| 1. |
- Näsman, Mattias, 1989-, et al.
(författare)
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A promised land? : First summary of the research program
- 2023
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This document lays out the background for the research program “A promised land? Drivers, challenges and opportunities related to the (green) industrialization of Northern Sweden,” (nr. M22-0029) awarded by the Swedish Riksbankens Jubileumsfond’s in 2022. The document summarizes work in progress and may therefore be updated and republished in different versions according to the requirements of the program. This interdisciplinary program aims to understand the economic, social, and political challenges and opportunities of the ongoing industrial transformation in northern Sweden. A key element of the program is to identify drivers, obstacles, and preconditions in a historical, present, and forward-looking process-perspective.
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| 2. |
- Adman, Per, et al.
(författare)
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171 forskare: ”Vi vuxna bör också klimatprotestera”
- 2019
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Ingår i: Dagens nyheter (DN debatt). - Stockholm. - 1101-2447.
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Tidskriftsartikel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- DN DEBATT 26/9. Vuxna bör följa uppmaningen från ungdomarna i Fridays for future-rörelsen och protestera eftersom det politiska ledarskapet är otillräckligt. Omfattande och långvariga påtryckningar från hela samhället behövs för att få de politiskt ansvariga att utöva det ledarskap som klimatkrisen kräver, skriver 171 forskare i samhällsvetenskap och humaniora.
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| 3. |
- Bergquist, Ann-Kristin, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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Beyond Limits to Growth! : Collaboration Between the International Business and United Nations in Shaping Global Environmental Governance
- 2022
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This working paper examines the historical role of business interests in shaping structures for global environmental governance. Drawing on extensive historical evidence from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and other archives, the paper demonstrates that international business associations, in particular the ICC were instrumental to the transformation of international environmental governancebetween the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972 and Earth Summit in Rio in 1992. The ICC, which was sidelined in the debates on the environment in Stockholm in 1972, gradually managed to establish itself as a key partner for the United Nations and to introduce a liberal environmental vision that emphasized economic growth, market forces, free trade, and business self-regulation as a source of environmental governance. While environmental debate at the time for the Stockholm conference in 1972 was centered around the notion of Limits to Growth we find that the ICC actively contributed to the definition of the concept sustainable development. This paper not only helps to explain the role of business in constructing the concept of sustainable development but also why the concept became so widely accepted in the world business community. The problem was that this conception of sustainable development allowed for the incremental greening of corporations, which did not reflect the real need for measures to prevent the ongoing environmental crisis from worsening, including climate change.
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| 4. |
- Bergquist, Ann-Kristin, 1972-
(författare)
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Business and sustainability : new business history perspectives
- 2017
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- 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.
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| 5. |
- Bergquist, Ann-Kristin, 1972-
(författare)
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Business and sustainability
- 2019
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Ingår i: The Routledge companion to the makers of global business. - Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2019. | Series: Routledge companions in business, management and accounting : Routledge. - 9781138242654 - 9781315277813 ; , s. 546-563
-
Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter provides a long-term business history perspective on sustainability. The twentieth century is unique in history, not only because of its enormous technological progress and rise in the standard of living, but because no other century in human history can be compared with the twentieth century for its growth in energy use, depletion of natural resources and an overall growth of problems related to global environmental sustainability (McNeill, 2000; UNEP, 2016). It has often been asserted that industrial capitalism, globalization and multinational companies have been central actors in this development (Wright and Nyberg, 2015).
