sustainable case study competition

• Institute Goals
• Focus Areas
• Faculty Advisors
• Sustainability Advisory Committee
• Partnerships
• IBES Reports
• Black Lives Matter - Solidarity
• Applied Ethics Framework
• Brand Goodness Report
• The Good Lab
• Undergraduate Courses
• Graduate Courses
• Faculty Opportunity Fund
• D.K. Kim Foundation Business for Good Program
• Business as a Force for Good Annual Ethics Symposium
• International Business Ethics and Sustainability Case Competition (IBESCC)
• Dreier Chair in Accounting Ethics Distinguished Speaker Series
• CBA Ethics and Sustainability Series
• Student & Faculty Partnerships
• SDG Student Ambassador Program
• Business and Faith Series | Dialogue with our Religious Traditions
• Contact & Donate div.mega__menu -->
• Contact & Donate

International Business Ethics and Sustainability Case Competition

• Participating Schools
• LMU Campus Directions
• Schedule and Travel Information
• Topics & Executive Summaries
• 2024 Results
• Executive Summary Instructions
• 2023 Results
• 25 Minute Presentation Videos
• 10 Minute Presentation Videos
• 90 Second Presentation Videos
• Competition Overview
• Additional Information
• Past topics
• Video Resources
• Judging Forms
• SDG Resources
• History and Legacy
• Participating Teams
• 2022 Results
• 2021 Results
• 2020 Results
• Executive Summaries
• Presentation Schedule
• 2019 Results
• Participating Teams and Topics
• Video Examples

April 8-12, 2024

The 2024 International Business Ethics and Sustainability Case Competition (IBESCC) will be a hybrid competition held online and in-person on the Loyola Marymount University (LMU) campus during the week of April 8-12. See full program .

Teams of 3-5 students, graduate or undergraduate, compete in 3 competitions during the event: 

• The 25 Minute Competition , in which teams will present their chosen business problem, an analysis of the ethical, sustainable, legal and financial aspects of a problem, and a viable solution on all fronts.
• The 10 Minute Competition , in which teams will incorporate the suggestions from judges during the 25-minute presentation to give a 10-minute presentation expanding on the ethical aspect of the problem.
• The 90 Second Competition , in which teams will give an elevator pitch explaining the importance of the sustainability component of the problem.

The online divisions will compete on April 8 and 9 . IBESCC staff will work with each team to find a presentation time, accommodating schedules in different time zones. The in-person competition will convene April 10-12 in Los Angeles on the LMU campus. The winners for all divisions will be announced on the evening of Friday, April 12 at the Awards Ceremony, which will be live-streamed.

Registration for graduate and undergraduate teams is open until February 19, 2024 .

Registration information and fees can be found on the 2024 Registration and Deadlines page. More details about the competition can be found in the Competition Overview   and Additional Information pages.

If you have questions or would like to request financial aid to reduce or waive the registration fee, please contact us at [email protected] or call Chiray Koo at (213)-268-0789.

REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED FOR THE 2024 IBESCC.

Thank you to our sponsors, daniel and deborah koskovich, the emmons foundation.

• About   General Information Permissions Company Collaboration Case Competitions Best Case Award Press Releases Access Options Submission Guidelines

Berkeley Haas Case Series

The Berkeley Haas Case Series is a collection of business case studies created by UC Berkeley faculty

JANUARY 19 2022 • BERKELEY, CA

California Management Review is proud to have sponsored Patagonia's Path to Carbon Neutrality by 2025 by Daniel M. Kammen, Paul Hendricks, Seren Pendleton-Knoll, Vincent Stanley, and Robert Strand, which has been selected by the Financial Times as a winner of the prestigious Teaching Cases Award .

The Teaching Cases Award is part of the wider Responsible Business Education awards, which recognize the business cases published within the last three years that have made the most substantial impact in responsible business education, with a focus on emerging topics like sustainability and climate change. Given the magnitude of the climate crisis, climate emissions reduction and waste management featured prominently in cases considered for the award.

Financial Times

Teaching cases award: a world of eco-dilemmas.

Case studies about sustainability are now playing a key role in shifting business school teaching away from the concept of shareholder primacy. As the Responsible Business Education Awards demonstrate, they cover an increasingly complex range of topics. Even so, some experts are calling for greater diversity in a teaching tool that, even when focused on sustainability, tends to explore the strategies of white men leading large companies in wealthy economies. Read full report on FT

About the Research

The Patagonia case study describes the strides that the outdoor retail company has made to meet its ambitious goal of achieving complete carbon neutrality by 2025. Patagonia defines carbon neutrality in an absolute sense — meaning that it intends to reduce emissions to zero across its production, distribution, and administrative operations while still growing the company. Carbon pollution is a complex global problem, and by making a public commitment, Patagonia has led the way in defining a new era of corporate leadership in environmental initiatives.

The winning case is one of many new publications from Berkeley Haas in the emerging environmental, social, and governance (ESG) research space. In collaboration with the Berkeley Haas Center for Responsible Business , the Berkeley Haas case series has published a growing collection of ESG cases . Several of the cases produced for the Center's annual Patagonia Case Competition, including Kammen et. al's award-winning case study, have attracted worldwide attention. Three were selected by faculty and students of the Haas School of Business to win an annual Best Case Award , indicating a consistent interest in the company and its various efforts surrounding sustainability, from packaging waste and renewable energy to regenerative agriculture and fabric recycling.

Additionally, the school's academic management research journal California Management Review has made a strong commitment to publishing emerging research on new topics in sustainability. A special issue in 2018 focused on the "circular economy," a new model of reducing waste and improving efficiency across many areas of the economy. More recently, "Incentivizing Environmental Improvements in Supply Chains through Data-Driven Governance" by Berkeley Haas professor Dara O'Rourke and PhD candidate Niklas Lollo examined the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, a group devoted to developing data-informed policies to promote environmental goals within the global apparel industry. Similarly, "Tools and Technologies of Transparency in Sustainable Global Supply Chains" by Paul McGrath, Lucy McCarthy, Donna Marshall, and Jakob Rehme covers the use of new technologies in promoting information transparency in multinational supply chains.

Attention on the sustainability of global value chains has been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. A special issue on post-pandemic supply chains will be published in California Management Review's Spring 2022 issue, guest edited by Rajat Panwar, Professor of Sustainable Business Management at Oregon State University, and author of "It's time to develop local production and supply chains," a popular call for multinationals to reassess the way their supply chains work, posted in the California Management Review Insights section.

A consistent theme in much of the latest ESG research is the dynamic relationship between purpose-driven entrepreneurs and state-level policymakers; both parties are essential in promoting sustainable environmental transformation. "CSR Needs CPR: Corporate Sustainability and Politics" by University of Michigan's Tom Lyon et al, emphasizes the need for organizations to transparently disclose their political activities (like lobbying and campaign funding) which are a key indicator of true ESG commitment, beyond stated CSR goals. "Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability" by Tommi Lampikoski et. al presents novel approaches to environmental innovation taken by a selection of 49 dynamic firms around the world.

ESG remains and important focus of both the California Management Review and Berkeley Haas Case Series, as well as for many other groups within the Berkeley Haas community. For more information, please refer to the resources below.

Patagonia Case Competition

The case study was originally prepared as part of the Berkeley Haas Center for Responsible Business' annual Patagonia Case Competition . Graduate students from across the US tackle the interconnected business and responsibility aspects of a current, real-life issue facing the outdoor gear retailer Patagonia. In the first round of competition, interdisciplinary teams submit solutions to a case developed by the Berkeley Haas Case Series and Patagonia. Senior leaders from Patagonia review all submissions and select finalists to present their solutions to Patagonia executives in person at Berkeley Haas. Explore Center for Responsible Business Cases

The Berkeley-Haas Case Series is a collection of business case studies written by Haas faculty. Our culture and vision at the Haas School of Business naturally offer distinctive qualities to the Series, filling a gap in existing case offerings by drawing upon lessons from UC Berkeley's rich history and prime location in the San Francisco Bay Area. We seek to publish cases that challenge conventional assumptions about business, science, culture, and politics. Explore our collection

Award-Winning Berkeley Haas Cases

ENEL X: Driving Digital Transformation in the Energy Sector   (2021) By Henry Chesbrough

Patagonia: Closing the Loop on Packaging Pollution   (2020) By Sara Beckman, Kate O'Neill, Seren Pendleton-Knoll, William Rosenzweig, and Robert Strand

Patagonia's Path to Carbon Neutrality by 2025   (2019) By Daniel M. Kammen, Paul Hendricks, Seren Pendleton-Knoll, Vincent Stanley, and Robert Strand

Eliminating the Gender Pay Gap: Gap Inc. Leads the Way   (2018) By Kellie McElhaney and Genevieve Smith

Patagonia: Driving Sustainable Innovation by Embracing Tensions   (2017) By Dara O'Rourke and Robert Strand

Back to the Roots Ventures (BTTR)   (2016) By Jorge Calderon and Nishant Bagadia

Castlight Health: Disrupting the Health Care Industry   (2015) By Kristiana Raube

People Operations at Mozilla Corporation: Scaling a Peer-to-Peer Global Community   (2014) By Homa Bahrami

Alphabet Energy   (2013) By Beverly Alexander, Adam Boscoe, Mason Cabot, Philip Dawsey, Luc Emmanuel Barreau, and Russell Griffith

For More Information

Patagonia's Path to Carbon Neutrality by 2025

This case study describes Patagonia's goal to become carbon neutral by 2025 in an absolute sense -- that is to reduce emissions to zero while still growing the company. Patagonia also wants to achieve absolute carbon neutrality in such a way that other interested companies can replicate.

Siemens Healthineers: A Digital Journey

Maersk: Driving Culture Change at a Century-Old Company to Achieve Measurable Results

Flourish Fi: Empowering Positive Money Habits

Just Climate: A New Investment Model?

A new collection of business case studies from Berkeley Haas

The aim of the Berkeley Haas Case Series is to incite business innovation by clarifying disruptive trends and questioning the status quo.

$50K Sustainability Case Competition

We are excited to be kicking off the 2nd year of our Boston University Questrom School of Business $50K Sustainability Case Competition !

Scroll down to understand the process and how to apply

After classes start in September, we will be holding a live information session on September 14th at 5pm (EST), so that different schools across the Northeast can ask any questions

Applications will close on September 16th at 5 pm (EST)

The beauty of this case competition is that students in any degree seeking program are welcome to collaborate with one another on teams

Teams can be comprised of

· Undergraduates working with graduate students

· Graduate students can work with PhD students

· PhD students can even collaborate with a sophomore

No one even must be a business major or minor!

There are a couple of exceptions

Everyone on the team must be a current, degree seeking student

· Alumni should not be on a team working with current students

· All team members must be enrolled at the same school

· To be on a team, you can’t have graduated before the end of December 2023

What is the process?

After the registration portal opens, we will give each school up to 30 submissions

Meaning that if we receive more than 30 applications, we will use a random number generator, and we will select blindly each of the 30 teams

This is to ensure full fairness

Countdown to our fall competition

In Phase One, we will send the case study to the first set of 20+ teams, and we will ask you over a period of a few days to read the case and offer recommendations – again following complete anonymity

What does this mean?

We ask you to not identify your school at all in the write up and only use your first name and last initial

There will be hired reviewers who have no academic affiliation, and they will not know which school submissions they are reviewing

From the 30 selections per school, they will select one of them

All selected teams will come to Boston University Questrom School of Business on November 18th for Phase Two

You will be in different classrooms

Each of the teams will independently present their recommendations and analysis for the second case that we will issue to you a few weeks in advance

This time the PowerPoint you deliver, unlike a written submission, will be reviewed by judges who will engage in live Q&A

In each of those classrooms the judges will select a single advancing team

Again, we ask that you follow the rules in terms of using the slide template, a minimum number of 30 slides (including implementation and risk assessment), the content on the slide, the font sizes, and most importantly preserving the anonymity by only using your first names and last initial

The judges will select the advancing teams and, then, we might have a little bit of a twist between each stage of the competition:

For example, a new piece of information might be introduced

From the Preliminary Round on the morning of the 18th, advancing teams will successively present that same day in the Quarter Finals and Semi Finals

At this point, the client for the second case study will be coming on campus

Each of the Finalists, after revising/tweaking their presentations one last time, will present their recommendations to the case study’s client – live

The client will select a single winner!

The second twist is you will have an opportunity to watch their judging deliberations. They will be live streamed!

The winner of the 2nd $50K Boston University Questrom School of Business Sustainability Case Competition will receive $50,000 USD, with one requirement :

The winning team will donate 10% of its winnings to a registered and approved 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose focus is on sustainability

We look forward to receiving your application and hopefully you will be selected to Phase One to compete against other schools in Phase Two

Best of luck to everyone!

If you have questions, please feel free to contact us:

[email protected]

Boston University Questrom School of Business 595 Commonwealth Avenue Boston, MA 02215

• Advisory Group
• Visiting Fellows
• Jobs & Fellowships

Themes & Topics

• Electric Power
• Energy Efficiency
• Fossil Fuels
• Transportation
• Renewable Energy
• Climate Economics
• Climate Law & Policy
• Climate Science
• Air Pollution
• Conservation Economics
• Environmental Health

Centers & Initiatives

• Clean Air Program
• Climate Impact Lab
• E&E Lab
• Abrams Environmental Law Clinic
• Air Quality Monitoring and Data Access
• Energy Impact of Russia Crisis
• Build Back Better on Climate
• Climate Public Opinion
• Social Cost of Carbon
• COP28: Insights & Reflections
• India Legislators Program
• U.S. Energy & Climate Roadmap
• Impact Takeaways
• Opinion & Analyses
• Research Highlights
• All Insights
• In the News
• Around Campus
• EPIC Events
• Faculty Workshops
• Conference Series
• EPIC Career Series
• Energy & Climate Club
• Climate and Energy Lunch & Learn
• Search the site Search Submit search terms
• View Facebook profile (opens new window)
• View Twitter profile (opens new window)

Sustainability Case Competition Encourages Students to Create Renewable Energy Solutions

During the month of April 2022, more than 140 students from over 20 different majors across the University of Chicago worked fervently to solve a problem for a business client. They presented their solutions to a panel of expert judges as participants in the Phoenix Sustainability Initiative’s inaugural Sustainability Case Competition.

The Phoenix Sustainability Initiative (PSI) is UChicago’s largest student-run environmental organization. The group aims to promote environmental awareness and integrate sustainable practices at UChicago and across surrounding communities through collaboration, inclusivity, dedication, and creativity. The idea for a case competition that intersected business, data science, and sustainability was born in the fall of 2021.

