The AES Corporation

This case study describes the internal conflict faced by The AES Corporation in 1987, as its leadership sought to reconcile a 'least-cost' energy production strategy with a corporate value system prioritizing social responsibility and the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.

• The AES Corporation, a leading independent power producer, operated on a strategy of meeting customer energy needs at the lowest possible costs, but leadership felt a competing responsibility to minimize environmental impacts, specifically the build-up of greenhouse gases.
• The company's value system prioritized social responsibility as the primary and conditional order of business, creating a conflict because the least-cost power generation options in the U.S. were not the lowest in environmental impact.
• AES identified coal-fired co-generation plants as significant emitters of carbon dioxide, which, while not regulated by law at the time, was recognized as the key greenhouse gas contributing to global warming.

APA

Trent, M. (1992). The AES Corporation. World Resources Institute. https://pdf.wri.org/bell/abstracts/case_1-56973-122-5_abstract_version_a_english.pdf

Chicago

Trent, Marcy. The AES Corporation. World Resources Institute, 1992. https://pdf.wri.org/bell/abstracts/case_1-56973-122-5_abstract_version_a_english.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Trent |first1=Marcy |title=The AES Corporation |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=1992 |url=https://pdf.wri.org/bell/abstracts/case_1-56973-122-5_abstract_version_a_english.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{trent1992aes, author = {Trent, Marcy}, title = {{The AES Corporation}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {1992}, url = {https://pdf.wri.org/bell/abstracts/case_1-56973-122-5_abstract_version_a_english.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }