Recent Work

The Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management Program on Governance for Sustainable Development promotes sustainable societies through a multidisciplinary effort to advance the theory and practice of governance for sustainable development.

The Program undertakes systematic efforts of scholarship, research, and other activities to help design and implement better rules and institutions to address the challenges of sustainable development.

Ceago Vinegarden: How green is your wine?

(2006)

The case traces the story of Ceago Vinegarden, a family-owned winery based in California whose owner is interested in adding an eco-label to his wine bottles in order to reach environmentally sensitive customers. Eco-labels provide additional information about a product. However, consumers might not recognize an eco-label or know what a particular eco-label represents for the product. This case highlights the challenges associated with the use of eco-labels as an environmental differentiation strategy when several emerging eco-labels are in competition. The students are asked to evaluate the costs and benefits associated with adopting an emerging eco-label that has little recognition with customers. The case examines whether there are any advantages of being a first mover in such a situation and what the options are for small companies interested in differentiating their products based on their environmental component.