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Case Study

Happy Shrimp Farm: Social responsibility & multiple stakeholders

By Benoit F. Leleux and Jan Van der Kaaij

21 pages

March 2008

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Reference: IMD-3-1903

September 2007. For both founding fathers of the Happy Shrimp Farm, it had been a hectic three years. What started as a simple market research on co-siting for the Rotterdam Port Authority (RPA) in April 2004 had rapidly developed into an international multi-million euro business proposition that literally took over their lives.

Their research had identified interesting business opportunities. RPA agreed to support them on a case-by-case basis, starting with the Happy Shrimp Farm. Initial challenges included getting a residual energy contract to heat the shrimp production ponds and external funding for the venture. Construction started in September 2006. With its energy recycling and urban revival themes, Happy Shrimp generated extensive press coverage.

Greiner and Curtessi were already looking ahead: Could the concept be replicated in Germany and Canada? Could it be applied to seaweed production as well? How sustainable was sustainability as a business concept? Happy Shrimp International needed to take shape fast. Could they manage all this growth? And handling the multiple stakeholders was still a headache…

Learning Objective

Managing multiple stakeholders in a sustainable project development.
Understanding the economic drivers of cradle-to-cradle, recycling projects.
Discuss sustainability as a business model.

Keywords

Sustainable Development, Recycling, Co-siting, Cradle-to-cradle, Integrated Development, Environmental Responsibility, General Management

Settings

Europe
2006-2008

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

Related material

Teaching note, Video

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