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| 6. |
- Bergquist, Ann-Kristin, 1972-
(författare)
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Business and Sustainablity
- 2019. - 1
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Ingår i: Routledge Companion to the Makers of Global Business. - : Routledge. - 9781315277813 - 9781032091372 - 9781138242654
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Bergquist, Ann-Kristin, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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Business (In-)Action : The International Chamber of Commerce and Climate Change from Stockholm to Rio
- 2024
-
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper engages with the literature that has looked at the historical response to climate change among industries positioned to have had a far-reaching impact on changing the course of the climate crisis. While much of the historical research in this domain has focused on the role of big oil companies, the utility industry and conservative think tanks in the manufacturing of doubt regarding climate science and opposing ambitions climate policies, our focus is on the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) – the world’s largest transnational business association. Unlike individual multinational corporations, the ICC developed a close ties and collaborations with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which made ICC positioned to influence international policy discussions. This study finds that the ICC developed a dual strategy, which set aside climate change as the focus for discussion and business action. One strategy, led by ICC Environment Committee, involved intense collaboration with the United Nations and developing a business agenda for sustainable development. At the same time, the creation of the International Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988 and the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a Framework Convention on Climate Change (INC) in 1991, gave rise to a parallel strategy, led by ICC’s related oil companies. As this study finds, the ICC’s Energy Committee developed close ties to the Global Climate Coalition, a front group designed to combat the scientific evidence of climate change. The paper concludes that the ICC was able to delay meaningful regulatory response to climate change the between 1988-1992 by forming a broad coalition of competing interests and collaborating with agencies established under the auspices of the United Nations.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
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| 11. |
- Bergquist, Ann-Kristin, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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Economic history and the political economy of energy transitions : A research overview
- 2023
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The climate crisis is at the core of attention to the need for an energy transition at a scale resembling a new ‘low carbon’ industrial revolution. As energy transitions are relatively exceptional and prolonged processes, social scientists have increasingly turned their attention to historical experiences for lessons about how they might unfold in the future. Against this backdrop, the paper examines how the present political economy and barriers for energy transitions compare with past energy transitions. The paper argues that formidable challenges posed by existing energy regimes. Established over centuries and having played a foundational role in the development of modern capitalism since the Industrial Revolution, these 'incumbent' regimes or ‘historical blocks’ are not easily displaced. It urges economic historians to move beyond its traditional focus on how energy via technological change has created new economic growth opportunities and look more into the barriers for energy transition embedded in the architecture of the political economy.
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| 12. |
- Bergquist, Ann-Kristin, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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Energiomställning och teknisk omvandling i svensk massa- och pappersindustri 1970-1990
- 2014
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This research report examines the driving forces and strategies in the Swedish pulp and paper industry to phase-out of oil and accomplishing energy savings in the 1970s - and '80s. The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of development and contribute to a further understanding of the knowledge building that took shape in the Swedish pulp and paper industry on the energy area in the awake of the oil crises. During the investigated period, the use of fossil fuels dropped with more than 70 per cent, and this was mainly achieved by substituting oil by internal biofuels. This transition started as response to the first oil crisis in 1973, but was further reinforced by the energy policy, which expanded from the mid 1970s and onwards. The replacement of oil was achieved trough short-term measures to improve the energy efficiency and to increase the use of biofuels, while the use of external electricity played a minor role. It was soon recognized that also long-term investments in R&D was needed. Collaborations between companies through trade associations and committees came to be a characteristic strategy employed by the industry to advance knowledge and new technology on the energy area. This report demonstrates the central role that the changing prices of oil had on the pulp and paper industry to explore the possibilities of a more efficient use of internal biofuels, which previously not had been utilised. In this sense, the oil crisis forced the industry sector into a more sustainable path. It also demonstrates the central role that the government played, and can play, to support and enhance the development of new technological development paths. As for the oil crises, a big part of the energy policy objectives i.e. to phase out oil from the Swedish energy system, coincided with the industry’s needs to lower the costs and risks from being dependent on oil.
