Technical change, carbon dioxide reduction and energy consumption in the Swedish pulp and paper industry 1973-2006

This study examines the historical relation between carbon dioxide emission and output growth in the Swedish pulp and paperindustry 1973-2006. We find that the industry achieved an 80 per cent reduction in CO2 emission. Foremost energy substitution but also efficiently improvement contributed to the reduction. Growing prices of fossil fuel due to market price change and taxes and subvention, explains most of the efficiency improvements and substitution. Taxes on energy explain 40 per cent of the total reduction in CO2 intensity. Most of the reduction took place before the implementation of active climate policy in 1991.Sweden; Climate policy; economic growth; carbon dioxide reduction; carbon tax; paper and plant industry

Business and sustainability : new business history perspectives

This working paper provides a long-term business history perspective on sustainability. For a long time, the central issues in business history concerned how business enterprises innovated and created wealth, and patterns of success and failure in that process. There now exists, after a lag, a compelling stream of research focused on the environmental consequences of that growth. This working paper reviews this new stream of research which focuses on two related but distinct themes. The earliest theme to be explored, in a literature dating from the 1990s, is the story of how and why some conventional industries sought to become less polluting. Research has dated this phenomenon back to the late nineteenth century, showed it gained momentum from the 1960s, and resulted in a mainstreaming of sustainability rhetoric , and sometimes practice, in large corporations from 1980s, primarily in Western developed countries. A more recent research theme is the story of how for-profit entrepreneurs developed new product categories such as organic food, and wind and solar energy, which were explicitly focused on sustainability. Again this process has been traced back to the nineteenth century.  With the rise in green consumerism and public policy support in some Western countries for sustainability during the 1990s, these two historical trends met, as the concept of sustainable development spread to large conventional corporations and visionary green firms scaled or were acquired by conventional big businesses. The problem was that concept of sustainability became socially constructed in a sufficiently broad fashion as to permit even the most unstainable and dirty industries to firms claim to be sustainable. The working paper concludes that the emergent business history needs to be more fully incorporated in wider management and economics literatures on sustainability, while calling for the mainstreaming of the subject in the discipline of business history.Working Paper 18-034</p

Guld och gröna skogar? : miljöanpassningen av Rönnskärsverken 1960-2000

The aim of this thesis is to reach further understanding of the development of environmental adaptation in Swedish heavy industry by studying the case of the Rönnskär Smelter 1960-2000. More specifically, the aim of the thesis is to investigate the interplay between firm level environmental adaptation and national environmental politics and economic development. To fulfil this aim, the following questions are asked: How have company activities such as production processes, organisation and company strategies been developed and adopted in order to meet environmental demands with maintained competitiveness? How have company activities been framed by environmental policies and the specific environmental regulations, relevant for this case? What other factors, beside environmental regulations, have driven and framed the environmental adaptation process of the firm? The study concludes that a long-range competitive environmental adaptation was reached by a combination of investments in environmental technology with an overall rationalisation and modernisation of the enterprise. The study suggests that the environmental adaptation process of the Rönnskär Smelter became part of an overall process of industrial modernisation during the period, which reflects a wider context than the environmental issue itself. It mirrors technological development on other fields than the environment, and an increasing competition on a global scale that called for lower unit costs of production. This led to a modernisation for pollution reduction strategy that enabled the firm to increase production but still cutting its pollution levels considerably over time. The result is partly consistent with the Porter hypothesis that suggests that strict environmental regulation can strengthen firms’ and nations’ competitiveness. Time series data shows that emissions from the Rönnskär factory have radically declined since the 1960s. For these changes, process technology has proven to be most important. Technological adjustments came about through a step-by-step adaptation. It is clear that internal solutions, developed by the companies’ own engineers were more important at an early stage, when the supply of external solutions was limited. The study also concludes that environmental regulation has strongly influenced the environmental adaptation at the Rönnskär Smelter. Of most importance is the Environmental Protection Act (EPA: Miljöskyddslagen) implemented in 1969. In the economic historian Nathan Rosenberg’s terminology, this study suggests that the EPA model of individual testing promoted long-term innovative and cost-effective technical solutions, because it was consistent with decentralised experimental activity and the specific conditions that characterise the dynamics of technological development. However, not much can be said before comparative studies within the Swedish system have been conducted, or perhaps most fruitful, between various national systems of environmental protection. This study also concludes that the environmental issue became of strategic dignity at the very beginning of the 1970s, mainly as a consequence of the implementation of the EPA. Even though environmental issues did not become important for market strategies until the 1990s, the environmental issue called already in the 1970s for adjustments that required financial and personnel resources that demanded priorities and strategic decisions at the highest level of the organisation. The study also concludes that even though the technological dimension has played the most decisive role for lowering emissions, the significance of organisation has increased over time. While the 1960s, and especially the 1970s, brought about substantial pollution reductions through new technology, organisational aspects became relatively more important when the costs of abatement were rising in the 1980s. Organisational co-ordination, division of local responsibilities and education of personnel became a supplement to technology to obtain further pollution reductions. The technician as the “environmental hero” of the firm was successively replaced by the organisational co-ordinator