“Throughout my four years, I’ve noticed that sustainability is usually only thought about from a non-profit, social impact perspective, and I wanted to demonstrate to the campus community that sustainability is more interdisciplinary and expansive than they could even imagine,” says PSI co-president and graduating fourth year Shannon Davis. “We desired to create an experience that could give students from all backgrounds and levels of interest a tangible experience in the sustainability movement through in-depth, case work with a client.”

To get their idea off the ground, PSI turned to EPIC for help with financial sponsorship and advising. Ultimately, the endeavor involved many more players across the UChicago community, including graduate student mentors from the Booth School of Business, the Harris School of Public Policy, and the Department of Geophysical Sciences.

“We wanted to see how we could galvanize and unify the incredible intellect and talent of the UChicago community to together back the sustainability movement,” recalls Zach Young, a member of the PSI Case Competition Working Team and graduating fourth year. “We wanted to bring together the entire UChicago community like members of our graduate institutions to serve as mentors for burgeoning undergraduates.”

It was important to PSI that students had the opportunity to provide real, impactful solutions to a climate-related business problem using interdisciplinary methodologies and processes.​ PSI joined with Danish multinational power company, Ørsted , as their business partner. As the world’s leading developer in offshore wind power, Ørsted also develops, constructs, and operates onshore wind farms, solar farms, energy storage facilities, renewable hydrogen and green fuels facilities, and bioenergy plants.

Students could sign up to participate in the competition as a team in either the Quantitative or Qualitative division and were prompted to provide an innovative recommendation for Ørsted that would expand their share of the energy market and renewable footprint while considering a multitude of key factors. Each team presented their recommendations to a panel of judges and scores were tallied to determine the winners.

Ørsted’s Jonathan Vasdekas, director of development of onshore wind power, served as the organization’s point of contact.

“The PSI Case Competition was an amazing opportunity to work with the extremely talented and hard-working students at the University of Chicago,” says Vasdekas. “All of the presentations provided fascinating results, and the folks at Ørsted are excited to work towards implementing some of the solutions that were presented to us.”

For many students, this was their first time participating in a case competition. Daniel Arad, a first year studying neuroscience participated in one of the winning teams, Sweet Greens.

“This case competition gave me an opportunity to investigate what one way of working to create sustainability might look like,” he says.

The Quantitative division sought recommendations that involved rigorous analytical skills. The first-place team, KNICE Solutions, investigated whether utility scale batteries at Ørsted facilities can increase profits and smooth variable spikes in electricity supply from wind and solar capacity. The team, which included Zayne El-Kaissi, Sukhm Kang, and Jack Nugent used Python to develop a model that simulates the impact of adding batteries to Ørsted energy facilities.

Zayne El-Kaissi, a second year double majoring in economics and mathematics reflected on how proud he was of their recommendation.

“We produced very clear recommendations like ‘Do X at Y location with a timeline of Z and expected results W,’ which is never something I’ve done before in class or personal projects,” he says.

Teams in the Qualitative division utilized financial, policy, and management analysis strategies to come up with a recommendation. The first-place team, Sweet Greens, recommended Ørsted expand into flow batteries as a solution for renewable energy storage and included Adera Craig, Bryan Zhang, Nina Mussa, Daniel Arad, and Jojo Wang.

Adera Craig of Sweet Greens, a first year studying biology and urban studies, says, “I am most proud of the interdisciplinary approach we implemented as a team in our recommendation. After considering technology, infrastructure, policy and market trends we were able to narrow down our options, which was challenging but also rewarding at the same time because it exposed us to so many different sectors of energy.”

In second place in the Quantitative division was Sustainability Squad with Julia Du, Andres Llado, Lily Mao, Emma Yan, and Jielu Yu. In second place in the Qualitative division was Green Beans with Samuel Heintz, Bayard Walsh, and Anqi Qu. The Wildcard winner, which could come from either division, was WoMAN with Abby Adigun, Nitika Kurma, Mahum Sheikh, and Annie Dhal.

Sukhm Kang of the winning KNICE Solutions team is a second year studying computational and applied mathematics. He says he would participate in this kind of case competition again. “It was a fun experience and I got closer with my teammates over the process. I also got better at coding and public speaking through the competition.”

Overall, the entire PSI working team was thrilled with how well their first case competition turned out and found it to be incredibly rewarding.

“Easily, the biggest reward is hearing the presentations and all the participants speak to the magnitude of knowledge they obtained about the renewable energy sector and their interest in the sector in the future,” says PSI’s Davis.

They also hope for it to continue in years to come. PSI co-president and graduating fourth year Mercer Winer, reflects, “We received a huge amount of interest, even just for our inaugural competition with no precedent or name-recognition.”

Looking back, Young, one of the competition organizers, commented on PSI’s partnership with EPIC.

“EPIC’s support has been indispensable,” Young says. “The University of Chicago is truly lucky to have an organization such as EPIC and is really a resource that more UChicago undergraduates seeking to make a difference in climate, energy, sustainability, or environmentalism should tap into.

More on this topic

Would limiting us fossil fuel production actually help climate change, the focus shifts to coping with climate change, corporate carbon emissions equated to 44 percent of profits, slow rollout of national charging system could hinder e.v. adoption, u.s. shipping policy leads to higher petroleum prices, study finds, top 10 charts of 2023, biden’s paradox: can a green grid coexist with industrial surge, in affidavit to sc, delhi govt cites studies to back odd-even, is delhi’s odd-even scheme to battle air pollution even effective, evs are driven less than gas-powered models: study, odd-even scheme makes a comeback as delhi chokes on pollution, experts question efficacy, what makes time-of-use electricity pricing successful getting the incentive right., local pollution would climb without dakota access — report, blocking pipelines trades off local pollution increases for carbon reductions, tesla announces massive new partnership with major hotel chain: ‘we are significantly changing the landscape’, we’re about to find out which companies are truly leading on climate change, why evs are suddenly controversial, will mainers take their power into their own hands, why grid reliability relies on improving electricity capacity markets, the true cost of climate pollution 44% of corporate profits., uchicago community (if applicable)….

• Faculty/Researcher/Staff
• Undergrad Student
• Masters Student
• PhD Student

Interested In…

• General News
• Monthly e-Newsletter
• Student e-Newsletter (weekly)
• Chicago Events
• EPIC-India News & Events

• Study resources
• Calendar - Graduate
• Calendar - Undergraduate
• Class schedules
• Class cancellations
• Course registration
• Important academic dates
• More academic resources
• Campus services
• IT services
• Job opportunities
• Safety & prevention
• Mental health support
• Student Service Centre (Birks)
• All campus services
• Calendar of events
• Latest news
• Media Relations
• Faculties, Schools & Colleges
• Arts and Science
• Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science
• John Molson School of Business
• School of Graduate Studies
• All Schools, Colleges & Departments.
• Directories
• Future students
• Current students
• Alumni & friends
• Faculty & staff

Sustainability Ecosystem

• Learning Labs
• Sustainable Development Goals

Sustainability Case Competition

• Related programs
• Contributors
• Join the mailing list

Do you want to help solve a pressing corporate sustainability challenge?

The John Molson School of Business Sustainability Case Competition (JSCC) is an annual event that focuses on the link between business and sustainability.

The main objective of JSCC is to foster meaningful collaboration among business schools while spreading awareness about the significant advantages of integrating sustainability into corporate strategies and decision-making processes.

This competition is open to undergraduate and graduate students from all over Canada who share a passion for sustainability.

During the competition, student teams will delve into a compelling case study that revolves around a sustainability issue. Their task involves crafting comprehensive solutions or recommendations that consider both financial implications and environmental impacts.

This approach ensures that the proposed solutions not only drive business success but also contribute positively to the environment.

JSCC provides an invaluable real-world experience for participants, giving them an opportunity to receive feedback from a distinguished panel of experts. By participating in JSCC, students gain invaluable insights, build essential skills and contribute to the advancement of sustainability practices in the corporate world.

For more information

Sustainability Ecosystem Team Telephone :   514-848-3960 Email :  [email protected]

*This Sustainability Ecosystem initiative is powered by the John Molson Executive Centre .

© Concordia University

JMEC on social media

Award winner: Sustainability as Opportunity: Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan

Celebrating the win

Andreas received his trophy from our Director, Richard McCracken, at a presentation at Copenhagen Business School on 17 April 2018. His colleague Torben Juul Anderson also received his award and they were accompanied by CBS's Dean of Education, Gregor Halff . We also took the opportunity to talk to Andreas about his winning case.

Author perspective

Who – the protagonist.

Paul Polman , Unilever CEO.

Unilever is a decentralised global company, listing 400 brands in its portfolio and engaging more than two billion consumers a day.

The company has operated in developing countries for more than 100 years, and has built its business on applying innovation to the masses.

Sustainability has long been at the heart of everything that Unilever does. Its holistic approach – the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) – combines elements of modern day economic development with good business practices, creating sustainable communities even as it helps to generate sustainable revenues and profits.

It is no wonder then, that Unilever seems to be one of the few companies who have successfully cracked the code of emerging markets, which are estimated to account for 50% of global consumption by 2050. Unilever reported that 57% of its revenue came from that sector in 2014, compared to an average 17% for most multinationals.

The USLP was launched in November 2010 – after Polman was appointed CEO in 2009 – and was designed to achieve three significant sustainable outcomes by 2020: halve the environmental footprint of their products; source 100% of its agricultural raw materials sustainably; and help more than a billion people to improve their health and wellbeing.

Unilever is a truly global company, working in emerging markets situated in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Is Unilever being too bold, too ambitious? By committing to such aggressive social, environmental and financial goals so publicly, are they making the company vulnerable to criticism from a whole range of stakeholders, particularly investors? Or does setting such aggressive targets create challenges that ultimately leads to even greater success?

AUTHOR PERSPECTIVE 

Recognising sustainability as strategy

Joanne said: “I am very pleased and honoured to win this award. Hult is striving to create case studies that are global, innovative and relevant for the 21st century, and this case captures that spirit. 

“We are especially pleased with all the interest shown in this topic – sustainability as a strategic opportunity rather than a risk to be managed – and to shed light on an enlightened leader (Paul Polman) who believes this to his core.

“Furthermore, it’s great that our colleagues are finding the case useful for discussing with tomorrow’s leaders how sustainability can be a source of competitive advantage, and a positive way forward for businesses and for the world.”

The wonders of the internet

Andreas commented: “While you may lose a bit of the personal element of communicating face to face, speaking via the internet may actually turn into an advantage.

“You are forced to organise your thoughts and coordinate more in written form, which helps you to structure your questions, and the possible arguments or challenges before you speak. It allows both parties to collect their thoughts and take a bit of time to reflect on their responses, enriching the conversation when we finally do connect.

“In some ways, it actually can be more effective.”

Combining direct and secondary sources

Joanne added: “We did not interview Paul Polman directly for the case: both our schools are members of the UN Global Compact’s PRME (Principles of Responsible Management Education), and so we have heard him speak at various sessions, including at the UN Global Compact meetings in New York. He has also been a guest speaker at Hult. We are both very familiar with his passion and commitment to this topic.

“For Paul’s direct quotes, we tapped into secondary sources, such as the many statements and interviews he has given relating to the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.

“After hearing Paul speak about his bold vision, it was our in-depth conversations with Unilever’s Chief Sustainability Officer and Vice President for Sustainable Business that led to them providing the details as to ‘how’ that vision might be realised.

“They described the processes and practices, indeed how Unilever’s entire management system is designed to support and realise Paul’s vision of sustainability as a strategic platform. This input further helped to put a real-life angle on the issues we discuss in the case.”

The case comes alive

Andreas concluded: “We tried role play in class, and students loved it. Role play generates not only a higher level of discussion, but a more fruitful one.

“Being able to hear the arguments for or against an action, and then to experience the same frustration of the manager as he/she seeks to create alignment among multiple stakeholders, brings home the point that stakeholder management is hard work and can be a core management competence. It makes the lessons of the case much more meaningful and memorable, and achievement of the manager’s alignment task that much more appreciated.

“The multiple aspects to this case – such as is Unilever’s plan too bold, too ambitious? Is Polman taking a risk with investors? – enables students to connect easily with the various roles, and creates a lot of robust discussion.”

The authors

Andreas is also Visiting Professor at the Mistra Center for Sustainable Markets (MISUM) at Stockholm School of Economics .

Kevina was an EMBA student (Class of 2013) at Hult International Business School ’s London campus when the case was written.

The protagonist

Educators can login to view a free educator preview copy of this case and its teaching note.

View all the 2018 winners

Stay in touch with all the latest case news and views in our free newsletter,  Connect .

Read it online or sign up to have it delivered direct to your inbox!

Discover more

Skip to Content

• Undergraduate Programs
• Graduate Programs
• Faculty & Research

Other ways to search:

• Events Calendar

Fall 2019 Sustainability Case Competitions

This fall, Leeds staff and students hosted two case competitions for graduate students: the Net Impact Case Competition (NICC) and the Natural and Organics Case Competition (N&OCC) . These competitions challenge students to apply concepts of social responsibility, sustainability and ethics to business dilemmas while proposing solutions that are profitable and feasible. Students who elect to participate gain exposure to the industry, expand their network and apply their education to business problems. 

Net Impact Case Competition 

The preliminary round of the NICC was held on Saturday, November 16th. This year’s case focused on topical and important questions of how to improve diversity and inclusion in a corporation with a bad track record for considering these issues. This annual competition brings together graduate students, executives and businesses that are committed to sustainable business practices and is the only student-run case competition. Leeds students have run the competition for almost twenty years.

This year, a record-breaking 55 teams participated in the preliminary virtual round, allowing more students around the world and with various degrees to participate. For the first time, Leeds students were allowed to participate in the competition thanks to the implementation of security measures to ensure that they do not receive an unfair advantage. Typically, around five teams are international, five are local to Colorado and the rest are from other locations within the United States. The judges are sustainability professionals in the Boulder and Denver area and Phillips66 sponsored this year’s competition. 

“The Net Impact Case Competitio n is an incredible professional development opportunity for our students, and all participants. The student leaders have done a particularly impressive job organizing the event this year and driven great results,” says Julie Waggoner, associate director of the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility. 

Mike Hilgendorf was interested in running the competition before he started his MBA at Leeds and quickly became involved with the Net Impact leadership. Aside from the competition’s complementary nature to his focus in clean energy, Hilgendorf was interested in NICC’s international reach and title as the longest running sustainability case competition. This year’s case was about creating a financially sustainable initiative regarding diversity inclusion in the workplace. According to Hilgendorf, this competition “pr ovides students with the opportunity to create solutions to real world business problems that businesses provide, and it is mutually beneficial for the students who gain exposure to these critical issues and the companies to whom we showcase our graduate level talent.” It also familiarizes students with the triple bottom line, which Hilgendorf believes will become increasingly important in the business world. 