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| 13. |
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| 14. |
- Bergquist, Ann-Kristin, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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Förutsättningar och hinder för att nå nollutsläpp : Empirisk kartläggning av koldioxidutvecklingen inom olika sektorer och betydelsen av ekonomiska och politiska drivkrafter 2009–2019 samt en forskningsöversikt om betydelsen av populism och högerextrema värderingar för klimatpolitiken ur ett längre tidsperspektiv
- 2020
-
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- UppdragetFöljande rapport är författad av docent Ann-Kristin Bergquist och professor Magnus Lindmark, ekonomisk historia, Umeå Universitet. Uppdraget för rapporten har varit att dels försöka gruppera drivkrafter bakom utsläppens faktiska utveckling i olika kategorier, med avseende på ekonomiska, tekniska och politiska förändringar, dels att undersöka betydelsen av populistiska och nationalistiska strömningar (värderingar) för utsläppsutvecklingen och klimatpolitiken. Önskemålet från Klimatrådet har varit att få utrett om det går det att säga något om betydelsen av dessa strömningar ur ett längre tidsperspektiv.Den första delen av rapporten (Del I) bygger dels på en kvantitativ kartläggning som syftar till att undersöka utsläppsförändringar fördelade efter olika ekonomiska aktiviteter på produktionssidan av ekonomin, dels på att med utgångspunkt i denna kvantitativa kartläggning diskutera centrala drivkrafter (ekonomiska, politiska, tekniska) bakom den kvantitativa förändringen. Fokus har enligt uppdraget riktats mot den icke handlande sektorn. Det specifika syftet med den kvantitativa undersökning har varit att studera de sektorer som bidragit minst respektive mest till utsläppsförändringarna, avgränsat till den icke handlande sektorn. På så sätt är det möjligt att identifiera mer precist var stagnationen har skett och varför. Metoden bygger på en explorativ analys av tidsseriedata, i syfte att identifiera de sektorer som varit ledande bakom utsläppsutvecklingen i Sverige. Med utgångspunkt i resultatet från undersökningen genomförs en kvalitativt baserad analys av drivkrafter.Den andra delen av rapporten (Del II) syftar till att undersöka betydelsen av populistiska och nationalistiska strömningar (värderingar) för utsläppsutvecklingen och klimatpolitiken ur ett längre tidsperspektiv. Det längre tidsperspektivet har en begränsning i att klimatfrågan som politikområdet är ett nytt fenomen, dvs att klimatfrågan utvecklades som ett aktivt politikfält först under 1990-talet. Utsläppsförändringarna av exempelvis koldioxid hade dessförinnan andra drivkrafter än klimatpolitiska, såsom förändrade priser på energi under 1970-talets oljekriser, som resulterade i både energisubstitution och energibesparingar, inte minst i Sverige. Sammanfattning av resultatenDel I. Var har stagnationen av utsläppsreduktioner i den icke-handlande sektorn skett? Rapporten behandlar perioden 2005 till 2017. Startåret motiveras av introduktionen av EU:s system för handel utsläppsrätter och slutåret är det sista året med officiell statistik över utsläpp av växthusgaser vid den tidpunkt rapporten skrevs. Den direkta förklaringen till stagnationen mellan 2014 och 2017 är att sektorer som hade en hög minskningstakt mellan 2005 och 2014 har upplevt avtagande minskningstakter från 2014. Dessa sektorer har främst varit bostäder och lokaler, industri samt el och fjärrvärme. Stagnationen förklaras även av sektorer som inte upplevt några större utsläppsminskningar under hela perioden 2005 till 2017: jordbruk, arbetsmaskiner samt produktanvändning. Detta beror på att dessa sektorer har kommit att utgöra en allt större del av de totala utsläppen från den icke-handlande sektorn. Utsläppen från inrikes transporter har motverkat stagnationen. Följande specifika faktorer förklarar i korthet varför de totala utsläppen stagnerat:· Struktureffekter: Sektorer med minskande utsläpp utgör en allt mindre andel av de totala utsläppen varför bidraget till de totala minskningarna avtar även om minskningstakten är oförändrad eller svagt avtagande. · Konjunktureffekter: Stagnationen har sannolikt även påverkats av konjunktureffekter. Detta beror på ett den ekonomiska tillväxten nästan var dubbelt så hög under perioden 2014 till 2017 i jämförelse med perioden 2005 till 2014. · Fallande reala bränslepriser: De inflationsjusterade