By K. O’N.   The 1366 Technologies case really brought home a key issue facing the alternative energy start-up community. It seems like many of the innovative companies in clean tech are caught in the traditional “tech” start-up mentality of going after VC and grant money as a first option. However, as we saw in […]

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Private timberland investments – balanced by country government actions – needed to achieve sustainable forest management

By Anonymous A central theme in our discussions is the question: whose obligation is environmental health?  Timberland is an interesting area where private capital can have a positive impact regardless of responsibility.  Given attractive investment attributes, institutional money will increasingly influence sustainable forest management (“SFM”) in developing countries.  Due to forests’ public-goods aspects, governments need […]

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Uncharted? The Case for Water in Your Investment Portfolio

By Shaloo Savla In last week’s cases on Woolf Farming and Processing, and Jain Irrigation, we discussed the opportunities and challenges that exist with respect to the allocation of water for agricultural purposes. As I reflected on these companies, I began to think about the broader investment implications around water. Is water really the “blue […]

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