Dear reader, The topic of our Spring 2012 issue is Sustainable Housing. Our homes, offices and other buildings cause a whole range of environmental impacts, including car bondioxide emissions,related to the use of energy for the heating, lighting and running of these buildings; production of construction materials; and deconstruction of buildings at the end of their life.
In addition, homelessness and urban slums are some of the social problems related to the topic of sustainable housing. In this issue we present three cases from the Oikos online case collection.
The Kimpton Hotels case describes the roll out of a major environmental initiative (“EarthCare”programme) at the chain of boutique hotels.
Case Hunghom Peninsulain Hong Kong and the controversy involved in the proposed demolition of the never-occupied residential building complex of Hunghom Peninsula.
The ReUse People also focuses on the building deconstruction process and gives an account of an organisation that specialises in deconstruction with the aim of reusing as much of the materials as possible, hence keeping the mout of landfill.
The Hayward Lumber Company case traces the greening of Hayward Lumber Company, which decided to switch to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified lumber to meet a growing demand for green building materials in California.
Another California-centred case is The Ambrose Hotel that describes eco labelling strategies of a California based hotel.
A different angle to the sustainable housing problem is taken in the case Jamii Bora and Kaputei Town: this case outlines an entrepreneurial solution to the problem of urban slums in Nairobi (Kenya) and the process of creating an innovative newtown.
Finally, the case The Mountain’s Institutes Earth Brick Machine exposes the challenges of growing a non-profit organisation – The Mountain Institute (TMI) – that produces environmentally-friendly bricks from dirt, allowing for low cost construction of housing and other structures.
We hope that you will enjoy reading the Spring 2012 issue and discovering organisations that deal with a range of environmental and social problems related to housing.
There were two basic ground rules for the roll out. First, new initiatives had to reduce costs, have no netcost impact and investment shad to have a maximum 12 month payback. Second, new initiatives couldn’t adversely affect customer perceptions or satisfaction.
“Students often get so wrapped up in the initiatives that they believe an organization can introduce, they lose track of the difficulties associated with implementing initiatives: How do you engage employees and managers? How do you embed new values and initiatives in the organizational culture?” We believe that the importance of embedding sustainability into organizations is not given enough attention. Kimpton does an excellent job of institutionalizing sustainability, providing students with an opportunity to see how they did it.
We have successfully introduced this case in environmental management, business&society and strategic management courses. Topics that can be used to initiate or focus discussion for each of the three courses are listed below: Strategy course – creating sustainable competitive advantage, brand differentiation, cost savings and top line benefits, first mover advantages, cause-related marketing, aligning strategy and structure with core values, and the integration of strategic management and environmental values.
Corporate citizenship and social responsibility, stakeholder relations, social capital, strategic philanthropy and the integration of strategic management and environmental values. For share holders and society by leading their organizations toward greater social and environmental sustainability.
The SFSU College of Business was recognized recently by the Aspen Institute’s Beyond Grey Pinstripes as one of the top business schools in the world (#16) at integrating social and environmental issues into its curriculum. Kimpton’s founder, BillKimpton, is credited with inventing the “boutique” hotel segment in 1981. By 2005, KimptonHotels was comprised of 39 hotels throughout North America and Canada, each one designed to create unique and exceptional guest experience. An important aspect of their efforts to establish the Kimpton brand was the development and roll out to all of their hotels of a major environmental initiative they named Earth Care.
Earth Care was built on an already established commitment to environmental and social responsibility. Their Hotel Triton was a model for the program, as it already included initiatives such as: energy efficient lighting solutions, low-flow/high pressure shower heads and sink aerators, and toilets that reduce water use, linen and towel reuse program, non-toxic, non-allergenic, all natural cleaning products, low VOC paints used to paint walls and ceilings and more. Planned future initiatives went well beyond those in the Triton Hotel. Thecasedetailstheinternal implementation process,including Teaching the Case. This case demonstrates how sustainability can lead to both top line and bottom line benefits.
Environmental impacts in the hotel industry, potential for financial benefits of environmental initiatives, industry environmental leadership, voluntary initiatives and self-regulation, institutionalization of environmental commitment, green-washing, and the integration of strategic management and environmental values.