bränslepriserna steg 2005 till 2014, men föll mellan 2014 till 2017. Efter 2017 har de reala bränslepriserna stigit något. · Stigande undvikandekostnader på marginalen i historiskt framgångsrika sektorer: Stagnationen i sektorer med hög, men avtagande procentuell minskning har sannolikt påverkats av att de billigaste minskningarna redan skett. Därmed stiger kostnaden för ytterligare reduktioner. Historiska erfarenheter är att spridningen av teknologi sker efter ett S-format mönster. Gäller det även klimatvänlig teknologi leder det till att utsläppen minskar efter en kurva som ser ut som ett spegelvänt S. · Institutionella struktureffekter: Minskningarna i sektorer som avfall beror delvis på att utsläppen flyttas till den handlande sektorn. Detta är att betrakta som en politisk drivkraft. Exakt hur stor effekten är har inte kunnat fastslås.· Det är svårt att avgöra om det politiska omvandlingstrycket ökat eller minskat eller om marginalkostnaderna stigit. Det är också svårt att avgöra hur starkt omvandlingstrycket varit mellan olika sektorer. Styrmedel har tveklöst haft stor betydelse i till exempel transportsektorn men små effekter i jordbruket. · Om omvandlingstrycket är konstant i en sektor och utsläppen minskar, allt annat lika, kan man anta att utsläppsminskningen drivs av teknisk utveckling. Ser vi till historiska erfarenheter av ekonomisk tillväxt är tillväxten i regel långsammare i länder med höga inkomstnivåer. Det beror på att det är dyrare att utveckla ny teknik än vad det är att börja använda befintlig teknik. I den mån Sverige är teknikledande på klimatområdet är det hypotetiskt möjligt att minskningstakten är lägre än i andra länder. Att så kan vara fallet visas av studier av koldioxidkonvergens (att CO2/BNP i olika länder närmar sig varandra över tid).Del II. På vilket sätt kan extrema och populistiska rörelser påverka klimatutsläppen? Vad finns de för historiska lärdomar?Den andra delen av rapporten bygger på en översikt av befintlig forskning. Forskningen är tämligen omfattande om fokus riktas mot sambandet mellan högerkonservatism och klimatförnekelse, framförallt vad gäller utvecklingen i USA där stödet för och attityder till den etablerade klimatforskningen och klimatpolitiken blivit alltmer partipolitiskt polariserad sedan början av 1990-talet. I fråga om ett tidsperspektiv som sträcker sig längre tillbaka än de senaste 40 åren, finns en begränsning i att klimatfrågan som politikområdet är ett nytt fenomen, dvs att det utvecklades som ett aktivt politikfält först under 1990-talet. I korthet drar vi följande slutsatser · Vad gäller frågan om hur högerpopulistiska och nationalistiska strömningar och värderingar påverkat klimatutsläppen historiskt, är det svårt att dra några slutsatser för perioden innan 1990-talet. 1930-talets fascistiska regimer i Europa hade exempelvis inte större klimatutsläpp än demokratier som hade en rik tillgång till fossil energi och med ekonomier på samma teknologiska nivå. Ur historisk synvinkel är det inte en självklarhet att dagens högerpopulistiska rörelser (far-right) skulle motsätta sig klimatpolitiska åtgärder eller klimatvetenskapen. · Det hot som de högerpopulistiska och nationalistiska rörelserna kan utgöra för svensk klimatpolitik blir beroende av i vilken utsträckning dessa partier anammar den nya vågen av högerpopulism i USA. Den högerpopulistiska och nationalistiska ideologi som idag har stort inflytande i USA under president Donald Trump, omfattar klimatförnekelse, ifrågasättande av IPCC:s trovärdighet, traditionella medier med mera. · Klimatförnekelsen i USA karaktäriseras enligt en omfattande forskningslitteratur som ideologiskt förankrad och har sedan 1990-talet ett säte i det Republikanska partiet. Som ideologi har den enligt tillgänglig forskning förhindrat genomförandet av en federal klimatpolitik i USA och har försvagat Kyotoprotokollet och Parisavtalet. · I en svensk kontext är den rörelse som motsvarar den amerikanska mycket liten och marginaliserad, men försöker att påverka opinionen främst via hemsidor, bloggar och sociala medier. Klimatförnekelsen har inte anammats av de traditionella etablerade svenska partierna. · Den trend som tycks finnas bland de europeiska högerpopulistiska och nationalistiska partierna är att klimatpolitiken, om den erkänns, inte ska påverka den “vanliga” människan. Priset på bensin och diesel blir den direkta frågan som dessa partier söker röster med, vilket också är tydligt i Sverige.