If these issues of sustainability are of interest to you, NICC finals will be held on February 29th here in Boulder, Colorado, and all are encouraged to come watch the competition!

Natural and Organic Case Competition 

The N&OCC finals were hosted on the 5th of November, followed by a networking night for students and local leaders in the natural products industry. The teams were presented with a twist in the case, involving a whistleblower that identified discrepancies with what the palm oil company had promised and what they intended to do as they expanded into Malaysia. Students presented their recommendations to judges Catherine A. Walsh, Director of Brand Development at Moxie Sozo and the Co Vice-President of the Naturally Boulder Board of Directors, Steve Savage, Founder and CEO of 1908 Brands , and Rochelle Kwiatkowski, Western Region Key Account Manager at Charlotte’s Web who later announced the winning team at the networking reception. Several students commented on their enjoyment of the experience, even if they did not win. They found it both challenging and rewarding to analyze a case in the natural industry with respect to maintaining a sustainable business with ethical practices. 

For more information, visit our website and learn about past years’ competitions. For undergraduates interested in participating in case competitions or community members interested in judging or sponsoring, the Business Ethics Case Competition (BECC) is coming up this February and details can be found here .

• CESR Sustainability
• Share via Twitter
• Share via Facebook
• Share via Google Plus
• Share via LinkedIn
• Share via E-mail

E  [email protected] P (+1)  303 492 3324

Leeds School of Business 995 Regent Drive  KOBL 302 Boulder, CO 80309

Support CESR with a donation 

Join the CESR Newsletter

Tippie College of Business

Sustainability case competition, solve real-world business challenges.

The inaugural Tippie Sustainability Case Competition will challenge teams of UI undergraduate students to utilize critical thinking and problem-solving skills to solve real sustainability problems. Students from all disciplines will have the opportunity to develop leadership and decision-making skills that will help them maximize economic, social, and environmental sustainability in their future jobs.

2024 Competition

The inaugural case competition will take place April 5-6 at the Pappajohn Business Building.

Who can participate?

• University of Iowa students - all majors are welcome
• First 10 registrations receive priority access to office hours from BCaP Instructors, UPO staff, and Frank Center Tutors on Saturday morning
• Maximum of 2 seniors per team

What happens at the competition?

• Teams receive the case on April 5 and get 24 hours with the business prompt written by the Tippie Social Impact Community.
• On April 6, teams will be assigned to rooms where they will compete in the preliminary round.
• Preliminary round presentations consist of 20-minute presentations and 10 minutes of Q&A.
• Judges will decide on each room's top teams, who will advance to the final round.
• Final round presentations will consist of condensed 10-minute presentations and 5 minutes of Q&A as an added variable for teams to overcome.

Registration

Register as a team with 3-4 members or as an individual.

Team Prizes

1 st Place—$1,200  2 nd Place—$1,000 3 rd Place—$800

Tippie Social Impact Community, Tippie Undergraduate Program Office (UPO), and Tippie Senate

Timeline of events

Tevin Robbins

Undergraduate Program ​​​​​​​[email protected]

Global Sustainability Case Competition

January 20, 2021

ReThink is committed to organizing professional interdisciplinary opportunities to students to demonstrate the impact and intersection of business with sustainability. Through ReThink, we have put together several successful past projects including our 2019-2020 beginner-friendly Global Sustainability Case Competition (GSCC) in collaboration with Net Impact and Global Case Competition Club. We hope that this collaboration shows students that our respective clubs can come together under the common goal of increasing sustainability education while exposing students to case competitions. Our club has hosted this event several times in the past; after a brief break, it was brought back under new leadership last year in 2020 in which we addressed the carbon impact of fashion through the case of Patagonia. We are pleased to have reached our goal of 12 qualified teams (46 students) who, over the course of 72 hours, dove into these impacts and ramifications culminating in an intense 8 hour competition day. This year, through a virtual setting, we hope to bring this same energy to the topic of sustainable meats/alternative proteins through a case study on Beyond Meat. This case is a unique opportunity to tackle food sustainability, marketing, and positioning by answering the question: How does Beyond Meat grow its market share within the protein market? Students will use the following questions to guide their responses: Define where beyond meat fits into the competitive landscape as of now, How can they tap into the animal protein market?, How does Beyond Meat position itself in the future? (Ecological vs Health vs Other?). We chose this case in effort to allow students from different backgrounds to personally immerse themselves in the field of sustainable investment and understand the issue from a financial, environmental, and consumer lens. Alternative proteins are a major point in the fight for sustainable food sources and are an easy way for new students to get involved with understanding the environmental impacts of daily choices as well as preparing them for a potential future in green careers. This case was also chosen as a jumping point for continued conversations surrounding the accessibility of sustainable food such as food deserts and corporate responsibility which we will continue addressing in ReThink.  

We expect to match the number of participants, from last year around 12 teams of 3-4 students, though we are flexible to support between 9-15 teams. Additionally, we intend on minimizing the barrier to entry as much as possible by allowing for  individuals as well as first-come-first-serve sign ups, and placing no restrictions on major/experience. We anticipate opening applications on February 1st and closing them by February 17th. During kick-off, on February 23rd, participants will hear a unique presentation given by a faculty member at the University of Washington surrounding these topics of sustainable investment and sustainable food access. Our long-term goal, as is with all of our events, is to generate membership retention in order to begin a progression of the ReThink sustainability curriculum. Through one-time involvements in events such as this, we hope to reach new audiences and engage them in our future opportunities such as our consulting engagements, tech projects, or simply our bi-weekly round table program. Our teams will be responsible for schedule coordination for the day of the event, keeping time in the rooms and ensuring professionalism is maintained.

Our current leadership team has successfully hosted a version of this case competition in the past and we are confident we will be able to replicate that success this year regardless of the unique challenges presented by the virtual adjustment. This past summer, we offered a virtual economic engagement opportunity in collaboration with Ebey’s Reserve on Whidbey Island and are currently managing the Sustainability Upheld in Business (SUB) Initiative further showing our competencies in virtual project management. Under the expertise of Professor Ruth Huwe of Foster School of Business, we will ensure transparency and accountability for all monies involved in this production including that of CSF.

We are seeking corporate sponsors in the food industry to provide their expertise and professionalism to our case competition allowing them valuable access to new industry trends. We seek to use CSF monies to purchase the cases from Harvard Business School in order to offer this event

Line by Line Budget

• $550; Copies of the Beyond Meat Case from Harvard Business School for Students and Judges; 55 copies at $10
• $60; Social media ads on Facebook and Instagram; $10 per campaign * 6 campaigns  

Requesting $610

Additional Funds Anticipated

We are seeking $400 in corporate funding to support the $100/team member prize money incentive. Should this goal not be met, we are prepared to fund it via our own budgets at present to offer $50 gift cards to specific sustainable local businesses - these businesses have not been identified at time of writing. We are also seeking funding from the Global Business Center.

Finalized Timeline

• February 1 - Applications Open
• February 17 - Registration Officially Closes 
• February 23 - Kickoff Event and Case Release 
• February 27 - Presentation Submissions
• February 28 - March 5 - Judging Period
• March 6 - Live Final Round on Zoom

• Employee Resources

• About Smeal
• Administration
• Diversity Programs
• Diversity Statement
• Lecture Series
• Conferences
• Board of Visitors
• Virtual Tour
• Academic Programs
• Undergraduate
• One-Year Residential Masters
• One-Year MBA, Online MBA
• Online Specialty Master's and Certificates
• Executive DBA
• Penn State Executive Programs
• Academic Departments
• Management & Organization
• Risk Management
• Supply Chain & Information Systems
• Faculty & Research
• Faculty Directory
• Research Centers

CENTER FOR THE BUSINESS OF SUSTAINABILITY

2024 smeal undergraduate sustainability case competition, 2024 undergraduate sustainable case competition  .

The competition is organized by the Smeal Center for the Business of Sustainability, Smeal Diversity Enhancement Programs, and Morgan State University.   

The competition is a hands-on opportunity to work on a cross-disciplinary team and to use business and economic principles to solve real-world social justice and environmental conservation challenges. Student teams who make it to the finals will have the opportunity to network with a unique community of peers and professionals, learn about graduate programs to further their education, and interact with some of today’s leading sustainability and social impact leaders.  Registration is now closed .  

 Prizes    

• 1st place: $3,000    
• 2nd place: $2,000    
• 3rd place: $1,000    

What is the Focus of the Case Competition?    

This year’s case will focus on the housing crisis many people face on a day-to-day basis. From supply chain disruptions leading to a shortage of materials to chronic homelessness, housing is a basic need that needs to be met so individuals and families can thrive.  We would like teams to take a deeper dive into these issues, highlighting solutions that are applicable within your local and surrounding community.  

Who Can Participate?    

The competition is open to Penn State undergraduate students from any Commonwealth Campus and students from invited institutions. To take part, students will put together teams of four but no more than 5 members, two of whom are required to be business majors.     

How to Register?   

To register, one student from a team will enter the registration site to enter a team name and register each team member. Be sure to have this information BEFORE starting registration. After registering, each team member will have access to the platform and be able to upload materials.  Registration for this event is now closed . 

What are the competition rules?  

All submitted and presented work must be the work of the student team. The team is strongly encouraged to seek out the appropriate subject matter experts who can help the team understand the issues, challenges, and potential solutions related to the case. Students may work with a faculty advisor or mentor who can provide guidance and feedback on the team’s research, analysis, and presentation. However, in the end, all submitted and presented work must be the work of the student team.  

Who will judge?  

The judges for the Case Competition will be secured before the competition and will be comprised of Penn State faculty and staff, Morgan State University faculty and staff, Smeal alumni, and Impact Competition.   

Team submissions   

Submission requirements  

• Each team must submit a video not to exceed 15 minutes in length. In the video, the team will present their analysis and recommendations. Each team member must participate in the presentation.  
• The review process is anonymous.  DO NOT  include any team member names or photos on any PowerPoints; also,  DO NOT  include the name, logo, or any identifying information of your institution, college, or campus. Videos should be voiceover only.  
• There is no required minimum or maximum number of slides; it is up to your team to determine the appropriate number of slides for a 15-minute presentation.  
• Teams must be sure to document ALL sources of information to avoid plagiarism. The list of sources does not need to be part of the presentation, but it should be submitted with accompanying files. APA (American Psychological Association) style is preferred.  
• Teams will be scored based on their video presentation and accompanying files (i.e. PowerPoint or similar presentation platforms).  
• Reviewers for the teams’ submissions will be made up of Penn State faculty and staff.  

How to Submit  

• To submit the video of your team’s presentation, upload it to a video-sharing platform such as YouTube or Vimeo and submit a link to the video.  
• You will submit this link using the same site where you registered your team, using the same credentials provided when registering.  
• You will be submitting a PPT and PDF version of your presentation. Use your team’s name as the filename of your submitted presentation. For example, if your team is The Squirrels, you would name the PowerPoint version “thesquirrels.pptx” and the PDF version “thesquirrels.pdf”.  

Submission deadline  

• Videos of team presentations, the PPT, and PDF versions of accompanying slides/PowerPoints will be due no later than  11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Friday, March 1, 2023.  
• Any submissions received after this time will not be considered for judging.  

Key Dates  

• November 6: Registration Opens - at 8:00 am EST  
• December 8: Registration Closes - 7:00 pm EST  
• January 19: Case Released - 5:00 pm EST  
• TBD: Power Hour: Expert Panel Q&A - 9:00 am EST  
• March 1: Initial Submission Due - 11:59 pm EST  
• March 15: Finalist Announced - 5:00 pm EST  
• April 5: Finals (Finalists Present In-person at Penn State University Park Campus) - Location TBD  

Finalist Accommodations  

The Center for the Business of Sustainability will provide food, lodging, and parking accommodations. All other expenses incurred will need to be submitted to your local institution for reimbursement.  

Questions  

Please forward all questions to Tracey Mariner via email at: [email protected] or   [email protected] .    

Top 10 Sustainability Case Studies & Success Stories in 2024

Cem is the principal analyst at AIMultiple since 2017. AIMultiple informs hundreds of thousands of businesses (as per Similarweb) including 60% of Fortune 500 every month.

Cem's work focuses on how enterprises can leverage new technologies in AI, automation, cybersecurity(including network security, application security), data collection including web data collection and process intelligence.

AIMultiple team adheres to the ethical standards summarized in our research commitments.

Environmental and social practices have a significant impact on the long-term success of businesses. Some businesses outperform others in this area, giving them a competitive advantage. We will present ten sustainability success stories to executives searching for methods to close the sustainability gap between themselves and outperformers. 

We take a holistic approach to sustainability when presenting these case studies, seeing environmental and social challenges as a part of maintaining a sustainable business (see Figure 1). We also recognize that, while technology can aid in the improvement of corporate sustainability, changing business processes can be just as successful. As a result, we will provide a variety of scenarios that fully demonstrate the ESG framework .

1. UPS ORION: Improve transportation efficiency

Transportation activities accounted for almost 30% of US greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. (See Figure 2). For a company like UPS, which distributes goods across regions, transportation activities make up the bulk of GHG emissions. As a result, enhancing transportation efficiency is crucial for organizations like UPS to remain sustainable.

As a solution, UPS adopted an AI system called ORION which is a route optimizer that aims to minimize the number of turns during the delivery. Initiation began in 2012 and up today UPS has been working on developing it.

ORION saves UPS 10 million gallons of fuel per year, which means that in addition to the financial benefits, it decreases UPS’s carbon footprint by 100,000 metric tonnes per year, or the equivalent to removing more than 20,000 cars from the roads.

There are public cloud route optimizer systems which businesses can deploy without building hardware. These tools help firms to use their software as a service by paying a subscription cost.

To learn more about ensuring supply chain sustainability with technology you can read our Top 5 Technologies Improving Supply Chain Sustainability article.

Figure 2: US GHG emissions.

2. IKEA IWAY: Make business with ESG oriented corporations

Supplier code of conducts are established guidelines that require other businesses to demonstrate their operations’ social and environmental impacts. The objective is to reward companies that meet strong ESG standards. It is also one of the positive governance indications for organizations, as we highlighted in our ESG metrics article .

