At the heart of CSI’s activities are a series of academic projects investigating fundamental issues surrounding corporate sustainability efforts. These projects are on-going, multiple-year endeavors that will attempt to leverage intellectual resources at Duke and beyond.  A list of current and completed projects is listed below. Please click on the title to see a list of research papers generated on the topic.

Policies and strategies to encourage innovation in sustainable technologies and production
Much has been written in both business strategy and economics research on policies that affect the rate of innovative output in firms and economies.  Far less explored are policies, both public and private, that influence the direction of innovative activity.  With respect to the initiative, a first order question is can and will firms innovate our way to a sustainable future?  The failure of firms to develop profitable sustainable technologies could be driven by a number of causes: the chance of finding something worthwhile is small (low rate of return on R&D investment), the opportunity cost of sustainable R&D is high (rate of return is higher for other R&D investments), lack of appropriability diminishes returns, or the discount rate of firms is shorter than society.  We will research the incentives and barriers for firms to invest in developing sustainable technologies.  One can imagine a whole host of public policy mechanisms to encourage sustainable technologies including: subsidies to R&D, public-private partnerships, longer patent protection for sustainable technologies, taxes on input factors (such as a carbon tax), and cap-and-trade systems.  We will explore the efficacy of these various policy instruments in encourage innovation in sustainable technologies.

The impact of non-governmental stakeholders on firm behavior
It is increasingly recognized that the public sector (individual citizens, non-governmental organizations, environmentally-conscious consumers) has a direct impact on firm behavior, i.e., one not mediated by the government through regulation.  Protests, boycotts, lawsuits, and collaborations are just some of the mechanisms adopted by the public sector to influence firms.  Firms have become more aware and savvy in their treatment of these non-governmental stakeholders and have instituted or adopted a number of private strategies to deal with the public sector including rapprochement, appeasement, lobbying, and marketing.  For this project, we examine the complex interaction between government, the public sector, and private enterprise and examine the efficacy of both public and private policy interventions.  We will seek to address a number of fundamental questions such as who do non-governmental stakeholders target and what are firms’ likely responses to stakeholder actions taken against them.

The role of information disclosure in leveraging the public sector
Relationships between the public sector and private enterprise are often characterized by asymmetric information between parties.  Government may try to reduce these information asymmetries through a number of non-traditional public policies which seek to provide information about individual firm performance. Policy instruments include information disclosure programs such as the U.S. EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory, labeling initiatives such as Energy Star, and voluntary agreements such as 33/50.  Firms also find it advantageous to reduce these information asymmetries themselves on occasion.  Private strategies including certification schemes such as ISO 14001 and various private labeling schemes.  For this project, we will explore the efficacy of various public and private information disclosure programs.

The effectiveness of trade-association sponsored self-regulatory initiatives
In an attempt to avoid costly regulation and liabilities as a result of environmental externalities, a number of firms have promoted industry self-regulation -- the voluntary association of firms to control their collective behavior. In the last twenty years, environmental self-regulatory programs have proliferated in both the U.S. and abroad.  Industries have attempted to avoid costly government regulation and to placate concerned stakeholders by promising to voluntarily reduce their environmental impacts. Proponents argue that industry self-regulation may be an effective complement to traditional regulation. Critics suggest that without explicit monitoring and sanctioning mechanisms, self-regulation will fall victim to free riding, adverse selection, and moral hazard. In this project, we explore the effectiveness of trade association sponsored self-regulatory programs and seek to understand the necessary conditions for effective industry self-regulation.

The opportunities and challenges of ecosystem services markets
Markets for ecosystem services holds promise to place economic value on goods and output that are often otherwise market externalities. Recent examples include the Chicago Climate Exchange for trading rights to greenhouse gas emissions. In this project, we will explore the opportunities and challenges presented by ecosystem services markets for some of our most pressing environmental issues such as global climate change.