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| 15. |
- Bergquist, Ann-Kristin, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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Green innovation systems in Swedish industry, 1960-1989
- 2011
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Ingår i: Business history review. - New York : Cambridge University Press. - 0007-6805 .- 2044-768X. ; 85:4, s. 677-698
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Organizational networks had a strong influence on the diffusion of green knowledge within the Swedish pulp-and-paper industry from the mid-1960s to the 1980s. The environmental adaptations made by this industrial sector were not merely the result of a corporate initiative or of the response by firms or industries to environmental regulation. An examination of the innovation-system approach that was used to further the industry’s environmental goals reveals that the knowledge and technology development underpinning the project depended on a network of diverse actors. Within this network, the semi-governmental Institute for Water and Air Protection, working with a consulting company, was a critical generator and intermediary of knowledge. Thus, the success of the project was largely due to the Institute’s balanced relations with government and industry.
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| 16. |
- Bergquist, Ann-Kristin, 1972-
(författare)
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Guld och gröna skogar? : miljöanpassningen av Rönnskärsverken 1960-2000
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- 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.
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| 17. |
- Bergquist, Ann-Kristin, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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Industry Strategies for Energy Transition in the Wake of the Oil Crisis
- 2014
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Ingår i: Business and Economic History On-Line. - 0894-6825 .- 1941-7349. ; 12, s. 1-18
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper employs the Swedish pulp and paper sector in the 1970s and 1980s as a case study to explore industry strategies for accomplishing energy transition in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis. Over this period, the use of fossil fuels was reduced by 70 percent within the sector. The lion’s share of the reduction was achieved by the substitution of biofuels for oil. Besides cutting the cost of energy production, this substitution also resulted in significant environmental improvements. Substituting biofuels for oil proved to be the most reasonable way to decrease the use of oil, even though alternatives such as coal were considered. Initially, reductions in oil consumption and improvements in energy conservation were accomplished by relatively small measures, but there was a great need for long-term R&D to push technology development further. Inter-firm and state-firm collaborations therefore became strategically important. The strategies for substitution further interacted strongly with institutional changes in the energy policy field, the ongoing “greening” of the industry, as well as an urgent need to enhance international competitiveness. Our study concludes that the oil crises enforced more sustainable production in a dynamic way, where government strategies to support and push technology development further played a central role.
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| 18. |
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| 19. |
- Bergquist, Ann-Kristin, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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Miljöforskning i statens och industrins tjänst : Institutet för Vatten och Luftvårdsfrågor (IVL) 1960-tal till 1980-tal
- 2010
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In 1966, the Institute of Water and Air Protection (IVL) was established and became the first institute in Sweden focusing on industrial environmental problems. At the same time the business company IVL AB was founded. Due to the collaborative form of organisation – including representation of all core industries and the environmental authorities – the IVL organisation came to represent a unique set up, even seen from an international perspective. In this paper we explore the driving forces behind the formation of IVL and IVL AB and their contribution to the environmental adaptation of the manufacturing Swedish industry during the 1960s to 1980s. We specifically focus on the direction of its research activities and the flow knowledge between IVL and its interested partners. By doing so we seek to further understand its role and function within the Swedish environmental protections system in general as well as its role for environmental adaptation of the industry more specifically. We find that IVL formed an important basis for knowledge generation and diffusion within the Swedish environmental protection system, foremost during the 1960s and the 1970s. It was essentially through applied research on the environmental effects of emissions that IVL supported the process of environmental adaptation of industry. Besides this, IVL was also involved in developing technical measures aiming for lowering the hazardous emissions. The assignments of the business company, IVL AB, were mostly focused on mapping the emissions from industrial plants, i.e. identifying discharges and their effects in the recipients. In this regard, the development works of IVL on the standardisation of methods of analysis and measurement instruments constituted important prerequisites. The knowledge mobilized within IVL and IVL AB was also of importance to the environmental authorities. Generated information concerning levels and effects of discharges formed partly the basis for the so called individual emission permits that was granted by the authorities to polluting plants, with start in 1969. Adequate knowledge can in this regard be seen as a surety for giving correct priorities, i.e. to direct resources towards those problems that were most urgent. Besides knowledge on pollution matters related to the manufacturing industry, IVL did obtain a role as national expert organisation. To a certain degree, IVL was also acknowledged abroad, and established a unique competence on effects of oil spill and mercury. IVL were for instance employed by international organisations, such as WHO and UNESCO in the 1970s. We find that the role and the form of IVL and IVLAB changed in the beginning of the 1980s. IVLAB was sold to the competing company ÅF and the research institute IVL was converted from a foundation into a company. We believe that these organizational changes reflected shifts within the pallet of environmental problems facing industry and the society in large, which in turn had effects on the functions of IVL and IVLAB. Much of the rough mapping- and clean-up work had been completed while also previous services by IVL and IVLAB increasingly were handled by the companies themselves.
