I’ve always had a deep-seated distrust of big business. Maybe it’s because I grew up with a social worker and teacher as parents, or because my first job out of school was with a nonprofit focused on fighting corporate abuses. Whatever the reason, this wariness...
I lived in China for several years, and by the time I left in 2014, I had witnessed astounding economic growth. As a student at the Erb Institute, I was eager to understand the impact of China’s rapid expansion and consequent search for natural resources from the...
Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? Purchase the full report on WDI Publishing (Case study #1-430-478) – published 03/2016, 20 pages Developed by: Sneha Rao, Chris Mills, Imani David and Nicholas Machinski. This case was written under the supervision...
Volkswagen's Clean Diesel Dilemma (pdf abstract) Purchase the full report on GlobaLens (Case study #1-430-484) – published 03/2016, 24 pages Developed by: Chris Monti (Erb '18), Vitor Lira, Jefferson Sanchez and Namit Jhanwar. This case was written under the...
Two and a half years ago on April 24th, 2013 an eight-story building housing five garment manufacturers collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh killing 1,129 people and injuring 2,515 more. The building’s top floors had been constructed without permits and to cut costs it was...
VERGE is a yearly conference offered by GreenBiz (originating in 2011) and has been gaining considerable momentum. In fact, it has outgrown its current location and will be moving to a bigger Silicon Valley location for next year’s event. This year’s conference...
Alcoa: The Race to Light-weighting (pdf abstract) Purchase the full report on GlobaLens (Case study #1-430-435) – published 08/2015, 24 pages Now available in Spanish: Alcoa: La carrera hacia el aligeramiento (pdf abstract) Purchase the full report on GlobaLens (Case...
By Kelsea Ballantyne When I joined the U of M Presidents Committee for Labor Standards and Human Rights last year, I had no idea how much it would open my mind to the power universities have to transform global supply-chains. Helping to organize the Symposium on...
by Therese Miranda How will it be possible to meet the needs of the 1.4 billion people who lack access to electricity? One of the most common arguments is that developing countries will leap-frog developed countries to implement cutting edge technology just as they...
The Challenge One of the greatest environmental problems of the 21st century may not be environmental at all. The United Nations Environment Program’s 2012 Foresight Report states that the most critical emerging environmental issue for the 21st century is not climate...