IWAY is the supplier code of conduct of IKEA forcing suppliers to meet certain environmental and humanitarian qualities to work with. The initiative has been in place for over 20 years, and over that time, IKEA has refined it based on their prior experiences. IWAY six is the most recent version of IKEA’s supplier code of conduct, which evaluates:

• Core worker rights.
• Safety of the working place.
• Life-work balance of employees.
• Water and waste management of potential suppliers.
• Prevention of child labour. 

3. General Electric digital wind farm: Produce green energy efficiently

Wind turbine productivity varies greatly depending on the design, weather conditions, and geography of the location it is deployed. Using IoT and digital twins to collect data on each wind turbine and simulate possible modifications such as adjusting the direction of the wind turbine can assist corporations in locating their wind turbines in a wind farm more effectively (see Figure 3).

Furthermore, the performance of wind turbines declines with time and may require maintenance; employing sensors and digital twins can assist in determining the appropriate time for repair.

Figure 3: How digital twins can optimize wind turbine productivity.

The General Electric’s (GE) digital wind farms are based on these two elements. GE optimized over 15,000 turbines using sensors and digital twins technologies. Each wind farm can create up to 10% more green energy as a result of the digital wind farm initiative, which helps to enhance our worldwide green energy mix.

4. Swire Properties green building: Minimize GHG emissions

Swire Properties is a construction company that operates in China and especially in the Hong Kong area. In 2018, the company built One Taikoo Place which is a green building that aims to reduce GHG emissions of Swire Properties in order to align with sustainability goals of the company’s stakeholders.

Swire properties use 3D modeling techniques to optimize the building’s energy efficiency. Reduce electricity consumption by using smart lighting systems with sunshine and motion sensors. A biodiesel generation system has been installed in the building, which converts waste food oil into biodiesel. Swire Properties additionally uses low carbon embedded materials and a lot of recycled materials in their construction.

Swire Properties was able to cut GHG emissions intensity throughout their portfolio by nearly 20% because of the usage of digital technologies and low carbon integrated materials.

5. H&M Let’s Close the Gap: Deposit scheme for gathering raw material

In 2021, we consumed 1.7 times more resources than Earth generates annually because our economic outlook is based on production, use and disposal. Such an economy is not sustainable and that is the reason why the concept of circular economy (CE) is trending nowadays.

The most basic principles of CE is to use trash as a raw material for production through innovation, recycling, or repairing and reusing existing products.

H&M’s “Let’s Close the Gap” project began in 2013 as a CE best practice that collects and categorizes discarded clothing from customers. If the garment is in decent condition, they will restore it and find a new owner for it. If a garment reaches the end of its useful life, H&M will recycle it and reuse the material in new goods.

Customers who bring in their old clothes are rewarded with tokens that can be used to get a discount at H&M shops. Incentivizing customers creates a complete CE loop.

In 2019, 57% of H&M’s raw materials were sustainable, according to Forbes. By 2030, the company hopes to improve it 100 percent.

6. Gusto: Hiring female engineers to close gender inequality gap

Gender inequality remains a major social issue despite all the improvements. There are two common types of gender disparity in the workplace. The first is gender pay disparity, which occurs when companies pay male employees more and provide better working conditions than female employees in the same position. 

The second is occupational segregation, in which women are hired for non-technical jobs while men hold the majority of leadership roles. This was the situation at software firm Gusto, where female engineers made up slightly more than 5% of the engineering team at the beginning of 2015. 

Julia Lee , one of Gusto’s first female engineers, claimed that other engineers did not accept her ideas because she was a “female engineer.” Gusto initiated an HR drive to reduce gender inequality by prioritizing the recruitment of female engineers, prohibiting female workers from scrolling, and deleting masculine job ads like “ninja rockstar coder.”

Gusto was able to improve its female engineer ratio to roughly 20% by the end of 2015 thanks to the campaign. The average ratio among software businesses’ engineering teams was 12% in 2013, therefore this was a significant improvement in a short period of time.  

7. HSBC: ESG concerned green finance

Finance companies can help speed up the transition to sustainable business practices by supporting initiatives run by responsible businesses. By the end of 2025, HSBC has committed to investing $100 billion in sustainability projects. HSBC already has funded sustainability projects that require more than $50 billion in investment as of 2019, indicating that the corporation is on track to meet its objective.

HSBC created an ESG risk evaluation framework to assure funding for green projects in 2019. Since then, the framework has been improved. In 2021, HSBC’s ESG practices were rewarded with an AA rating by MSCI.

HSBC is also working toward a goal of using 100% renewable energy as their source of electricity by 2030. Company reduces its consumption of paper, and single used plastics for coffee and beverages.

For more information about best ESG practices you can read our Top 6 ESG Reporting Best Practices article.

8. Signify light-as-a-Service: Enhance production stewardship

The product-service system ( PSS ) is a business model in which producers acquire a product over its lifetime and rent or lease it to the users. PSS ensures product stewardship since the product always becomes the asset of the company. It encourages producers to provide high-quality, repairable items in order to extend the product’s useful life. As a result, it helps to close the circularity gap by ensuring better use of natural resources.

Signify, a luminaire producer, adopts such a business strategy where it demands a subscription fee according to usage period of their lightning systems. PSS allows Signify claims that PSS allows them to produce 0 luminaire waste and drops maintenance costs around 60%.

9. Airbus additive manufacturing: Manufacture lighter planes with 3D printing

AIMultiple expects that additive manufacturing will disruptive for the airplane manufacturing since:

• It speeds up the manufacturing of parts compared to traditional molding techniques.
• It is cheaper due to effective use of raw materials and time reduction of production.
• It enables the manufacturing of lighter parts by up to 45% , resulting in lighter planes that burn less fuel. According to Airbus, additive manufacturing technology can reduce an A320 plane’s annual GHG emissions by around 465,000 metric tons, which is roughly the same as eliminating 100,000 automobiles from the road for a year. (An average car emits 4.6 tonnes of GHG per year). 

To effectively use 3D printers Airbus partnered with Materialise , a Belgium-based technology company  that specialize in additive manufacturing.

For more information regarding improving corporate sustainability by digital transformation you can read our Top 4 Digital Technologies that Improve Corporate Sustainability article.

10. Tata Power: Solar plants on the roofs

Rooftops offer a lot of empty space that can be used to install solar panels. Such initiatives have been taken in various parts of the world. Tata Power does it in India and generates green electricity by using idle places of buildings.

In 2021, Tata Power was able to spread their program throughout 90 Indian cities, producing 421 million watts of electricity, which is equivalent to nearly 40 thousand homes’ yearly electricity use in the US. (The average annual power usage for a residential utility customer in the US was 10,715 kWh in 2020, according to the EIA .).

We expect that in the near future the cooperation between energy and construction companies will enhance the use of idle places in buildings in a more effective way. Such an industrial symbiosis reduces both sectors’ ESG risk.

For more information on the top carbon footprint calculators, check our article, Top 7 Carbon Footprint Calculator Software/Tools for Businesses .

To learn more about corporate sustainability you can contact with us:

This article was drafted by former AIMultiple industry analyst Görkem Gençer.

Cem's work has been cited by leading global publications including Business Insider, Forbes, Washington Post, global firms like Deloitte, HPE, NGOs like World Economic Forum and supranational organizations like European Commission. You can see more reputable companies and media that referenced AIMultiple.

Cem's hands-on enterprise software experience contributes to the insights that he generates. He oversees AIMultiple benchmarks in dynamic application security testing (DAST), data loss prevention (DLP), email marketing and web data collection. Other AIMultiple industry analysts and tech team support Cem in designing, running and evaluating benchmarks.

Throughout his career, Cem served as a tech consultant, tech buyer and tech entrepreneur. He advised enterprises on their technology decisions at McKinsey & Company and Altman Solon for more than a decade. He also published a McKinsey report on digitalization.

He led technology strategy and procurement of a telco while reporting to the CEO. He has also led commercial growth of deep tech company Hypatos that reached a 7 digit annual recurring revenue and a 9 digit valuation from 0 within 2 years. Cem's work in Hypatos was covered by leading technology publications like TechCrunch and Business Insider.

Cem regularly speaks at international technology conferences. He graduated from Bogazici University as a computer engineer and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.

To stay up-to-date on B2B tech & accelerate your enterprise:

Next to Read

Gpt & sustainability: 4 use cases & best practices in 2024, top 10 sustainability ai applications in 2024, top 6 esg & sustainability reporting best practices in 2024.

Your email address will not be published. All fields are required.

A wonderful collection of case studies on corporate sustainability. I enjoyed the read. I am convicted to delve into promoting sustainability in Africa.

Hello, James! Thank you for your feedback. Awesome! That’s a great cause to pursue.

Related research

Top 6 Circular Economy Best Practices for Businesses in 2024

7 Ways to Improve Your Supply Chain Sustainability in 2024

Center for Sustainable Business | Case Studies

Case studies in sustainable business, the center for sustainable business compiles case studies and other educational resources related to sustainable business on topics including finance, management, supply chain, and organizational development..

How can students best prepare for a world in which they will have to assess and manage sustainability (environmental, social and governance) issues in most functional roles — from marketing to finance? CSB hopes to support students and faculty by publishing and recommending the case studies below that examine sustainability in a variety of roles and companies.

Recent Case Studies published by CSB and others:

May 10, 2024 Accountancy Business Administration Finance Student

Gies students shine in 2024 Business Sustainability Case Competition

Three winning teams were selected and awarded with cash prizes in the inaugural Business Sustainability Case Competition hosted by the Center for Professional Responsibility in Business and Society (CPRBS). The competition focused on mapping the sustainability activities at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and competing teams from all over campus created data visualizations showcasing the university’s achievements in the sustainability area.

The team at Sustainable FR –  Isabella Chew  (ACCY+DS),  Abbas Mirza  (Computer Science/Economics),  Julie Wang  (International/Global Studies),  Ekaterina Ftikas  (International/Global Studies), and  Olivia O’Leary  (Policy) – took home top honors for their ability to create a course search system. Sustainable FR collected data on courses offered at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for the current school year.  Using Microsoft Excel in conjunction with Tableau, the team created visualizations showing the growth of courses that focus on one or more of the UN’s 17 Sustainability Goals.  Beyond just visualizations, Sustainable FR created an interactive program that allows students to filter and focus courses that pertain to specific goals.

“Going into college, one of my goals was to combine my environmental interest with my professional development, and this case competition provided the perfect opportunity,” said Chew, a first-year Gies student pursuing an accountancy + data science major. “I was delighted to see how Gies College of Business encourages its students to partake in sustainability efforts, emphasizing the importance of professional responsibility. My team can proudly say that we learned a great deal about data visualization and the progress of the UN Sustainable Development Goals at UIUC.”

Jay Lee  (MSTM), the competition’s only solo participant, secured second place with Illini Database. Lee, who is earning his Master of Science in Business Analytics degree at Gies, focused on research conducted by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty and  visualized how much of that research was related to the UN’s 17 Sustainability Goals . Data was collected from Illinois Experts' API, which included 2,856 researchers and 219,019 research articles. Using large language models and various machine learning techniques such as vector embedding and random forest, all articles are labeled with none, one, or multiple UN goals related to it. Lee also used dynamic dashboard, which visualizes changes and compares in how often each goal was researched over the last 66 years.

“Participating in the sustainability case competition was enlightening and rewarding,” Lee said. “I expected to showcase my data science skills, but I also learned about our school's sustainability efforts. I enjoyed the challenge of using complex technology to address real-world problems. This experience was beneficial as it pushed my technical skills and allowed me to contribute to sustainability goals.”

The third-place winner was Illini Impact, a team consisting of five Gies students in the Master of Science in Technology Management program.  Renuka Annachhatre ,  Indranil Mukte ,  Yash Oltikar ,  Aditya Patil , and  Prisha Sharma  visualized the breakdown of sustainability-related courses offered by the university into one of the UN’s 17 Sustainability Goals. The group gathered data from course titles and descriptions found on the university’s websites and, using Tableau, compared the number of courses across colleges offered in each goal.

"Right from the initial days of figuring out what problems we plan to address to presenting our findings to our esteemed judges on the final day, we took it upon ourselves to overcome obstacles, understand each group members’ strengths and leverage our collective skills which lead us in securing a proud 3rd place," said Mukte. "We would like to thank Gies and CPRBS for their unwavering support and organizing this case competition for us!”

“While all the finalists presented engaging and interesting visualizations of the University’s commitment to sustainability, these three teams stood out for their focus not only on what has been done, but also their ability to generate a creative solution that is useful for faculty, students, and university leadership,” said Fei Du, associate professor of accountancy and associate director for CPRBS. “These bright students will help enhance the awareness of sustainability efforts across campus.”

“By participating in this competition, students have embodied one of the Center’s primary goals – offering hands-on opportunities where students can grow as we aim to develop responsible decision-makers of tomorrow,” added  Du. "It has been an honor to witness the incredible talent and dedication displayed by all six finalist teams. They have left me more educated and energized about our future leaders. The energy, insight, and effort were inspiring.”

Judges for the competition included Abrita Chakravarty, adjunct instructor at the Grainger College of Engineering; Gretchen Winter, adjunct professor at Gies Business and the College of Law; and Warren Lavey, adjunct professor in the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences.

CPRBS, in collaboration with Executive Associate Dean and Professor Mark Peecher, is preparing the inaugural Gies sustainability report. The report is inspired by a data visualization created by Peecher and PhD student Rachel Lyman, which maps Gies faculty research to the 17 UN sustainability goals (updated in April 2024). The College's efforts will focus on integrating this sustainability activity mapping to survey the overall landscape, thereby fully illustrating Gies' contributions to the 17 UN sustainability goals and showcasing the College's excellent work in the ESG/CSR space.

The Center of Professional Responsibility in Business and Society  leads the discussion about society's expectations for a professional's responsibility at both the individual and organizational level. CPRBS supports the creation and sharing of academic research and educational materials that demonstrate the value of conducting business professionally so as to serve and protect the broader public interest.

More Articles

The Experience

• Career Impact
• Inclusion and Belonging
• Global Opportunities

More about Kellogg

• History & Legacy
• Convocation Ceremony

Degree Programs

• Full-Time MBA
• Executive MBA
• Master in Management
• Evening & Weekend MBA
• Certificate Program for Undergraduates
• Which Program is Right for Me?
• Admissions Events
• Academic Calendars

Executive Education

• Online Programs
• Programs for Individuals
• Nonprofit Programs
• Programs for Groups
• The Kellogg Advantage
• Contact Executive Education
• Request a Brochure
• Find a Program
• Alumni Network
• Career Journeys
• Global Impact
• Student Stories
• Applying to Kellogg

Publications and blogs

• Kellogg Magazine
• Kellogg Insight
• See All News + Stories

Academics + Research

• Faculty Directory
• Research Centers
• Case Studies
• Faculty Teaching Awards
• Academic Departments
• Research + Books
• Faculty Recruiting

Academic expertise

• Data Analytics
• Family Business
• Leadership & Organizations
• Social Impact
• Entrepreneurship
• Evening + Weekend MBA
• Deferred Enrollment
• PhD / Doctoral
• Undergraduate Certificate

Additional resources

• Tuition + Financial Aid
• Log into my account portal
• Companies + Recruiters
• Competitions
• Social Impact at Kellogg
• Student Experience

Kellogg-Led Competitions

Competitions allow students to use their talents to explore solutions to complex challenges facing society.