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| 20. |
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| 21. |
- Bergquist, Ann-Kristin, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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Private Regulation, Institutional Entrepreneurship, and Climate Change : A Business History Perspective
- 2024
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Private regulatory systems, including voluntary efforts by firms to restrain their own behavior are the primary form of global climate change governance. However when environmental challenges first rose up on the scientific and political agendas during the 1970s, the initial emphasis was on states and government regulation coordinated by the United Nations. This working paper provides a business history perspective how the privatization of global environmental governance happened and show how the system of private regulation was put in place before climate change became a priority issue. We argue that there were two separate paths which eventually merged. The first was the growth of certification schemes for emergent categories such as organic food, green buildings and sustainable investment which lacked definitions and legitimacy. Policy makers had no interest in them, or positively disliked them. Institutional entrepreneurs build institutions to create credibility and legitimacy. These entrepreneurs were drawn from outside big business, and were in some cases hostile to it. The second path was the growing engagement of big business pressure groups, notably the International Chamber of Commerce, in the environmental strategies of the United Nations. Institutional entrepreneurs were again important developing the arguments and concepts around business self-regulation. The two paths merged from the 1990s, as societal pressures for business to act on the environment have grown louder, so greenwashing, green-hushing, transition washing have diffused throughout global climate governance system.
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| 22. |
- Bergquist, Ann-Kristin, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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R&D collaboration and environmental adaptation: A pilot study of the Swedish pulp- and paper industry 1900-1990
- 2010
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper deals with the importance of inter-firm and state-firm cooperation for environmental adaptation in the Swedish pulp and paper industry during the period 1900-1990. By sharing similar pollution problems, the industry pooled resources to collective R&D activities and could thereby share cost and the economic risks related to environmental adaptation. We conclude that the environmental issue has been a strong driver for industrial renewing in the Swedish pulp and paper industry since the 1960s. The long tradition of collective environmental R&D activities, which stared already at the beginning of the 20th century, facilitated the development and adaptation of cleaner technologies in the sector from the 1960s and onwards. Our findings suggest that environmental policies that support collaborative R&D activities might facilitate innovation processes of cleaner technologies and the speed of their diffusion.
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| 23. |
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| 24. |
- Bergquist, Ann-Kristin, 1972-
(författare)
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Renewing Business History in the Era of the Anthropocene
- 2019
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Ingår i: Business history review. - : Cambridge University Press. - 0007-6805 .- 2044-768X. ; 93:1, s. 3-24
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This special issue is concerned with new approaches in business history to exploration of the role of business in both creating and addressing the mounting environmental crisis that has become apparent over the last half century. Two decades have passed sinceBusiness History Reviewpublished a pioneering special issue on business and the natural environment. The guest editors of that issue, Christine Rosen and Christopher Sellers, called for an “ecocultural approach” to business history and noted that strikingly little attention had been given to the issue of business and the natural environment in the field.
