With the rapidly growing importance of sustainability and corporate responsibility in a globalised world, management schools are increasingly integrating long-term economic, environmental and social issues into their teaching and research. Climate change, poverty, labour standards and human rights are among the many topics that future decision-makers will need to face in their careers. Business education needs to reflect this new reality and provide a broadened understanding of value creation in order to create economic capital while developing social and preserving natural capital. Many sustainability trends also offer interesting new business opportunities that are ripe for entrepreneurial thinking.

Case studies can be important tools for creating learning processes on different levels — students are forced to struggle with exactly the kinds of decisions and dilemmas managers confront every day. In this reflection of reality, the values and goals of the student are systematically challenged. This can be especially valuable in the context of sustainability and strategy — organisations are now continually forced to value the different aspects of sustainability and their interrelations: How do social issues impact the economic bottom line? How can an environmentally sound strategy create a positive impact on employee motivation and thus have measurable impact on economic performance? What comes first and why?

But excellent case studies for management education in the field of sustainability management and strategy are rare. This innovative collection has been produced to fill this gap. It is based on the winning cases of an annual competition organised by oikos — the international Student Organization for Sustainable Economics and Management. So what makes an excellent case in sustainability management? These cases have been highly praised because they provide excellent learning opportunities, tell engaging stories, deal with recent situations, include quotations from key actors, are thought-provoking and controversial, require decision-making, provide clear take-aways and are all supported by teaching guidance and comprehensive teaching notes available to faculty .

These cases explore both the opportunities and pitfalls companies and NGOs face in targeting sustainability issues and how their values and core assumptions impact their business strategies. They deal with a myriad of issues including supply chain management, stakeholder dialogue, social entrepreneurship, sustainable marketing, ethics, governance, the business case for sustainability, partnerships, purchasing and climate change.

Case Studies in Sustainability Management and Strategy will be an essential purchase for educators and is likely to be a widely used as a course textbook at all levels of management education.

This volume comprises cases on innovative business models, success stories and failures. The case selection and chapters on how to develop excellent cases make it an invaluable resource for both students and case writers in strategy and sustainability.
Ulrich Steger, Alcan Chair for Environmental Management, IMD Lausanne, Switzerland

The oikos Case Collection fills an important gap and should be a ready resource for any instructor. The cases cover a broad range of important contemporary issues in sustainability, and the accompanying chapters accurately and succinctly convey the characteristics of great cases.
Dr Pratima Bansal, Shurniak Professor of International Business, Richard Ivey School of Business, Canada

It can be so hard to sort through the many teaching cases in sustainability management. This book makes it easy to pick cases of high quality. Through a first review process by an outstanding award committee, you can be sure that the cases in this book will more than satisfy the most demanding management instructor.
Andrew J. Hoffman, Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise, University of Michigan, USA

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: Managing Multiple Value Creation Processes

Case 1. Seventh Generation: Balancing Customer Expectations with Supply Chain Realities

Daniel R. Goldstein and Michael V. Russo, University of Oregon

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This item available in PDF format   22pp £5.00     

Case 2. Phoenix Organic: Valuing Sustainability While Desiring Growth

Eva Collins and Steve Bowden, Waikato School of Management, New Zealand, and Kate Kearins, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand

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This item available in PDF format   16pp £5.00     

Case 3. Kimpton Hotels: Balancing Strategy and Environmental Sustainability

Murray Silverman, San Francisco State University, USA, and Tom Thomas, US EPA, San Francisco

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This item available in PDF format   21pp £5.00     

Case 4. Environmental Product Differentiation by the Hayward Lumber Company

Magali Delmas, Erica Plambeck and Monifa Porter, Stanford Graduate School of Business, USA

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This item available in PDF format   19pp £5.00     

Part 3: Innovative Partnership Models

Part 4: Sustainability Strategies in the South

Case 7. Hindustan Lever

Aileen Ionescu-Somers, Ulrich Steger and Wolfgang Amann, IMD Lausanne, Switzerland

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This item available in PDF format   18pp £5.00     

Case 8. Building a Sustainable Venture: The Mountain Institute’s Earth Brick Machine

John Buffington, Sustainable Value Partners, and Ted London, University of Michigan, USA

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This item available in PDF format   23pp £5.00     

Case 9. City Water Tanzania

Kevin McKague, York University, Canada, and Oana Branzei, Ivey School of Business, Canada

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This item available in PDF format   38pp £5.00     

Part 5: Responsible Business Models and Stakeholder Tension

Case 11. Mobility Car-sharing

Kai Hockerts, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark

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This item available in PDF format   25pp £5.00     

Case 12. Catamount Energy and the Glebe Mountain Wind Farm: Clean Energy versus NIMBY

Robert Letovsky, St Michael’s College, USA

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This item available in PDF format   23pp £5.00     

Part 6: Resources

6.1 Guidelines for Case Writing
6.2 International Case Writing Competitions
6.3 Case Collections and Journals
6.4 About the oikos Case Writing Competition: Concept and Award Committee
6.5 About oikos
6.6 Literature

Jost Hamschmidt is a Lecturer at the University of St Gallen and Managing Director of oikos Foundation, St Gallen, Switzerland. He received a master in Business Administration from the Universitiy of Kassel (Germany), a BA in Technology Management from the University of St Etienne (France) and holds a PhD in Environmental Management from the University of St Gallen. In April 2002 he became Managing Director of the oikos Foundation, an international reference point for sustainability research and teaching in Business Education. His areas of interest include NGO–management, sustainability, entrepreneurship and strategy. In 2001/2002 he was a post-doc visiting fellow at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley and for the fall term 2007/08 he has been invited as a visiting scholar at Harvard Business School (USA). He is married to Dr Monika Kurath and a father of two children.