Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Corporate Management of Environmentally Sustainable Processes

Hundahl-Villadsen, Stine LU (2010) EKHR21 20101
Department of Economic History
Abstract
Environmental sustainability is becoming increasingly important – especially for businesses who accounts for 50% of all energy consumption in the world. This thesis examines how companies consider environmental issues and seeks to explain why they take this specific approach. Qualitative case studies of three Danish companies have been applied to outline the companies’ environmental focus and how they make considerations through certifications, product development tools, and interactions with the market. Furthermore it has been evaluated which factors and actors influence the adoption of more sustainable approaches, and whether costs, profit and the possibility of obtaining competitive advantage are of importance. It was found that all... (More)
Environmental sustainability is becoming increasingly important – especially for businesses who accounts for 50% of all energy consumption in the world. This thesis examines how companies consider environmental issues and seeks to explain why they take this specific approach. Qualitative case studies of three Danish companies have been applied to outline the companies’ environmental focus and how they make considerations through certifications, product development tools, and interactions with the market. Furthermore it has been evaluated which factors and actors influence the adoption of more sustainable approaches, and whether costs, profit and the possibility of obtaining competitive advantage are of importance. It was found that all companies had an eco-efficiency approach, which could be characterized as somewhat incremental. ISO 14001 and LCA were implemented in all companies – the latter only to some
extend. None of the companies were certified according to C2C and no evidence of plans about future certification was found. In general the companies were very influenced by users, market opportunities, and internal factors - and less by regulations. It is assessed that all companies have the opportunity to evolve to
higher levels of sustainability, which could impose a possibility of gaining competitive advantage. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Hundahl-Villadsen, Stine LU
supervisor
organization
course
EKHR21 20101
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
product development, certifications, Environmental considerations, Danish companies, factors and actors, competitive advantage
language
English
id
1670793
date added to LUP
2010-09-16 13:03:52
date last changed
2010-09-16 13:03:52
@misc{1670793,
  abstract     = {{Environmental sustainability is becoming increasingly important – especially for businesses who accounts for 50% of all energy consumption in the world. This thesis examines how companies consider environmental issues and seeks to explain why they take this specific approach. Qualitative case studies of three Danish companies have been applied to outline the companies’ environmental focus and how they make considerations through certifications, product development tools, and interactions with the market. Furthermore it has been evaluated which factors and actors influence the adoption of more sustainable approaches, and whether costs, profit and the possibility of obtaining competitive advantage are of importance. It was found that all companies had an eco-efficiency approach, which could be characterized as somewhat incremental. ISO 14001 and LCA were implemented in all companies – the latter only to some
extend. None of the companies were certified according to C2C and no evidence of plans about future certification was found. In general the companies were very influenced by users, market opportunities, and internal factors - and less by regulations. It is assessed that all companies have the opportunity to evolve to
higher levels of sustainability, which could impose a possibility of gaining competitive advantage.}},
  author       = {{Hundahl-Villadsen, Stine}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Corporate Management of Environmentally Sustainable Processes}},
  year         = {{2010}},
}