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| 25. |
- Bergquist, Ann-Kristin, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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Safe before Green! : The Greening of Volvo Cars in the 1970s–1990s
- 2023
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Ingår i: Enterprise & society. - : Cambridge University Press. - 1467-2227 .- 1467-2235. ; 24:1, s. 59-89
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Although the automobile industry has served as the backbone of much business history scholarship, business historians have paid little attention to this industry’s actions concerning the complex of environmental issues that took hold in the 1960s. Volvo represents a captivating case study to gain insight into why the automobile industry’s growth has been difficult to align with the shift toward environmental sustainability. Although Volvo pioneered the exhaust emission control technology on the U.S. market in the 1970s and gained an international reputation for high environmental and safety standards in the decades that followed, the company was unable to seriously address climate change in the 1990s. This article identifies several key factors impacting the automobile industry’s passive response to environmental challenges—for instance, weak and asymmetric emission control regulations on international markets, consumer preferences for larger cars (SUVs) in the 1990s, and a lack of systematic regulatory pressure to shift from fossil fuels and the internal combustion engine. In the case of Volvo, world leadership in safety standards, rather than low carbon emissions, constituted the company’s competitive advantage as climate change emerged as one of the most critical environmental issues in the 1990s.
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| 26. |
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| 27. |
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| 28. |
- Bergquist, Ann-Kristin, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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The Greening of the Pulp and Paper Industry: Sweden in Comparative Perspective.
- 2018
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Ingår i: Technological Transformation in the Global Pulp and Paper Industry 1800–2018. Comparative Perspectives.. - Cham : Springer. - 9783319949611 ; , s. 65-87
-
Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Since the 1960s, the pulp and paper industry (PPI) has developed from being considered one of the greatest polluters of the twentieth century to an industry that is in the lead in the transition towards a more sustainable, bio-based economy. This chapter covers the environmentally driven transformation of the PPI by focusing on the transition in one country, namely Sweden, which has pioneered parts of this transition. The chapter illustrates that the overall transition towards cleaner and more energy efficient production technologies is the result of long-term and incremental processes, starting in the early twentieth century. The development gained momentum with the environmental awaking in the 1960s followed by stricter environmental regulations, while the oil crisis in the 1970s pushed for energy substitution of oil with biofuels. Unlike the PPI in countries like Finland and the US, the Swedish PPI aimed at in-plant process changes rather than end-of-pipe technologies to control pollution from the start. This strategy, along with extensive industry wide R&D collaborations, enabled Swedish firms to take the lead in developing elemental chlorine free (ECF) and total chlorine free (TCF) pulp from the late 1980s. Furthermore, from the mid-1980s green consumerism came to function as an additional driver, while the issue of climate change was an impetus to the development of cellulose based biofuels in the twenty-first century.
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| 29. |
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| 30. |
- Bergquist, Ann-Kristin, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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Transition to greener pulp : regulation, industry responses and path dependency
- 2015
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Ingår i: Business History. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 0007-6791 .- 1743-7938. ; 57:6, s. 862-884
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Although the dioxin alarm broke at the same time in Sweden and the US in the mid-1980s, Swedish pulp and paper (P&P) firms led the way towards the new market for low-chlorine and chlorine-free P&P products. This study explores the transition in the Swedish P&P industry and contrasts the Swedish case to the US experience. We highlight the importance of already established technological paths to deal with pollution, paths which were strongly formed by the different national environmental policies since the 1970s. Thus while US P&P firms were technologically locked-in when the dioxin alarm broke, the strategy of Swedish P&P firms to proactively collaborate in environmental research and development (R&D) together with a national policy that favoured process integrated abatement technology, helped Swedish firms take technological leadership. This article particularly stresses the implications of technological path-dependency and different national regulatory styles in understanding the evolution of different modes of corporate environmental strategies.