Kellogg and Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge

Host Organization: Kellogg & Morgan Stanley This challenge, founded by Kellogg in 2011, harnesses the power of capital markets and student creativity to create positive social and environmental impact in the world. Finalists travel to a financial capital to present their proposals to a panel of experienced investors and officers. 

VentureCat - Social Impact Track

Host Organization: Northwestern University Open to NU students across all schools, this business pitch competition seeks to provide capital and mentorship to the best student startups. It offers six tracks: Business Products and Services, Consumer Products and Services, Green Energy and Sustainability, Life Sciences and Medical Innovations, Social Enterprises and Nonprofit, and Transportation and Mobility.

Kellogg Biotech & Healthcare Competition

Host Organization: Kellogg This annual competition, founded in 2003, brings together top students from around the world to address a case focused on a biotech and/or healthcare issue.

Impact Investing and Sustainable Finance Competitions

Total Impact Portfolio Challenge

Host Organization: Wharton School of Business & Total Impact Capital Business school students with an interest in pursuing a career in impact investing have the opportunity to design and execute a portfolio that uses capital to solve social issues. 

Host Organization: MIINT (MBA Impact Investing Network and Training) This venture lab gives students practical, hands-on experience as an early-stage impact investor. Throughout the program, students will create an investment thesis, source and conduct diligence on early stage impact investing opportunities, prepare an investment memo, and present on a selected early stage company, with one company being selected for a $50,000 investment. Students apply individually and are selected to be part of a 3-5 person team with an assigned advisor.

A4S International Case Competition

Host Organization: University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management Students work in teams to propose market-driven financial products, solutions, or mechanisms that produce financial returns and deliver on environmentally sustainable goals.

Social Impact Case Competitions

Map The System

Host Organization: University of Oxford Map the System is a chance for students and recent graduates to learn more about the issues they care about, and to present their findings to a broad audience. Tackling global challenges with credibility starts with understanding a problem and its wider context – rather than jumping straight into a business plan or an idea for a quick fix. Participants in the Map the System are asked to demonstrate a deep understanding of a pressing social or environmental issue by mapping out the landscape of the current solutions and identifying missing opportunities for positive change.

Patagonia Case Competition

Host Organization: UC Berkeley Haas School of Business & Patagonia Business students across the United States compete in teams to propose viable business solutions to a sustainability issue that outdoor retailer Patagonia is facing. The case changes annually.

Creative Shock

Host Organization: Creative Shock The Creative Shock Case Competition allows students all over the world the opportunity to solve cases for socially responsible industries.

Net Impact Case Competition at CU Boulder

Host Organization: Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado, Boulder This competition allows graduate students the opportunity to solve real world business issues with solutions that lead to positive social, environmental, and financial impacts.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY CHALLENGE

Host Organization: HEC Montreal Teams of MBAs from around the world gather in Montreal to find financially-viable solutions for businesses to contribute to the betterment of social causes.

Social Innovation and Social Venture Competitions

New Venture Championship

Host Organization: University of Oregon, Lundquist College of Business New Venture Championship (NVC) is presented annually by the University of Oregon’s Lundquist College of Business. It is the original six-round business competition for graduate students. NVC has evolved into the premiere international entrepreneurial investment competition since it was founded in 1992.

Host Organization: Hult Prize Foundation The Hult Prize Foundation is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to launching the world's next wave of social entrepreneurs. It encourages the world's brightest business minds to compete in teams to solve the planet's biggest challenges with innovative ideas for sustainable start-up enterprises. Annual Hult Prize winners can make their ideas reality with the help of USD1 million in seed funding.

Clean Energy Prize

Host Organization: MIT Clean Energy Prize at MIT is the longest running environmentally-focused startup competition for university students. Teams of students propose business ventures that align with one of four sustainability tracks (Generate, Deliver, Demand, Move), and receive mentoring from industry leaders in fine-tuning their business proposal.

Cisco Global Problem Solver

Host Organization: Cisco The Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge allows teams to propose early-stage and innovative technology solutions to social and environmental problems.

Industry-Specific Competitions

Energy in Emerging Markets Case Competition

Host Organization: Duke Fuqua School of Business This competition challenges students, academics, and industry professionals to find innovative and business-based solutions to energy issues facing the developing world.

Challenges in Energy

Host Organization: UCLA Anderson School of Management Teams of MBA students from across the country work to propose solutions to a current or emerging energy issue in a case studies competition.

CleanTech Challenge

Host Organization: London Business School, University College London The CleanTech Challenge asks students from around the world to propose innovative ideas that will lead to positive environmental impacts.

.klg-contact .klg-link-list {background: #d0d465 !important;} @media (max-width: 767px) {.klg-contact::before {background: none !important;}}

Recent News

• Read their story

Other pages in Student Experience:

• Student Clubs
• Travel and Experience

Pages in Social Impact

• Social Impact Home
• News and Insights
• Funding and Resources
• Golub Capital Board Fellows Program
• Partnership
• Global Network
• Corporate Visitors
• Current Students
• Staff Intranet
• Faculty Intranet

Kellogg School of Management

• New! Member Benefit New! Member Benefit
• Featured Analytics Hub
• Resources Resources
• Member Directory
• Networking Communities
• Advertise, Exhibit, Sponsor
• Find or Post Jobs

• Learn and Engage Learn and Engage

• Compare AACSB-Accredited Schools
• Explore Programs

• Advocacy Advocacy
• Featured AACSB Announces 2024 Class of Influential Leaders
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
• Influential Leaders
• Innovations That Inspire
• Connect With Us Connect With Us
• Accredited School Search
• Accreditation
• Learning and Events
• Advertise, Sponsor, Exhibit
• Tips and Advice
• Is Business School Right for Me?

Eight Ways Case Competitions Can Enhance Your Business Degree

If you think a business degree is just about taking classes, think again. Schools offer students a wide range of additional hands-on opportunities to apply what they’re learning—and innovative case competitions are one of those activities. During these short events, teams of students are invited to analyze a particular business challenge, provide pioneering ideas and solutions to that challenge, and present them to a panel of distinguished judges, who are often senior leaders at companies from around the world.

But completing a business degree is tough enough; why add to your workload? Although they might not be a required part of your curriculum, case competitions are well worth considering. In addition to encouraging your creativity, case competitions offer the following benefits:

Case in Point : The Asian Business Case Competition , organized by students from Nanyang Business School in Singapore, is aimed at undergraduate business students. Cases are centered on an Asian-based organization; for example, this year’s challenge with the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore was to transform Singapore into a hub for sustainable recycling and waste-to-energy technologies.

Case in Point : The Champions Trophy Case Competition , founded by the University of Auckland Business School, brings together 12 undergraduate universities for a week-long event in New Zealand. The competition takes place over three preliminary rounds and one final round, and all cases are based on national business challenges.

Case in Point : Michigan Ross School of Business’s Energy Club hosts an annual Renewable Energy Case Competition every year in December. Teams of MBA students from around the world compete to solve one of the many significant challenges facing the renewable energy industry today. Last year the sponsor was General Electric, and teams competed to devise go-to-market strategies for behind-the-meter and grid-scale solutions for battery storage.

Case in Point : Aspen Case Competition brings together students from 25 different business schools to tackle a case study requiring innovative thinking at the intersection of corporate profitability and positive social and environmental impacts. Last year’s case looked at creating new corporate responsibility metrics for insurance and asset management company AXA.

Case in Point : IESE Business School in Spain and consulting company Roland Berger’s Case Competition invites teams of four first-year MBA students, with at least three different nationalities and two different languages represented, to work together on a business solution for a relevant and current case—an exercise that simulates the reality of a career in consulting. Experienced consultants from Roland Berger coach the teams and give valuable advice throughout the process.

Case in Point : Ernst and Young and the University of Notre Dame have partnered on the Annual Diversity Conference Case Competition for the past eight years. The case used asks students to examine diversity and inclusiveness, specifically regarding gender dynamics in the business community, and come up with solutions to a related business challenge. Cases are judged by professionals from the university as well as professionals from Ernst & Young, and prizes include 7,000 USD for first place and 3,000 USD for second.

Case in Point : INCAE Business School in Costa Rica and Nespresso work together on the Nespresso MBA Challenge . Every year teams of MBA students from more than 80 schools around the world generate solutions to a specific supply chain challenge faced by the company that year. The winning team travels to South America to validate their strategy, meet local stakeholders, and implement their solution on the ground.

Case in Point : The John Molson MBA International Case Competition is a round-robin tournament consisting of seven unpublished business cases. Students have three hours to evaluate a case, with no access to the Internet, and present their solution to a panel of senior business executives. Two of the seven cases are short cases in which both the preparation and presentation times are reduced, and a live case is given by a senior executive of a major company on a current business challenge they face.

Whether you’re already competitive by nature or could use some motivation to challenge yourself, participating in case competitions offers an excellent opportunity to engage in teamwork, get a real taste of the business world, and make memorable connections over a shared experience.

EY CAFTA Case Championship 2024

CAFTA has launched 7th edition of its pan-India case study competition to engage undergraduate and postgraduate students and provide them with an outlet to explore this differentiated method of learning. It is a national level finance and treasury case study competition organized for college students across India.

EY India, Partner Consulting Services

We are dedicated to delivering an outstanding learning experience to all students and young professionals. In addition to the case championship learning material, our team will provide exclusive access to the self-paced learning course 'Decoding Global Financial Markets,' an immersive course designed to demystify the intricate workings of global markets.

It must be noted that the case championship has different subjects and case questions for students. Refer to the respective sections below for details on the registration process, topics, dates, and submission process.

                                           Download Brochure      Register now

Step 1:  Choose between individual entry or team registration for two

Step 2 : Select a stream from the below list

Stream 1 - Sustainable Finance Innovators: GenAI Treasury Challenge

Stream 2 - Risk Masters Challenge

Stream 3 - Liquid Edge: Mastering Investments

Step 3 : Upon registration for one or more streams, gain access to relevant reading materials and recorded webinar sessions within 24 hours

Step 4 : You will receive the case study question via email on 27 May 2024

Step 5:  Participate in Knowledge checkpoint quiz on 8 June 2024

Step 6: Submit your response to the case study question by 16 June 2024,  including a PowerPoint presentation with the solution and a short video outlining your idea.

Step 7: The top five teams per stream will be revealed on 28 June 2024

Step 8:  Top five team will appear for 48 hours challenge and present their solution to the panel of judges.

Step 9 : Final results will be announced by 8 July 2024

Stream selection

Please refer to below details for a clearer understanding of the case championship streams.

Risk Masters Challenge

The Risk Masters Challenge stream focuses on the complex landscape of financial risk management and skills required to navigate through it. Participants in this stream will delve into the intricacies of identifying, assessing, and mitigating the various types of financial risks faced by organizations in today's dynamic business environment. Through case studies and interactive workshops, students will explore topics such as market risk, credit risk, operational risk, and liquidity risk, etc. They will learn to leverage quantitative models, risk analytics tools, and risk management frameworks to make informed decisions and safeguard the financial health and stability of businesses.

If you're intrigued by the complexities of risk management and eager to apply a blend of risk management and business strategies to solve real-life business cases, the Risk masters challenge is the perfect platform for you to showcase your skills and expertise.

Liquid Edge: Mastering Investments

Welcome to Liquid Edge, where financial prowess meets strategic thinking . Liquidity investments and cash management are fundamental aspects of financial income to Liquid Edge, where financial prowess strategy is crucial for both individuals and organizations. Liquidity investments involve allocating funds into assets, which can readily be converted to cash, ensuring financial flexibility and stability. Meanwhile, cash management encompasses the strategic handling of cash flows to optimize liquidity, minimize risks and maximize returns.

In this stream, participants dive deep into the intricate world of liquidity and investments management, where teams navigate through real-world scenarios, assessing liquidity positions, optimizing investment strategies and mitigating risk.

Join us as tomorrow’s financial leaders compete head-to-head, striving for excellence in the dynamic realm of investments and liquidity management.

Sustainable Finance Innovators: GenAI Treasury Challenge

This stream emphasizes the focus on sustainable finance innovation, the role of GenAI technologies, and the specific challenge related to treasury management. It captures the essence of the competition and invites participants to explore cutting-edge solutions at the intersection of finance, technology, and sustainability.

Join us in the Sustainable Finance Innovation Stream as we embark on a journey to reimagine the future of finance through the lens of sustainability and technological innovation.

Duration: 60 minutes

Number of questions: 30

Format: Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQs)

Note: Non-participation in the quiz will lead to disqualification. If you are participating in a team of two, it is mandatory for both the participants to appear for quiz.

Submissions

Please submit your case study response via the provided Google Form by 16 June 2024 , accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation detailing your solution and a brief video presenting your idea.

Finale Round

The ultimate 48 hours challenge

In this exhilarating 48-hour challenge, the top five teams from the college-level finance and treasury case championship will push their limits, showcase their skills, and vie for the crown of champions.

Winner (one team from each stream)

• “The ultimate Champion” trophy
• Win attractive EY gift hampers
• Two months internship with EY India*
• Get 100% scholarship on EY CAFTA Hybrid eLearning Program

1st Runner up (one team from each stream)

• One month internship with EY India*
• Attractive EY gift hampers
• 75% scholarship on EY CAFTA Hybrid eLearning Program

2nd Runner up (one team from each stream)

* The winners will secure pro-bono internships and Live projects with EY

Note - Teams holding the fourth and   fifth position from their respective streams will be eligible for 50% scholarship on EY CAFTA Scholars Hybrid eLearning Program.

All those who participate will be eligible for 20% scholarship for EY CAFTA Hybrid elearning Program.

Registration Details and Important Dates

Eligibility

Open to college students from all academic disciplines and backgrounds.

Team Formation: You can participate as a team of one or a team of two, including undergraduates and postgraduates.

Note : No individual who graduated (either UG or PG) in or before 2023, irrespective of their current working status, is eligible to participate

Evaluation criteria

Evaluation is based on overall performance in all steps

For case solution, marks will be allocated to each team on the following:

• Clarity of thought
• Content and writing style
• Depth of research
• Practical applicability and relevance of solution
• PowerPoint presentation
• Video submitted 

I have queries. Where can I have them addressed?

Hope all your queries are addressed on this webpage. Additionally,  click here  to write to the EY CAFTA team and they will address your query. 

Click here to register

Registration open

EY Trainers

Kriya Bhansali

Abhishek Anand

Nushad Irani

Direct to your inbox

Stay up to date with our Editor's picks newsletter. 

Contact us to know more

Please email us in case of any queries

Connect with us

Our locations

Legal and privacy

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients.

EY | Assurance | Consulting | Strategy and Transactions | Tax

EY is a global leader in assurance, consulting, strategy and transactions, and tax services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities.

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.

© 2020 EYGM Limited. All Rights Reserved.

EYG/OC/FEA no.

This material has been prepared for general informational purposes only and is not intended to be relied upon as accounting, tax, or other professional advice. Please refer to your advisors for specific advice.

Welcome to EY.com

In addition to cookies that are strictly necessary to operate this website, we use the following types of cookies to improve your experience and our services: Functional cookies to enhance your experience (e.g. remember settings), and  Performance cookies to measure the website's performance and improve your experience . , and Marketing/Targeting cookies , which are set by third parties with whom we execute marketing campaigns and allow us to provide you with content relevant to you.

We have detected that Do Not Track/Global Privacy Control is enabled in your browser; as a result, Marketing/Targeting cookies , which are set by third parties with whom we execute marketing campaigns and allow us to provide you with content relevant to you, are automatically disabled.

You may withdraw your consent to cookies at any time once you have entered the website through a link in the privacy policy, which you can find at the bottom of each page on the website.

Review our  cookie policy  for more information.

Customize cookies

I decline optional cookies

Rwanda Sustainable Tourism Policy Case Study

Cornell stamp presents policy case study in rwanda for leaders & educators to debate & define next generation policies.

October 26, 2023, The Cornell Sustainable Tourism Asset Management Program (STAMP) leads a workshop on tourism and conservation policies for African leaders and professors in Kigali, Rwanda on October 31, 2023 at the African Leadership University (ALU). The case was written by Mark Milstein, Megan Epler Wood, & O’Shannon Burns and will be published in 2024.

Megan Epler Wood, Managing Director of the Sustainable Tourism Asset Management Program (STAMP), at the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise, at the SC Johnson College of Business states,

“Cornell STAMP has completed research for a case study on the policy mechanisms which led to creating a high value, low volume national tourism economy in Rwanda. The balance between tourism and conservation has been maintained via government policies, and the mountain gorilla population of Rwanda has benefited from these policies increasing to a new population high of over 600–due to the many individuals, NGOs, and businesses that contributed.”

“Mountain gorillas are a rare conservation success story that demonstrates tourism’s positive contribution to conservation,”  states senior author, Cornell Clinical Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise, Mark Milstein. The case will include a short overview of Rwandan history, the Rwanda Development Board, and tourism in Rwanda as well as the role investments play in local communities, the challenges of conservation tourism and the new Conservation Company concept.

This invitation-only workshop precedes the World Travel and Tourism Council Summit, in Kigali, Rwanda between November 1-3, which Cornell STAMP and SC Johnson College of Business leaders will attend as part of their work on the Hanga Ahazaza grant program which provided educational training for professionals in the hospitality and tourism sectors. The case research and hospitality training program were made possible with support from the Mastercard Foundation.

Case and Workshop for Rwandan Educational Leaders on Conservation and Tourism Policy

The Rwandan government works to advance and redesign current policy mechanisms to meet the demands of the 21st century. To develop the case, the Cornell STAMP program reviewed and interviewed national, regional and local stakeholders to understand their thoughts on current and future policies that impact conservation and tourism throughout the country.

Cornell STAMP aims to provide training and  support to up-and-coming hospitality leaders as they manage the tension between tourism and conservation. Therefore, this case is designed as an educational tool to be used by professors in educational institutions throughout Africa and the world. Thirty professors from Rwandan institutions will convene for the workshop in Kigali to enhance their research and teaching programs in sustainable tourism, biodiversity conservation, park management and other business and leadership disciplines. The workshop will equip local educators to use the business case study method, which immerses students in real world decision-making processes.

Contact STAMP

Email Cornell STAMP Program Manager – O’Shannon Burns

School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

College of engineering, civil and environmental engineering team wins national sustainability competition.

Georgia Tech's 2024 Sustainable Solutions Team

Georgia Tech has won first place at the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Sustainable Solutions Competition .

This is the second year in a row that the Yellow Jackets have won first place. Georgia Tech bested 17 other teams from around the country in the event, which was part of the ASCE Civil Engineering Student Championships at Brigham Young University June 20-22.

“ To say we are elated is an understatement,” said the team’s captain Mary Helvie, a fourth year civil engineering student. “A lot of us (most of all me) felt a lot of pressure from winning the previous year. We had big shoes to fill. We spent countless hours working together on this project and it's something we are extremely proud of.”

The Sustainable Solutions Competition challenges college students to address real-world issues with creative engineering solutions. For the 2024 competition, students were asked to respond to a fictional request for proposals to revitalize and redevelop an abandoned industrial waterfront area in a flood plain.

The area had three parcels the team was charged with designing. Their winning proposal included:

• A stormwater park to minimize flooding and increase water infiltration, inspired by Atlanta’s Rodney Cook Sr. Park and the Georgia Tech EcoCommons.
• A five-story multi-use building with housing units, a grocery store, clinic, gym, bike repair shop, and more.
• An education center, restaurant, and community garden. All of the buildings in this parcel had solar panels and were elevated for flood proofing.

“There was an existing railroad track in one of the parcels that was abandoned and unusable,” Helvie said. “Our team proposed transforming the area into a "rail trail" inspired by Atlanta's rails to trails program. Along this multiuse trail we proposed community markets and a commemorative arch made from the existing railroad tracks.”

Each of the participating schools in the competition were regional winners with impressive projects. Ultimately, Helvie said it was Georgia Tech’s hard work, collaboration, and thoroughness that set them apart.

 “We worked together and brainstormed the smallest details leaving no stone unturned,” Helvie said. “We weren't afraid to ask our peers, professors, and industry professionals for guidance when we needed it. Most of all, we each contributed, giving our everything to the project and knew we could rely on our teammates to do the same.”  

The team’s faculty advisor, Professor of the Practice Fred Meyer , said the students’ efforts were inspiring.

“I’m so proud of how our students came together to develop such a thoughtful, creative and sustainable design to address the future needs of our society,” Meyer said.

IFAMA International Case Study Competition

Alex wins in spain.

LandWISE is delighted to have supported our Project Manager Alex Dickson to be part of the 2024 IFAMA case study competition held in Almeria, Spain in June.

We were even more delighted by an immediate result, as Alex posted in LinkedIn:

“ I’m thrilled to share that we have taken out first place 🥇 at the IFAMA 2024 Student Case Study competition in the Early Career Professional category . I’m so proud of my unbelievably talented teammates Katie Henderson, Fatima Imran, Dan Ryan and Braydon Schroder. It came down to the final two, made up of both NZ teams. It’s brilliant that NZ took home both first and second place in Spain this year! The case study explored the global seed industry, from the perspective of the International Seed Federation (ISF) and asked us to consider how to improve collaboration and communication between stakeholders throughout the value chain, in the face of changing European policy. It has been a roller coaster of emotions; we are all so grateful for this amazing opportunity. Thank you to FoodHQ, Massey University, AGMARDT (The Agricultural and Marketing Research and Development Trust) for supporting us to get here! “

Their group developed a proposal for a food alliance which was powered by data and a governance model to help the seed industry collaborate and deal with regulatory pressures, such as the EU green deal.

Alex travelled as one of the members of the Strategic Thinking for Agrifood Management Programme (STAMP), and initiative of FOODHQ at Massey University supported by AGMARDT . The STAMP programme focuses on accelerating emerging leaders’ strategic thinking, broadening sector awareness and helping build local and global personal and professional networks.

After spending time in Spain, the group has been travelling, including visits to a number of food producers in other EU countries, and

As Dr Victoria Hatton, CEO of Food HQ noted, “The value of this experience can’t be underestimated. The exposure the cohort have been given to a real world challenge is fantastic. I am so proud of this amazing group of young leaders.”

We share that opinion and are justly proud of Alex’s and colleagues’ achievement.

IFAMA is an international management organization that brings together current and future business, academic, and government leaders along with other industry stakeholders—to improve the strategic focus, transparency, sustainability, and responsiveness of the global food and agribusiness system.

College of Engineering

Cee team wins national sustainability competition.

It's the second straight year Georgia Tech's civil and environmental engineering team has taken top prize in the ASCE Sustainable Solutions event.

Information

• Author Services

Initiatives

You are accessing a machine-readable page. In order to be human-readable, please install an RSS reader.

All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. No special permission is required to reuse all or part of the article published by MDPI, including figures and tables. For articles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused without permission provided that the original article is clearly cited. For more information, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/openaccess .

Feature papers represent the most advanced research with significant potential for high impact in the field. A Feature Paper should be a substantial original Article that involves several techniques or approaches, provides an outlook for future research directions and describes possible research applications.

Feature papers are submitted upon individual invitation or recommendation by the scientific editors and must receive positive feedback from the reviewers.

Editor’s Choice articles are based on recommendations by the scientific editors of MDPI journals from around the world. Editors select a small number of articles recently published in the journal that they believe will be particularly interesting to readers, or important in the respective research area. The aim is to provide a snapshot of some of the most exciting work published in the various research areas of the journal.

Original Submission Date Received: .

• Active Journals
• Find a Journal
• Proceedings Series
• For Authors
• For Reviewers
• For Editors
• For Librarians
• For Publishers
• For Societies
• For Conference Organizers
• Open Access Policy
• Institutional Open Access Program
• Special Issues Guidelines
• Editorial Process
• Research and Publication Ethics
• Article Processing Charges
• Testimonials
• Preprints.org
• SciProfiles
• Encyclopedia

Article Menu

• Subscribe SciFeed
• Recommended Articles
• Author Biographies
• Google Scholar
• on Google Scholar
• Table of Contents

Find support for a specific problem in the support section of our website.

Please let us know what you think of our products and services.

Visit our dedicated information section to learn more about MDPI.

JSmol Viewer

Optimization strategy for the spatiotemporal layout of e-bike charging piles from the perspective of sustainable campus planning: a case study of zijingang campus of zhejiang university.

1. Introduction

1.1. the importance of e-bike charging piles on chinese university campuses, 1.2. current spatial and temporal distribution of e-bike charging piles on zijingang campus, 2. literature review, 2.1. campus planning and transportation systems, 2.2. campus public service facilities layout, 2.3. optimization model for the layout of charging facilities, 2.4. the principles of functional facility siting based on spatio-temporal accessibility, 3.1. a survey on the current usage of e-bike charging piles on campus, 3.2. classification of e-bike charging pile users based on travel patterns, 3.3. charging station location layout based on spatio-temporal accessibility, 4.1. trip chain demand analysis, 4.2. space location analysis, 5. discussion, 5.1. placement considering the actual demands of the user groups, 5.2. adjustment of site placement in combination with actual road attributes, 5.3. usage guide of charging piles for enhanced sustainability and efficiency, 6. conclusions, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest.

