ENVS 139 Business and the Environment Spring 2015 Class time: Monday/Wednesday 2:00 3:15 pm Class location: Girvetz 2120 Professor Simone Pulver Pulver@es.ucsb.edu Office Hours: Tuesdays, 2-4pm Bren Hall, Floor 4L, Rm 4001 Course description We often think of the activities of business as in conflict with environmental protection. Environmental activists try to expose the polluting practices of companies in an effort to shut them down. Environmental groups push for regulation, changing how companies produce and consume resources. Why then have many businesses come to embrace environmentalism? Almost every single corporation in the United States has an environmental management team and showcases its environmental initiatives. In this course, we explore this conundrum. Our exploration will follow a three-part structure. First, we look at how companies go green. How do they change 1) their operations, 2) the types of products they make, 3) their communication strategies about products and brands and 4) their management structures? In the second part of the course, we ask why companies go green, exploring the market, regulatory, stakeholder, and transformational drivers of corporate greening. In the third and final part of the course, we ask if greening can be scaled up. Does the greening of individual companies lead to the greening of an entire industry? To the economy as a whole? We will end the course with a debate about the role of business in a sustainable economy.
Required readings The readings form a central component of this course. The reports, case studies, book chapters and journal articles that you will read during the quarter are a combination of key readings in the field and profiles of leading corporations. There will be opportunities to discuss the readings during lecture. To encourage you to keep up with the readings over the course of the quarter, there will be reading-based written assignments and a final exam. Each lecture s reading assignment is listed in the syllabus and is available on-line through the Gaucho Space course website. Please complete the readings before class. Follow instructions for logging on to the Gaucho Space course website at https://gauchospace.ucsb.edu/courses/login/index.php Reading summaries As described above, the readings in this course include some key readings in the field of green business. Part of your reading assignment will be to complete EIGHT SHORT (max 400 words/less than 1 page single-spaced) reading summaries over the course of the quarter. Readings suitable for summary are marked with an asterisk (*). Each summary should have three parts: 1) Summarize the main points of the reading; 2) Describe the data the author uses to make his/her argument; 3) Give me your assessment; do you find the argument convincing? Summaries are due at the beginning of the class for which the reading was assigned. You can choose to substitute 2 reading summaries by attending the field trip to the Santa Barbara Bowl on Tuesday, April 28. Industry environmental performance analysis In addition to the course readings, you will work with a partner to prepare an industry environmental performance analysis. To complete this assignment, you and your partner will choose an industry, identify the firms operating in the industry, research the environmental impacts related to the industry, and analyze trends and drivers of changes in environmental impacts. Additional information to follow. Grading Lecture attendance and participation 10% Reading summaries 20% Industry bibliography and list of firms 10% Industry environmental trends summary 10% Industry environmental performance analysis 25% Final exam 25% 2
Mon, March 30 Introduction Competing views of business and the environment The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard versus Sustainability 101 by Wal-Mart Wed, April 1 Mon, April 6 Wed, April 8 Mon, April 13 Wed, April 15 Mon, April 20 Davidson 1575 Wed, April 22 Mon, April 27 How business goes green Lecture: Green business *Dauvergne, P. and J. Lister (2012) Big Brand Sustainability Global Environmental Change 22:36-45. Ceres (2010) The 21 st Century Corporation: A Ceres roadmap to sustainability. Boston, MA: Ceres. Lecture: Greening operations Silverman, M. and T. Lanphar (2003) Benziger Family Winery: EMS development and implementation in M. Russo, ed. Environmental Management: Readings and cases. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications. Lecture: Greening products *Unruh, G. and R. Ettenson (2010) Growing Green: Three smart paths to sustainable products Harvard Business Review, June, p.94-100. Nattrass, B. and M. Altomare (1999) IKEA: Nothing is Impossible in The Natural Step for Business: Wealth, Ecology, and the Evolutionary Corporation. Gabrioloa Island, Canada: New Society Publishers. Lecture: Greening communications *Ginsberg, J.M. and P.N. Bloom (2004) Choosing the Right Green-Marketing Strategy. MIT Sloan Management Review. Fall (15 October). Federal Trade Commission (2000) Complying with Environmental Marketing Guides Retrieved March 1 from http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus42- complying-environmental-marketing-guides AccountAbility (2005) Towards Responsible Lobbying: Leadership and public policy. London: AccountAbility. Selections Lecture: Greening governance PWC (2012) The Sustainability Executive: Profile and Progress Retrieved on 5 February, 2014 from http://www.pwc.com/us/en/corporate-sustainabilityclimate-change/publications *Nash, J. and J. Ehrenfeld (1996) Code Green in Environment 38(1):16ff. Guest Lecture: Stephanie Tulley, Business Research, Davidson Library NO CLASS: Work with your partner on bibliography/list of companies Guest lecture: Eric Shiflett, Program Director, SB Bowl Foundation!!! INDUSTRY BIBLIOGRAPHY AND LIST OF COMPANIES DUE!!! 3
Tues, April 28 Field Trip to the Santa Barbara Bowl Meet at SB Bowl at 12:30pm for a 90 minute tour Wed, April 29 Mon, May 4 Wed, May 6 Mon, May 11 Wed, May 13 Why business goes green Lecture: Regulatory drivers *Petulla, J. (1987) Chapter 3: Industry in Environmental Protection in the United States. San Francisco, CA: San Francisco Study Center. *Kagan, R. et al. (2003) Explaining Corporate Environmental Performance: How does regulation matter? Law and Society Review 37(1):51-89. Lecture: Market drivers Esty, D. and A. Winston (2006) Part Two: Strategies for Building Eco Advantage in Green to Gold: How smart companies use environmental strategies of innovate, create value, and build competitive advantage. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. *Ambec, S. and P. Lanoie (2008) Does It Pay to Go Green? Perspectives (November):45-62. Lecture: Stakeholder drivers *Gonzalez-Benito, J. and O. Gonzalez-Benito (2010) A Study of Determinative Factors of Stakeholder Environmental Pressures as Perceived by Companies Business Strategy and the Environment 19:164-181. Goldstein, D. and M. Russo (2008) Seventh Generation: Balancing customer expectations with supply chain realities Environmental Management: Readings and cases, M. Russo, ed. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications. Lecture: Transformational leadership Bluestein, A. (2011) Regulate me. Please. Inc. May. *Weinberg, A. (1998) Distinguishing among Green Businesses: Growth, green, and anomie Society and Natural Resources, 11:241-250. Lecture: A combined model of drivers of green companies *Bansal, P. and K. Roth (2000) Why Companies Go Green: A model of ecological responsiveness Academy of Management Journal 43 (4):717-736. Mon, May 18 Can greening be scaled up? Lecture: Trends in greening industries *Hoffman, A. (1996) Trends in Corporate Environmentalism: The chemical and petroleum industries, 1960-1993 Society & Natural Resources 9:47-64. EPA (2008) Forest Products in Sector Performance Report. Washington, DC: US Environmental Protection Agency. 4
Wed, May 20 Lecture: Trends in greening economies WWF (2012) Ecological Footprint in Living Planet Report 2012. Washington, DC: Worldwide Fund for Nature.!!! INDUSTRY ENVIRONMENTAL TRENDS ANALYSIS DUE!!!!!! DRAFT INDUSTRY ANALYSIS DUE!!! Mon, May 25 Wed, May 27 Mon, June 1 Wed, June 3 NO CLASS - Memorial Day Lecture: We are on our way Ecological modernization *Hawken, P. et al (1999) The next industrial revolution in Natural Capitalism: Creating the next industrial revolution. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. *Porter, M. and C. van der Linde (1995) Green and Competitive: Ending the stalemate Harvard Business Review (September-October):120ff *Mol, A. (1997) Ecological Modernization: Industrial transformations and environmental reform in International Handbook of Environmental Sociology, Redclift, M. and G. Woodgate (eds). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. Lecture: Not possible The treadmill of production Smith, R. (2014) Green Capitalism: The god that failed. Retrieved on 22 February, 2014 from http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/21060-greencapitalism-the-god-that-failed *Schnaiberg, A. and K. Gould (1994) Economic Organizations in the Treadmill of Production: How and why they create environmental disruptions in Environment and Society: The enduring conflict. New York, NY: St. Martins Press. Debate: Which way forward?!! INDUSTRY ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS DUE!! Mon, June 8 4-7pm!!! FINAL EXAM!!! 5