In teaching the case, we typically focus first on whether there is a ‘business case’ for Earth Care. This allows us to introduce top-line and bottom line considerations as well as tangible and intangible benefits. These cond area of focus is institutionalization. Students often get so wrapped up in the initiatives that they believe an organization can introduce, they lose track of the difficulties associated with implementing initiatives: How do you engage employees and managers? How do you embed new values and initiatives in the organizational culture? This case is well suited to explore both the ‘business case’ and the issue of institutionalization.
The developers, New World Development Company Limited (NWD) and Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited (SHKP) came up with a reconstruction proposal for Hunghom Peninsula: demolish and redevelop the area into a luxurious private estate. However, the intention to demolish the never-occupied Hunghom Peninsula came under heavy criticism from the public in large part because the demolition process would produce extensive pollution to the environment, which violated both social parties and the companies’ corporate mission of being responsible to the society. Under these circumstances, the management team had to withdraw the demolition plan and reconsider their decision.
After the developers thought twice about all the relevant parties’ interests and took corporate social responsibility into account, they gave up the demolition plan and decided to conduct an extensive internal reconfiguration and renovation to upgrade the property to medium-grade private housing estate standard. “The case served as a good example to students and the future managers and gave insight on how business profitability could be balanced with environmental concern and social responsibility.
During the class, the case provoked holistic thinking of strategic management as well as discussion of business environment analysis and stakeholder analysis. The major learning and discussions fell on Stakeholder Analysis by the case. The (A) and (B) cases vividly present a ‘stakeholder dilemma’ to case readers and permitted a detailed stakeholder analysis: to predict the responses of different stakeholders of the real estate project, students perform both quantitative and qualitative analyses. The class participants found the case use full because the case pointed out to students the importance of issues associated with business ethics and reviewed the role of corporate social responsibility in business strategy.
In addition, the case served as a good example to students and the future managers and gave insight on how business profitability could be balanced with environmental concern and social responsibility. It gave students a good chance to analyze stakeholders’ needs and business environment and reminded students that besides profit, companies also needed to take socialresponsibilityandbusiness ethicsintoaccountwhentheymake decisions. The teaching flow can be seen from the following questions: 1. What factors should the developers considering making the decision? Who are the involved stakeholders? (A case) 2.
Which proposal should the developers choose? Why? (A case) 3. What role should the Hong Kong Government play in this incident? (B case) There identical building complex of Hunghom Peninsula was built under the Hong Kong government’s Private Sector Participation Scheme (PSPS) program that was intended to provide housing for middle class residents at a discounted price. Due to an economic down turn and a shrinking real estate market threatening property values.
One of the class participants was fromHong Kong and he told the story of Hunghom Peninsula project. Both the instructor and other participants found this story interesting and thus we decided to develop the story into a good teaching case with additional.
We have done several rounds of interviews withGeneral Electric and Philipsin China to investigate both firms’ green innovation processes. Currently and in the future, eco-innovations are.
The ReUse People fill a need by connecting a supply and a demand that already exist but in different places; one can think of TRP as a pipeline between that supply and demand. The case was written to be used in a course on environmental management or (social) entrepreneurship.
The ReUse People (TRP) case discusses an organization that specializes in deconstruction of buildings, with the aim of reusing as much of the materials as possible, hence keeping them out of landfill. The organization is facing a classical growth-related dilemma: should it grow organically, keeping most of the workin-house but hence limiting its growth rate, or should it “franchise” its deconstruction approach by certifying other companies in the deconstruction process? The mission of The ReUse People is squarely environmental, but the organization is increasingly aiming to provide social benefits to obey reaching out to community organizations and providing employment opportunities.
At the time of the case writing TRP was growing by certifying contractors, partly opportunistically, and they have since decided to keep doing that. Since the case was written, TRP’s national expansion has continued. Teaching the Case. The case can be used to highlight several pedagogical points. First, the case highlights a challenge common to many successful non-profit organizations: once they grow beyond what the original entrepreneur can control, they need to bring in staff to manage.
To fulfill that mission, TRP should grow as fast as possible, considering the financial consideration rather than the objective. The targets strongly for growing by certifying contractors. Students usually enjoy discussing these trade-offs, as this discussion forces them to get to the heart of the conflict between TRP’s mission and the constraint sit faces. For various reasons, TRP ha sended up focusing more on expanding by working with partners and certifying crews elsewhere, rather than trying to hire and manage their own crews all over the country.
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