Click here to enlarge figure

• Göçer, Ö.; Göçer, K.; Başol, A.M.; Kıraç, M.F.; Özbil, A.; Bakovic, M.; Siddiqui, F.P.; Özcan, B. Introduction of a Spatio-Temporal Mapping Based POE Method for Outdoor Spaces: Suburban University Campus as a Case Study. Build. Environ. 2018 , 145 , 125–139. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Maciel de Brito Soares, I.; Yamu, C.; Weitkamp, G. Space Syntax and Volunteered Geographic Information for University Campus Planning and Design: 12th International Space Syntax Symposium, SSS 2019. In Proceedings of the 12th International Space Syntax Symposium, Beijing, China, 8–13 July 2019; pp. 134.1–134.15. [ Google Scholar ]
• Brockliss, L. Gown and Town: The University and the City in Europe, 1200–2000. Minerva 2000 , 38 , 147–170. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Jiageng, N.; Lanlan, Z.; Xianghong, L. A Study on the Trip Behavior of Shared Bicycles and Shared Electric Bikes in Chinese Universities Based on NL Model—Henan Polytechnic University as an Example. Phys. A Stat. Mech. Its Appl. 2022 , 604 , 127855. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Zhan, G.; Yan, X.; Zhu, S.; Wang, Y. Using Hierarchical Tree-Based Regression Model to Examine University Student Travel Frequency and Mode Choice Patterns in China. Transp. Policy 2016 , 45 , 55–65. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• He, S. Consuming Urban Living in ‘Villages in the City’: Studentification in Guangzhou, China. Urban Stud. 2015 , 52 , 2849–2873. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Göçer, Ö.; Göçer, K.; Özcan, B.; Bakovic, M.; Kıraç, M.F. Pedestrian Tracking in Outdoor Spaces of a Suburban University Campus for the Investigation of Occupancy Patterns. Sustain. Cities Soc. 2019 , 45 , 131–142. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Goddard, J.; Vallance, P. The University and the City ; Routledge: London, UK, 2013; ISBN 978-0-203-06836-6. [ Google Scholar ]
• Hall, P. The University and the City. GeoJournal 1997 , 41 , 301–309. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Freestone, R.; Pullan, N. Evolution of Spatial Planning Strategies at Australian University Campuses 1945–2017. Int. Plan. Hist. Soc. Proc. 2018 , 18 , 800–810. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Tan, H.; Chen, S.; Shi, Q.; Wang, L. Development of Green Campus in China. J. Clean. Prod. 2014 , 64 , 646–653. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Unveiling the Commuting Experience of an Urban University Community—ProQuest. Available online: https://www.proquest.com/openview/cd5bb9099383c8c09d981a78230a1cbd/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y (accessed on 24 May 2024).
• Samsuddin, M.F.; Ahmad, S.N.A.; Ahmad, S.N. Sustainable Transport in Campus Area: E-Bike. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Business and Economics, Selangor, Malaysia, 21–23 September 2016; pp. 100–107. [ Google Scholar ]
• Jia, X.; Cheng, P.; Chen, J. A Data Analysis and Visualization System for Large-Scale e-Bike Data. In Proceedings of the 2016 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data), Washington, DC, USA, 5–8 December 2016; pp. 3998–4000. [ Google Scholar ]
• Technical Specification for Safety of Electric Bikes. Available online: https://baike.baidu.hk/item/%E7%94%B5%E5%8A%A8%E8%87%AA%E8%A1%8C%E8%BD%A6%E5%AE%89%E5%85%A8%E6%8A%80%E6%9C%AF%E8%A7%84%E8%8C%83/22342722 (accessed on 26 June 2024).
• Yuan, L.; Dubaniewicz, T.; Zlochower, I.; Thomas, R.; Rayyan, N. Experimental Study on Thermal Runaway and Vented Gases of Lithium-Ion Cells. Process Saf. Environ. Protect. 2020 , 144 , 186–192. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Liu, Z.; Guo, X.; Meng, N.; Yu, Z.; Yang, H. Study of Thermal Runaway and the Combustion Behavior of Lithium-Ion Batteries Overcharged with High Current Rates. Thermochim. Acta 2022 , 715 , 179276. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Yerli, O.; Ozdede, S. Design Process of a Campus Plan: A Case Study of Duzce University Konuralp Campus. Int. J. Eng. Res. Appl. 2017 , 07 , 50–59. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Mu, T.; Lao, Y. A Study on the Walkability of Zijingang East Campus of Zhejiang University: Based on Network Distance Walk Score. Sustainability 2022 , 14 , 11108. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Conception of Planning Scheme of Zijingang West Campus of Zhejiang University—ProQuest. Available online: https://www.proquest.com/openview/66ae25c5b7ed9c92997f03abe1ccba1f/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1596366 (accessed on 24 May 2024).
• Wang, F.; Gong, C.; Wu, K. Operational Analysis of an Intelligent Traffic Management System on the Zijingang Campus of Zhejiang University. In Proceedings of the CICTP 2015, Beijing, China, 24–27 July 2015; pp. 466–475. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Filippakou, O.; Tapper, T. Founding the New Universities of the 1960s: Interpreting the UGC’s Strategy. In Creating the Future? the 1960s New English Universities ; Filippakou, O., Tapper, T., Eds.; Springer International Publishing: Cham, Switzerland, 2019; pp. 17–29. ISBN 978-3-030-06091-6. [ Google Scholar ]
• Lane, J.C. The Yale Report of 1828 and Liberal Education: A Neorepublican Manifesto. Hist. Educ. Q. 1987 , 27 , 325–338. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Whitton, P.D. The New University: Space, Place and Identity. Doctoral Thesis, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK, 2018. [ Google Scholar ]
• Dober, R.P. Campus Planning ; SCUP: Ann Arbor, MI, USA, 1996; ISBN 978-0-9601608-1-5. [ Google Scholar ]
• Dober, R.P. Campus Design ; J. Wiley: New York, NY, USA, 1992; ISBN 978-0-471-54258-2. [ Google Scholar ]
• Dober, R.P. Campus Architecture: Building in the Groves of Academe ; McGraw-Hill: New York, NY, USA, 1996; ISBN 978-0-07-017185-5. [ Google Scholar ]
• Dober, R.P. Campus Landscape: Functions, Forms, Features ; John Wiley & Sons: Hoboken, NJ, USA, 2000; ISBN 978-0-471-35356-0. [ Google Scholar ]
• Tong, Q.; Tang, L.; Li, Q. Analysis of New Campus Planning for Wuhan University in the Early Republic of China (1929-1937). J. Asian Archit. Build. Eng. 2022 , 21 , 34–47. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Gown and Town: University Spatial Development and Urban Transformation in the Knowledge Society. The Case of Shanghai. Available online: https://www.politesi.polimi.it/handle/10589/75104 (accessed on 24 May 2024).
• Liu, Y.; Liu, C.; Wang, X.; Zhang, J.; Yang, Y.; Wang, Y. Exploring the Layout Optimization of Commercial Service Space Affecting Energy Consumption in Communities Using Machine Learning. Buildings 2024 , 14 , 108. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Systemadmin_Umwelt Nachhaltige Mobilität. Available online: https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/themen/verkehr/nachhaltige-mobilitaet (accessed on 26 June 2024).
• Nachhaltige Mobilität—Neue Technologien für die Verkehrswende—Fraunhofer ISE. Available online: https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/de/nachhaltige-mobilitaet.html (accessed on 26 June 2024).
• Pereira, R.C.; Branchi, B.A.; Lombardo Ferreira, D.H. Sustainable Urban Mobility Diagnosis: Applicability of a Composite Index. J. Innov. Sustain. RISUS 2021 , 12 , 16–29. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Brcic, D.; Sostaric, M.; Sojat, D. Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans. In Proceedings of the Road and Rail Infrastructure IV ; Lakusic, S., Ed.; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Civil Engineering: Zagreb, Republika Hrvatska, 2016; pp. 373–377. [ Google Scholar ]
• Damidavicius, J.; Burinskiene, M.; Uspalyte-Vitkuniene, R. A Monitoring System for Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans. Balt. J. Road. Bridge. Eng. 2019 , 14 , 158–177. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Shi, J.; Guo, Q.; Lv, Q.; Zhao, X. From Accessibility of Traffic to Accessibility of Service: The Spatial Analysis of N-Minute Service Circle of Urban Park System. J. Asian Archit. Build. Eng. 2023 , 22 , 3680–3702. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Mei, W.; Symaco, L.P. Higher Education for Development: The Role of University Towns in China. Sage Open 2021 , 11 , 21582440211046586. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Jiang, J.; Gong, L.; Li, Y. Establishment and Empirical Analysis of Evaluation Index System for Basic Public Service Level of Transportation. MATEC Web Conf. 2017 , 124 , 01004. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Liu, H. Public Facilities Design around South River of Shenyang Aerospace University. Doctoral Thesis, Shenyang Aerospace University, Shenyang, China, 2015. [ Google Scholar ]
• Stessens, P.; Khan, A.Z.; Huysmans, M.; Canters, F. Analysing Urban Green Space Accessibility and Quality: A GIS-Based Model as Spatial Decision Support for Urban Ecosystem Services in Brussels. Ecosyst. Serv. 2017 , 28 , 328–340. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Li, C.; Xia, W.; Chai, Y. Delineation of an Urban Community Life Circle Based on a Machine-Learning Estimation of Spatiotemporal Behavioral Demand. Chin. Geogr. Sci. 2021 , 31 , 27–40. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ma, Q. Optimization of Charging Station Layout Based on Spatiotemporaldistribution Forecast Charging Load and Research on Orderly Chargingand Discharging Strategies of Electric Vehicles. Doctoral Thesis, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an, China, 2024. [ Google Scholar ]
• Quddus, M.A.; Shahvari, O.; Marufuzzaman, M.; Ekşioğlu, S.D.; Castillo-Villar, K.K. Designing a Reliable Electric Vehicle Charging Station Expansion under Uncertainty. Int. J. Prod. Econ. 2021 , 236 , 108132. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Zhu, Z.-H.; Gao, Z.-Y.; Zheng, J.-F.; Du, H.-M. Charging Station Location Problem of Plug-in Electric Vehicles. J. Transp. Geogr. 2016 , 52 , 11–22. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Zhou, G.; Zhu, Z.; Luo, S. Location Optimization of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations: Based on Cost Model and Genetic Algorithm. Energy 2022 , 247 , 123437. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Yagcitekin, B.; Uzunoglu, M. A Double-Layer Smart Charging Strategy of Electric Vehicles Taking Routing and Charge Scheduling into Account. Appl. Energy 2016 , 167 , 407–419. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Murad, A.; Faruque, F.; Naji, A.; Tiwari, A.; Qurnfulah, E.; Rahman, M.; Dewan, A. Optimizing Health Service Location in a Highly Urbanized City: Multi Criteria Decision Making and P-Median Problem Models for Public Hospitals in Jeddah City, KSA. PLoS ONE 2024 , 19 , e0294819. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Wang, F. Measurement, Optimization, and Impact of Health Care Accessibility: A Methodological Review. Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr. 2012 , 102 , 1104–1112. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Murray, A.T. Maximal Coverage Location Problem: Impacts, Significance, and Evolution. Int. Reg. Sci. Rev. 2016 , 39 , 5–27. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Xifeng, T.; Ji, Z.; Peng, X. A Multi-Objective Optimization Model for Sustainable Logistics Facility Location. Transp. Res. Part D Transp. Environ. 2013 , 22 , 45–48. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ashibani, Y.; Mahmoud, Q.H. A Behavior-Based Proactive User Authentication Model Utilizing Mobile Application Usage Patterns. In Proceedings of the Advances in Artificial Intelligence ; Meurs, M.-J., Rudzicz, F., Eds.; Springer International Publishing: Cham, Switzerland, 2019; pp. 284–295. [ Google Scholar ]
• Hakimi, S.L. Optimum Locations of Switching Centers and the Absolute Centers and Medians of a Graph. Oper. Res. 1964 , 12 , 450–459. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Yao, Y.; Zhou, C. Study on the Correlation between User Emotional Benefits and Their Perception of Campus Outdoor Spaces—Take Longquan Campus of Yunnan University of Finance and Economics as an Example. J. Innov. Dev. 2023 , 4 , 76–82. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Liu, S.; Guo, H.; Su, L. Evaluation of Quality of Life in Urban Life Circles from a Composite Perspective of Subjective Needs and the Supply of Public Amenities: A Case Study of Changbai Island, Shenyang. Sustainability 2023 , 15 , 10095. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Wang, J.; Zhang, X.; Chai, Y.; Kwan, M.-P. A Context-Based Approach for Neighbourhood Life Circle Delineation and Internal Spatial Utilization Analysis Based on GIS and GPS Tracking Data. Appl. Spat. Anal. Policy 2023 , 16 , 1493–1515. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Zhang, H.; Tang, L.; Yang, C.; Lan, S. Locating Electric Vehicle Charging Stations with Service Capacity Using the Improved Whale Optimization Algorithm. Adv. Eng. Inform. 2019 , 41 , 100901. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Wang, Z.; Yang, Q.; Wang, C.; Wang, L. Spatial Layout Analysis and Evaluation of Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure in Chongqing. Land 2023 , 12 , 868. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Rane, N.L.; Achari, A.; Saha, A.; Poddar, I.; Rane, J.; Pande, C.B.; Roy, R. An Integrated GIS, MIF, and TOPSIS Approach for Appraising Electric Vehicle Charging Station Suitability Zones in Mumbai, India. Sustain. Cities Soc. 2023 , 97 , 104717. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Hansen, W.G. How Accessibility Shapes Land Use. J. Am. Inst. Plan. 1959 , 25 , 73–76. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Anderson, P.; Levinson, D.; Parthasarathi, P. Accessibility Futures. Trans. GIS 2013 , 17 , 683–705. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ingram, D.R. The Concept of Accessibility: A Search for an Operational Form. Reg. Stud. 1971 , 5 , 101–107. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Yan, J. Study on Evaluation Method of Spatial Accessibility of Urban Public Service Facilities. Doctoral Thesis, Southeast University, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2017. [ Google Scholar ]
• Wachs, M.; Kumagai, T.G. Physical Accessibility as a Social Indicator. Socio-Econ. Plan. Sci. 1973 , 7 , 437–456. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Zhang, Z.; Ma, G.; Lin, X.; Dai, H. Accessibility in a Multiple Transport Mode Urban Park Based on the “D-D” Model: A Case Study in Park City, Chengdu. Cities 2023 , 134 , 104191. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Liu, H. Study on Location, Capacity and Operation Decision of Electric Vehicle Charging Station Considering Multi-Subject Interests. Doctoral Thesis, Northeast Electric Power University, Jilin, China, 2024. [ Google Scholar ]
• Zhang, L.; Tian, F.; Zheng, X.; Sun, Z. Spatial Configuration of Fire Protection for Historical Streets in China Using Space Syntax. J. Cult. Herit. 2023 , 59 , 140–150. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Qanazi, S.; Hijazi, I.H.; Shahrour, I.; Meouche, R.E. Exploring Urban Service Location Suitability: Mapping Social Behavior Dynamics with Space Syntax Theory. Land 2024 , 13 , 609. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Zhang, S. Spatial Accessibility Analysis of Primary schools Based on Geographical Conditions Monitoring Results: Take the Main Urban Area of Fuzhou as an Example. Geomat. Spat. Inf. Technol. 2022 , 45 , 147–150+153. [ Google Scholar ]
• Zhao, Y.; Qin, M.; Shi, Q. The Accessibility Analysis of Urban Park Green Space Based on spatial syntax: Taking the Central City of Guangzhou as an Example. J. Spatio-Temporal Inf. 2022 , 29 , 40–45. [ Google Scholar ]
• Ge, Y.; Li, J. Research on Layout Planning of Automobile Charging Pile Based on Nuclear Density Analysis and Space Syntax—A Case of Wuhan in Hubei. Urban. Archit. 2019 , 16 , 41–45. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Dodge, S.; Nelson, T.A. A Framework for Modern Time Geography: Emphasizing Diverse Constraints on Accessibility. J. Geogr. Syst. 2023 , 25 , 357–375. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Hägerstrand, T. Reflections on “What about People in Regional Science”? In Papers of the Regional Science Association ; Springer: Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany, 1989; Volume 66, pp. 1–6. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Chen, B.Y.; Yuan, H.; Li, Q.; Wang, D.; Shaw, S.-L.; Chen, H.-P.; Lam, W.H.K. Measuring Place-Based Accessibility under Travel Time Uncertainty. Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci. 2017 , 31 , 783–804. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kibambe Lubamba, J.-P.; Radoux, J.; Defourny, P. Multimodal Accessibility Modeling from Coarse Transportation Networks in Africa. Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci. 2013 , 27 , 1005–1022. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Benenson, I.; Ben-Elia, E.; Rofé, Y.; Geyzersky, D. The Benefits of a High-Resolution Analysis of Transit Accessibility. Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci. 2017 , 31 , 213–236. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Li, Q.; Zhang, T.; Wang, H.; Zeng, Z. Dynamic Accessibility Mapping Using Floating Car Data: A Network-Constrained Density Estimation Approach. J. Transp. Geogr. 2011 , 19 , 379–393. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Levinson, D.; Marion, B.; Owen, A.; Cui, M. The City Is Flatter: Changing Patterns of Job and Labor Access. Cities 2017 , 60 , 124–138. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Li, W.; Hsu, C.-Y. GeoAI for Large-Scale Image Analysis and Machine Vision: Recent Progress of Artificial Intelligence in Geography. ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2022 , 11 , 385. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Alkamali, N.; Alhadhrami, N.; Alalouch, C. Muscat City Expansion and Accessibility to the Historical Core: Space Syntax Analysis. Energy Procedia 2017 , 115 , 480–486. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Thomas, A.M.; Rogers, C.D.F.; Metje, N.; Chapman, D.N. A Stakeholder Led Accuracy Assessment System for Utility Location. In Proceedings of the 2007 4th International Workshop on, Advanced Ground Penetrating Radar, Naples, Italy, 27–29 June 2007; pp. 272–277. [ Google Scholar ]
• Rey, M.; Soriano, P.; Stampfli, E. La Localisation D’Une Installation De Stockage De Dechets Stabilises: Le Cas De La Suisse Romande. INFOR Inf. Syst. Oper. Res. 1995 , 33 , 50–62. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Achmad, F.; Prambudia, Y.; Rumanti, A.A. Improving Tourism Industry Performance through Support System Facilities and Stakeholders: The Role of Environmental Dynamism. Sustainability 2023 , 15 , 4103. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Altintasi, O.; Yalcinkaya, S. Siting Charging Stations and Identifying Safe and Convenient Routes for Environmentally Sustainable E-Scooter Systems. Sustain. Cities Soc. 2022 , 84 , 104020. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Larsen, J.; Patterson, Z.; El-Geneidy, A. Build It. But Where? The Use of Geographic Information Systems in Identifying Locations for New Cycling Infrastructure. Int. J. Sustain. Transp. 2013 , 7 , 299–317. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Guo, M.; Zhang, Y.; Zhao, L. Electric Vehicle Charging Station Siting Method Based on Spatial Semantics and Individual Activities. J. Comput. Appl. 2023 , 43 , 2819. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Jordán, J.; Palanca, J.; del Val, E.; Julian, V.; Botti, V. Localization of Charging Stations for Electric Vehicles Using Genetic Algorithms. Neurocomputing 2021 , 452 , 416–423. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Park, J.; Park, S.; Ok, C. Optimal Factory Operation Planning Using Electrical Load Shifting under Time-Based Electric Rates. J. Adv. Mech. Des. Syst. Manuf. 2016 , 10 , JAMDSM0085. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Khattak, A.; Yangsheng, J.; Abid, M.M. Optimal Configuration of the Metro Rail Transit Station Service Facilities by Integrated Simulation-Optimization Method Using Passengers’ Flow Fluctuation. Arab. J. Sci. Eng. 2018 , 43 , 5499–5516. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Xu, M.; Di, Y.; Zhu, Z.; Yang, H.; Chen, X. Designing Van-Based Mobile Battery Swapping and Rebalancing Services for Dockless Ebike-Sharing Systems Based on the Dueling Double Deep Q-Network. Transp. Res. Pt. C-Emerg. Technol. 2022 , 138 , 103620. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Jia, L.; Yang, D.; Ren, Y.; Feng, Q.; Sun, B.; Qian, C.; Li, Z.; Zeng, C. An Electric Fence-Based Intelligent Scheduling Method for Rebalancing Dockless Bike Sharing Systems. Appl. Sci. 2022 , 12 , 5031. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Huang, X.; Xu, C.; Wang, P.; Liu, H. LNSC: A Security Model for Electric Vehicle and Charging Pile Management Based on Blockchain Ecosystem. IEEE Access 2018 , 6 , 13565–13574. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]

