Sustainability Initiative at MIT Sloan
The Sustainability Initiative at MIT Sloan empowers leaders to take action, professionally and personally, so that humans and nature can thrive for generations to come. We are the founders of SHIFT.tools and oversee the platform.
Problem Formulation & Opportunity Exploration
This list provides access to both general entrepreneurship resources and sustainability-oriented opportunities. Some of these resources will help to expound on business opportunities in sustainability.
1 Resource
Identifying and Mapping Stakeholders
This list includes stakeholder mapping and identification tools. Map and understanding who the stakeholders are for various solutions. Who are the people and organizations that could help your enterprise along if you are solving a public and private problem at the same time?
Impact Measurement
How is impact measured and quantified? Further, how do you assign economic value to non-financial outcomes? See the curriculum on impact measurement for startups.
Packaging Responsibly: Navigating the Recycling Market
CURRENT STATE There is a disconnect between the messaging to and from the craft beer industry, due to messaging from its supply chain, around whether or not one-way packaging is being recycled or actually contaminating other recycling streams. GOAL STATE To improve the sustainability of one-way p...
3 Resources
Sustainability in Insurance: Designing a Sustainability Strategy
CURRENT STATE The Company has a decentralized approach to sustainability without a clear and cohesive vision, strategy and unifying roadmap to achieve a set of sustainability standards. GOAL STATE A clear understanding of internationally recognized sustainability standards and a roadmap for begin...
4 Resources
Recycling and Compostability Strategy
CURRENT STATE Recyclability and compostability of food packaging is a complex topic fraught with misconception. While the Company strives to reduce its footprint, it lacks formalized guardrails around packaging design and composition and the underlying data to communicate the environmental impact...
4 Resources
Improving Waste Diversion Rates at a Sporting Venue
CURRENT STATE The challenge we face is that we have on average 30,000+ fans per event with limited time to clean and sort for the next day and limited space to sort the waste. Our currently diversion rate is 32.5% and although this is increased over the last two years, we feel this number should ...
6 Resources
Climate impacts of financial institutions: Market research and product specification for an information tool
CURRENT STATE Our confidence in the fit of our platform concept to user needs is low (let’s call it 3 out of 10). We have anecdotal information to suggest that some sustainability-minded foundations, universities, and corporations might be interested in climate impact information, about certain f...
1 Resource
Realizing the environmental potential of plant-based meat and dairy through sustainability strategy and business decisions
CURRENT STATE There is strong growth in the plant-based foods and plant-based meat/dairy sector. These products are almost uniformly environmentally advantageous. However, in order to realize the ecological and climate based goals that companies such as the Company seeks to facilitate, certain co...
4 Resources
Climate Risk Scenario Planning
CURRENT STATE Many airports have standalone statements and plans to prepare for climate change, and just as many have none. The Company has yet to establish which of its destinations pose the largest financial and operational disruption threat, through a framework of disruptive climate trends and...
7 Resources
Transforming byproducts into snacks
CURRENT STATE The Company's brands are mostly in the center-store of food retail. This is overall a shrinking domain, but protein snacking is the one growing market segment where the company would like to play. GOAL STATE The company wants to expand from the product base with new shelf-stable pro...
4 Resources
Living wage goal
CURRENT STATE We currently track our workers’ wages internally, as well as advise the Fair Labor Association on methodology for tracking wages. However, our work has been largely internal and not visible to our external community. GOAL STATE In order to deliver on our core value of using business...
10 Resources
Logistics Labor Resilience
CURRENT STATE We experience labor shortages around key distribution centers in our logistics network, and wish to mitigate longer term labor shortages as the worker profile shifts due to automation/robotics. GOAL STATE We want to ensure a healthy pipeline of talent for our distribution centers by...
1 Resource
Billion Dollar Brands Club
CURRENT STATE Today's "business as usual" exceeds planetary boundaries and creates localized challenges, such as water stress and air quality hazards. A population 10 times the size of the United States will have entered the middle class between 2009 and 2030. That massive economic development co...
3 Resources
Decision support for Product Sustainability in Apparel
CURRENT STATE We are experiencing increased interest from our brands related to product sustainability. Currently the Company's Sustainability team uses a combination of internal and external tools and resources to support brands’ interest in developing more sustainable products. We support a num...
7 Resources
Sustainability Journey Phase 2 - Environmental and Social Impact Assessment of Operations in Footwear
CURRENT STATE Our current sustainability platform is focused on reducing physical waste using recycled materials for our shoes, and building a durable long-lasting product. However, we are unaware of other environmental and social impacts of our products and operations. GOAL STATE Understand the ...
10 Resources
Unlocking the Commercial & Industrial Market for Clean Energy
CURRENT STATE The organization currently has 3 C&I energy users signed-up in our platform.GOAL STATE In the long-term, the Company's goal is to be ubiquitous and recognized as the standard for evaluating clean energy for any C&I building. DELIVERABLES The key deliverables for the team at ...
Renewable Energy Strategy
CURRENT STATE The company does not currently have a company-wide energy strategy, all renewable decisions are made ad hoc and opportunities are missed or not developed fully. GOAL STATE The desired outcome is a detailed analysis of opportunity and risk, including financial, to be assessed in the ...
8 Resources
Developing a Business Case to Measure Top Environmental Impacts at Major Online Retailer
CURRENT STATE The Company does not have internal consensus or strategies concerning our most prominent environmental sustainability impacts or opportunities. There may be existing ad hoc initiatives (for example, we know that some alternative packaging is in use) but no comprehensive strategies, ...
12 Resources
Employee satisfaction, corporate culture, and financial performance
CURRENT STATE The ESG team has qualitatively assessed the value of an inclusive culture in talent-driven organizations using Glassdoor data. Based on that, we have determined that positive cultural metrics could be a leading indicator of financial performance at the firm level, and can be a compe...
11 Resources
Farmed Oats Supply Chain Sustainability
CURRENT STATE The food industry is experiencing a transformation not seen since the post WWII boom, which was the advent of Big Food and Big Ag. Both have been under assault as a new breed of consumer, coupled with emerging private brands, are disrupting traditional norms in the food system. Form...
6 Resources
