Tailored for sustainability, business or accounting courses, this three-part case delves into the sustainability aspects of solar energy manufacturing. Students employ large language model (LLM) AI tools, research, critical thinking and professional skepticism throughout the case.

Part 1: Sustainability Exploration. Utilizes research and AI to enhance students’ understanding of sustainability concepts related to solar energy. Part 2: Critical thinking and professional skepticism. Students are given credible news articles to read, prompting further research into concerns about solar energy manufacturing, focusing on issues like forced labor and waste generation. The case emphasizes the importance of critical thinking and professional skepticism and highlights the dangers of AI overreliance. Part 3: Personal application. This portion of the cases shifts the students’ focus to an individual company, Canadian Solar. Students analyze excerpts from Canadian Solar’s sustainability reports, Form 10-K and articles to deepen their understanding of the issues discovered in Parts 1 and 2. Students are asked to respond to a series of questions, including if they would support buying solar panels from Canadian Solar or not. Students are also asked to write a memo describing what they learned about the importance of thinking critically and looking at issues from different perspectives.

This case is flexible and could be used as an individual assignment, as a group or as an in-class exercise. You could divide the class in half, where half champions the cause of solar panels and fervently advocates for their widespread adoption, while the other half assumes a defensive stance and critically examines potential drawbacks.

Suitable courses: sustainability, financial, audit

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