Business and sustainability : new business history perspectives

This working paper provides a long-term business history perspective on sustainability. For a long time, the central issues in business history concerned how business enterprises innovated and created wealth, and patterns of success and failure in that process. There now exists, after a lag, a compelling stream of research focused on the environmental consequences of that growth. This working paper reviews this new stream of research which focuses on two related but distinct themes. The earliest theme to be explored, in a literature dating from the 1990s, is the story of how and why some conventional industries sought to become less polluting. Research has dated this phenomenon back to the late nineteenth century, showed it gained momentum from the 1960s, and resulted in a mainstreaming of sustainability rhetoric , and sometimes practice, in large corporations from 1980s, primarily in Western developed countries. A more recent research theme is the story of how for-profit entrepreneurs developed new product categories such as organic food, and wind and solar energy, which were explicitly focused on sustainability. Again this process has been traced back to the nineteenth century.  With the rise in green consumerism and public policy support in some Western countries for sustainability during the 1990s, these two historical trends met, as the concept of sustainable development spread to large conventional corporations and visionary green firms scaled or were acquired by conventional big businesses. The problem was that concept of sustainability became socially constructed in a sufficiently broad fashion as to permit even the most unstainable and dirty industries to firms claim to be sustainable. The working paper concludes that the emergent business history needs to be more fully incorporated in wider management and economics literatures on sustainability, while calling for the mainstreaming of the subject in the discipline of business history.Working Paper 18-034</p

Business and sustainability : new business history perspectives

This working paper provides a long-term business history perspective on sustainability. For a long time, the central issues in business history concerned how business enterprises innovated and created wealth, and patterns of success and failure in that process. There now exists, after a lag, a compelling stream of research focused on the environmental consequences of that growth. This working paper reviews this new stream of research which focuses on two related but distinct themes. The earliest theme to be explored, in a literature dating from the 1990s, is the story of how and why some conventional industries sought to become less polluting. Research has dated this phenomenon back to the late nineteenth century, showed it gained momentum from the 1960s, and resulted in a mainstreaming of sustainability rhetoric , and sometimes practice, in large corporations from 1980s, primarily in Western developed countries. A more recent research theme is the story of how for-profit entrepreneurs developed new product categories such as organic food, and wind and solar energy, which were explicitly focused on sustainability. Again this process has been traced back to the nineteenth century.  With the rise in green consumerism and public policy support in some Western countries for sustainability during the 1990s, these two historical trends met, as the concept of sustainable development spread to large conventional corporations and visionary green firms scaled or were acquired by conventional big businesses. The problem was that concept of sustainability became socially constructed in a sufficiently broad fashion as to permit even the most unstainable and dirty industries to firms claim to be sustainable. The working paper concludes that the emergent business history needs to be more fully incorporated in wider management and economics literatures on sustainability, while calling for the mainstreaming of the subject in the discipline of business history.Working Paper 18-034</p

The green challenge: Perspectives on technical and organisational challenges in Swedish industry in a changing institutional environment during the 1970’s

This paper broadly surveys the institutional framework comprising Swedish environmental protection during the 1970s. Some preliminary conclusions are drawn concerning how this framework shaped the technical adjustment process with respect to environmental concerns at the firm level. Based on a case study of a Swedish industrial firm, the paper highlights how the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) worked in practice and illuminates some critical problems related to the process of adjusting to the legal framework at the firm level. Institutional theory and the work of Nathan Rosenberg on technological development are used in order to study the influence of the legal framework on the efforts of the company to adjust to environmental demands. The paper suggests that the Swedish system of environmental protection – based on the individual testing system in a co-operative framework – might have promoted long-term innovative and effective technical solutions, because it was consent to decentralised experimental activity. However, before firm conclusions can be drawn, comparative studies within the Swedish system and, perhaps most fruitful, between various national systems of environmental protection are needed

The green challenge: Perspectives on technical and organisational challenges in Swedish industry in a changing institutional environment during the 1970’s

This paper broadly surveys the institutional framework comprising Swedish environmental protection during the 1970s. Some preliminary conclusions are drawn concerning how this framework shaped the technical adjustment process with respect to environmental concerns at the firm level. Based on a case study of a Swedish industrial firm, the paper highlights how the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) worked in practice and illuminates some critical problems related to the process of adjusting to the legal framework at the firm level. Institutional theory and the work of Nathan Rosenberg on technological development are used in order to study the influence of the legal framework on the efforts of the company to adjust to environmental demands. The paper suggests that the Swedish system of environmental protection – based on the individual testing system in a co-operative framework – might have promoted long-term innovative and effective technical solutions, because it was consent to decentralised experimental activity. However, before firm conclusions can be drawn, comparative studies within the Swedish system and, perhaps most fruitful, between various national systems of environmental protection are needed

Environmental adapation, technology development and competition : The case of Domsjö sulphite mill 1965-1990

Godkänd; 2012; 20121214 (andbra