Share and Cite

Wang, S.; Xie, H.; Yun, B.; Pu, X.; Qiu, Z. Optimization Strategy for the Spatiotemporal Layout of E-Bike Charging Piles from the Perspective of Sustainable Campus Planning: A Case Study of Zijingang Campus of Zhejiang University. Sustainability 2024 , 16 , 5690. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16135690

Wang S, Xie H, Yun B, Pu X, Qiu Z. Optimization Strategy for the Spatiotemporal Layout of E-Bike Charging Piles from the Perspective of Sustainable Campus Planning: A Case Study of Zijingang Campus of Zhejiang University. Sustainability . 2024; 16(13):5690. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16135690

Wang, Su, Haihui Xie, Binwei Yun, Xincheng Pu, and Zhi Qiu. 2024. "Optimization Strategy for the Spatiotemporal Layout of E-Bike Charging Piles from the Perspective of Sustainable Campus Planning: A Case Study of Zijingang Campus of Zhejiang University" Sustainability 16, no. 13: 5690. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16135690

Article Metrics

Further information, mdpi initiatives, follow mdpi.

Subscribe to receive issue release notifications and newsletters from MDPI journals

This site uses cookies to help improve your experience. By proceeding, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn More

Your shopping cart is empty.

Login Successful!

Autonomous Robots Add Sustainable Shine for Global Manufacturer

Posted in Sustainability ,  Robotic Cleaning Machines ,  Cleaning Challenges , 

As a world-class producer of cutting-edge equipment and technologies for the agriculture and construction sectors, CNH Industrial knows the role innovation plays in solving the world’s greatest challenges. So, when the company recognized a need to drive cleaning efficiency, they seized the opportunity to leverage next-generation autonomous commercial floor cleaning machines to deliver a unique advantage.

Finding a more efficient path to enhanced cleanliness

Despite 40 hours of weekly cleaning and intensive chemical use, the floors at the CNH Industrial Parts Distribution Center in Lebanon, Indiana were not consistently meeting CNH’s high standards of cleanliness. “We had an operator tied up on the machine all day and we weren’t getting the quality of clean we wanted,” says Facility Manager Neil Dellinger.

Eager to enhance cleanliness while cutting down on chemical usage and labor expenses, the local team set out on a mission: Find a way to reliably meet cleaning standards while redirecting valuable labor resources toward revenue-generating activities within the warehouse operation.

How robotics helped CNH with sustainability goals

Dellinger’s interest in exploring alternative floor care solutions led him to investigate Tennant’s fleet of autonomous robotic cleaning machines. A demo of the Tennant T16AMR proved the potential of robotic cleaning. “We were interested in learning more about floor care solutions that leverage robotics and this gave us the opportunity to figure out the best way to implement this technology moving forward,” says Dellinger.

Equipped with Tennant’s ec-H2O NanoClean® technology , Dellinger saw how the T16AMR could combine autonomous floor scrubbing with a detergent-free solution—helping to drive more effective cleaning, save money through labor efficiency, and support sustainability in cleaning by reducing chemical usage in daily floor care.

Setting the cleaning machine up for success

Impressed with its capabilities, Dellinger decided to make a place for the T16AMR on his team, purchasing a machine for use at the CNH Lebanon site.

Tennant partnered with Dellinger and the facilities team at CNH to ensure a successful implementation of the T16AMR, conducting rigorous pre-work and thoughtfully pre-planning routes before the machine was installed. Dellinger also coached his team on the importance of ensuring everything was in the correct place and aisles were kept clear—which significantly reduced machine assists to maximize the cleaning productivity gains.

The importance of human-robot collaboration in cleaning

Team members initially looked at the T16AMR as a gimmick, but the machine quickly won them over with its reliable autonomous cleaning—even earning the nickname “GhostRider.” Clocking 38-44 hours a week, today the robot keeps millions of square feet spotless without using a drop of harsh chemicals in the process.

With dozens of hours freed up from manual floor cleaning, the facilities team at the Lebanon site was able to redeploy its staff to add value through cleaning in the plant’s packaging area and productivity in the warehouse soared.

Astonished by the impact the robot has had on his operations, Neil encouraged other plants to follow suit on his investment.

Building on this success

Dellinger is proud that his investment in robotic floor cleaning has paid off. “We are very happy with the T16AMR,” he says. “Our floors are a lot cleaner, plus the machine doesn’t require any chemicals to clean the floor. This machine does align well with our sustainability values.”

With the success of this first robotic cleaning machine, CNH Industrial has already ordered additional T16AMR robotic commercial floor cleaning machines with ec-H2O NanoClean technology for other North American facilities. As the company pursues its goals of driving innovation and sustainability across its operations, CNH is looking at other opportunities to leverage autonomous systems, deploy battery-operated machines, and implement chemical-free cleaning.

Download the full case study

RELATED LINKS

Industrial Floor Cleaning Big Picture

Why Companies Need Robotic Cleaning Strategy

Silica Dust Case Study

Ready to take your cleaning to the next level?

Whether you are requesting a product demonstration or a quote, ordering parts, or making a service appointment, you've come to the right place. Tennant professional representatives are ready with answers to your questions, and we look forward to showing you how much we appreciate your business.

*Required Fields

Brands marked with ® are registered in the United States and/or other countries. Brands marked with the TM are not registered and protected under applicable law.

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings
• My Bibliography
• Collections
• Citation manager

Save citation to file

Email citation, add to collections.

• Create a new collection
• Add to an existing collection

Add to My Bibliography

Your saved search, create a file for external citation management software, your rss feed.

• Search in PubMed
• Search in NLM Catalog
• Add to Search

Sustainable Development Efficiency of Cultural Landscape Heritage in Urban Fringe Based on GIS-DEA-MI, a Case Study of Wuhan, China

Affiliations.

• 1 School of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Environment, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan 430068, China.
• 2 Innovation Demonstration Base of Ecological Environment Geotechnical and Ecological Restoration of Rivers and Lakes, Wuhan 430068, China.
• 3 School of Architecture, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.
• 4 Wuhan Planning and Design Institute, Wuhan 430014, China.
• PMID: 36293641
• PMCID: PMC9602819
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph192013061

Cultural landscape heritage refers to the rare and irreplaceable cultural landscapes recognized by UNESCO and the World Heritage Committee. It is recognized as a "common works of nature and human beings" of outstanding significance and universal value, and is a type of world heritage. Dueto construction, land isincreasingly limited in urban and rural areasin the process of urbanization, and cultural landscape heritage faces a huge threat, especially larger culturallandscapeheritagelocated at the edgesof cities. However, most of the existing studies have mainly focused on the material protection of heritage but have not paid enough attention to the non-material aspects of heritage sites, failing to reveal the inseparable nature of heritage and land. Therefore, this study takes sustainable development efficiency as its analysis tool, examines two pieces of cultural landscape heritage (the Panlongcheng site and the Tomb of the King of the Ming Dynasty) in the urban edge area of Wuhan, China as examples, innovates and establishes a multidimensional evaluation method based on the GIS-DEA-Ml model, and compares the dynamic changes of the spatial development efficiency and non-spatial development efficiency of the above two cultural landscape heritage cases. The results show that: both the spatial development efficiency and non-spatial development efficiency of Panlongcheng from 2010 to 2019 are significantly higher than that of the Tomb. This method makes up for the deficiency of traditional subjective qualitative analysis. It can be used to study the development efficiency of cultural landscape heritage more objectively and comprehensively, and promote the overall sustainable development of material and intangible cultural heritage. It can provide the basis for early decision-making and post-implementation evaluation for the preservation and utilization of cultural landscape heritage under the background of urban renewal.

Keywords: GIS-DEA-MI model; cultural landscape heritage; heritage preservation and utilization; sustainable development efficiency; urban fringe.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Knowledge mapping of the study…

Knowledge mapping of the study on the developmental efficiency of cultural landscape heritage.

Kernel density analysis of traffic…

Kernel density analysis of traffic facilities.

Kernel density analysis of communal…

Kernel density analysis of communal facilities.

Kernel density analysis of service…

Kernel density analysis of service facilities.

Analysis of road network.

Analysis of land use property.

Statistical graph of non-spatial development…

Statistical graph of non-spatial development efficiency.

Statistical graph of the degree…

Statistical graph of the degree of change in non-spatial development efficiency.

Similar articles

• A study on the spatial distribution characteristics and driving factors of traditional villages in the southeast coast of China: A case study of Puxian, Fujian. Lu X, Peng Z, Zhou Y, Xie Y, Chen Z. Lu X, et al. PLoS One. 2024 Jun 7;19(6):e0303746. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0303746. eCollection 2024. PLoS One. 2024. PMID: 38848429 Free PMC article.
• Quantitative spatial assessment of the impact of urban growth on the landscape network of Türkiye's coastal cities. Yılmaz M, Terzi F. Yılmaz M, et al. Environ Monit Assess. 2023 Mar 14;195(4):466. doi: 10.1007/s10661-023-11084-1. Environ Monit Assess. 2023. PMID: 36914859 Review.
• Modern zoning plans versus traditional landscape structures: Ecosystem service dynamics and interactions in rapidly urbanizing cultural landscapes. Liu J, Fang Y, Yan Q, Chen C. Liu J, et al. J Environ Manage. 2023 Apr 1;331:117315. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117315. Epub 2023 Jan 22. J Environ Manage. 2023. PMID: 36693299
• Quantifying the core driving force for the sustainable redevelopment of industrial heritage: implications for urban renewal. Guo P, Li Q, Guo H, Li H. Guo P, et al. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2021 Sep;28(35):48097-48111. doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-14054-7. Epub 2021 Apr 26. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2021. PMID: 33904128 Review.
• Spatial Analysis of Cultural Heritage Landscapes in Rural China: Land Use Change and Its Risks for Conservation. Yu H, Verburg PH, Liu L, Eitelberg DA. Yu H, et al. Environ Manage. 2016 Jun;57(6):1304-18. doi: 10.1007/s00267-016-0683-5. Epub 2016 Feb 26. Environ Manage. 2016. PMID: 26920156
• Jackson J.B. Discovering the Vernacular Landscape. Yale University Press; New Haven, CT, USA: 1984.
• Taylor K., Feng H., Feng T. Cultural Landscapes and Asian Values: Negotiating a Transition from an International Experience to an Asian Regional Framework. Chin. Landsc. Archit. 2007;23:4–9. (In Chinese)
• Li L. Tradition and Change. Jiangxi People’s Publishing House; Nanchang, China: 2008. p. 8. (In Chinese)
• Jixiang S. From the Cultural Landscape to the Cultural Landscape Heritage (Part One) Southeast Cult. 2010;2:7–18.
• Jixiang S. From the Cultural Landscape to the Cultural Landscape Heritage (Part Two) Southeast Cult. 2010;16:7–12.

Publication types

• Search in MeSH

Related information

Grants and funding.

• 20YJC760145/Ministry of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences Youth Fund
• 20Y044/Humanities and Social Sciences Fund of Hubei Education Department
• XJ2021005501/Hubei University of Technology Green Industry Science and Technology Leading Program
• 2020EJB004/Innovation Demonstration Base of Ecological Environment Geotechnical and Ecological Restoration of Rivers and Lakes

LinkOut - more resources

Full text sources.

• Europe PubMed Central
• PubMed Central

• Citation Manager

NCBI Literature Resources

MeSH PMC Bookshelf Disclaimer

The PubMed wordmark and PubMed logo are registered trademarks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Unauthorized use of these marks is strictly prohibited.