Research

The growing global population and shifting dietary patterns confront our food system with significant challenges. These circumstances undermine the essential natural conditions for the production of our food. At the same time, the prevailing pattern of unhealthy diets is contributing to an increase in diseases that place a significant burden on our healthcare systems. This means that the demand for healthier and more sustainable food is becoming increasingly urgent.
‍
Reducing animal-based products
To ensure long-term food security, diversifying protein sources has become an economic imperative. This has led to the rise of vegetarian and vegan alternatives, with the market already having reached 12 billion euros in 2022 and continuing to grow. These alternatives are mostly based on plant proteins and use technologies such as extrusion and 3D printing to imitate the texture of meat. Although they are good for the climate, the question is whether they are also healthy, especially because they do not contain some important nutrients or are more difficult for the body to absorb.
‍
Objective and impact
The interdisciplinary research team led by Professor Alexander Mathys from the Sustainable Food Processing Lab at ETH Zurich is addressing this question. The research project aims to understand how plant-based meat alternatives are composed, how their texture is produced, and what effects they have on our metabolism and energy intake. These findings can help us develop methods to produce healthier meat alternatives.

A recent MIT Sloan case study explored investors’ efforts to address the systemic challenge of food waste. It showed how millions of dollars from the Fink family triggered billions of dollars in annual investments that flowed into a network of complementary solutions.
‍
The “MIT Owning Impact Project”
As a recent MIT Sloan case study on systemic investing shows, millions of dollars from the Fink family triggered billions of dollars in annual investments that flowed into a network of complementary solutions.
‍
The MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative’s Owning Impact Project is a new research initiative that explores the role and potential of systemic investments — an emerging investment logic that asks which fundamental changes are needed to create a sustainable world, and how financial capital could be used to make such changes possible while providing attractive returns.
‍
Objective and impact
With different stakeholders working together and capital being allocated strategically, the aim is to promote a wider, integrated approach to solving systemic challenges that goes beyond individual investments. The objective is to support real systemic change through strategic capital deployment that drives economic resilience and long-term value creation.

As clean technologies have entered the mass market, companies and countries have started to view decarbonization as an economic opportunity. They are pursuing strategies to compete in global clean technology markets. How do governments and companies develop strategies that enhance economic competitiveness and facilitate global decarbonization in a world of intensifying geo-economic competition?

The Green Industrial Strategy Project (GISt)
Founded in 2025, the “Green Industrial Strategy Project" addresses this pressing question by supporting the theoretical, empirical, and practical study of green industrial strategy through collaborations involving scholars, practitioners, and policymakers. The project is a collaboration between the Institute for Business in Global Society (BiGS) at Harvard Business School and the Berkeley Economy and Society Initiative (BESI) at UC Berkeley, with support from the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Business.

‍Objective and Impact
The GISt team, led by Professor Gunnar Trumbull (Harvard Business School) and Professor Jonas Meckling (UC Berkeley), aims to develop evidence-based insights into what makes for effective industrial strategy — and how businesses can navigate and shape the evolving policy landscape. Through research and cross-sector dialogue, the initiative seeks to identify private and public sector solutions to build competitive advantages in a rapidly changing economic environment.