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| 31. |
- Bergquist, Ann-Kristin, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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Transition towards renewable energy : Co-ordination and technological strategies in the Swedish pulp and paper industry 1973-1990
- 2015
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper examines the transition towards renewable energy in the Swedish pulp and paper industry (PPI) during the 1970s and -80s. In the wake of the first Oil Crisis until the late 1980s, the use of fossil fuels was reduced by 70 percent in this sector. The lion’s share of the reduction was achieved by substituting oil by biofuels in terms of rest products from the pulp manufacturing process. The reduction was made possible also by efficiency improvements and increased internal production of electricity through back-pressure turbine power generation. Sweden was highly dependent on oil when the first Oil Crisis broke, and the run up in oil prices put pressure on the Swedish government and the energy intensive PPI to reduce dependency. Of central importance for the transition to be implemented was a highly collaborative strategy of the sector as well as between the sector and the corporatist Swedish state administration. The Swedish government chose a proactive strategy by emphasizing knowledge management and collaboration with industry along with the substitution of oil with biofuels. The transition was further fueled by the fact that focus was directed towards unutilized potentials in the sector, where a previous waste problem now could be transformed into energy savings, i.e., the strong version of the Porter hypothesis. Also energy taxes and fees played a major role as control agents in the Swedish energy policy of the 1970s and 80s. Thus, the study illustrates the central role of governments and their ability to push industries into new technological paths through a wide palette of interplaying policy instruments. The study further points at the importance of a more holistic understanding of the interplay between different policies and impacts in the longer run.
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| 32. |
- Bergquist, Ann-Kristin, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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Understanding and Overcoming Roadblocks to Environmental Sustainability : Past Roads and Future Prospects
- 2019
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Ingår i: Business history review. - Boston : Cambridge University Press. - 0007-6805 .- 2044-768X. ; 93:1, s. 127-148
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article examines key barriers to business sustainability discussed at a multidisciplinary conference held at the Harvard Business School in 2018. Drawing on perspectives from both the historical and business literatures, speakers debated the historical success of and future opportunities for voluntary business actions to advance sustainability. Roadblocks include misaligned incentives, missing institutions, inertia of economic systems, and the concept of sustainability itself. Overcoming these roadblocks will require systematic interventions and alternative normative concepts.
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| 33. |
- Gustavsson-Bergquist, Ann-Kristin, 1972-
(författare)
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The green challenge: Perspectives on technical and organisational challenges in Swedish industry in a changing institutional environment during the 1970’s
- 2006
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- 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.
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| 34. |
- Levin, Mikael, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Determinants of energy consumption : the Swedish residential sector 1920-2010
-
Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Household energy consumption is an important aspect of mitigating climate change and the overall use of energy on a global scale. Energy consumed by households, excluding transportation uses, accounted for about 14% of delivered world energy consumption in 2008. In this paper, we examine the development of energy consumption in the Swedish residential sector during the period 1920 to 2010. We show that the growing residential building stock has contributed to higher energy consumption per household over time. Since the 1970s, however, higher real energy prices have put pressure on households to reduce their energy consumption. We find that a combination of higher market prices and taxes on energy contributed to the reduction of energy per household, causing a 10% reduction in aggregated final energy consumption.
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| 35. |
- Lilljegren, Josef, 1984-
(författare)
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Networks that organised competition : corporate resource sharing between Swedish property underwriters 1875-1950
- 2019
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis investigates the corporate networks of Swedish property underwriters 1875-1950. During this period, networks of increasing intensity was an essential part in the organisation of the Swedish property insurance market. Corporate resource sharing allowed underwriters to accommodate the ever-changing industrialised demand for property insurance. Interlocking directorates, ownership ties and membership in collaborative organisations were the vessels of this corporate resource sharing.This study proposes a network perspective on the organisation of competition and collaboration. It finds that networks lowered firms’ cost-threshold for underwriting diversification, causing wellconnected firms to expand into new markets more easily. An essential resource to underwriters was information, and information exchange motivated several interfirm rapprochements. The driving forces for the organisational shift towards increased networking were, however, complex, and included both socioeconomic and strategic factors.Through networks of mutual resource sharing, the consolidation that appears in the industry after 1950 was preceded by a long historical process in which firms who would later merge developed measurably clustered network structures as early as in the 1910s. In the 1920s the networks already contributed to a high market concentration. Networks thereby conditioned the underwriting operation of individual firms as well as the structural evolution of the Swedish insurance market as a whole.
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| 36. |
- Lindmark, Magnus, 1968-, et al.
(författare)
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Technical change, carbon dioxide reduction and energyconsumption in the Swedish pulp and paper industry 1973-2006
- 2010
-
Rapport (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- 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 active climate policy in 1991. Co2 intensity. Most of the reduction took place before the implementation of
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| 37. |
- Näsman, Mattias, 1989-
(författare)
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The political economy of emission standards : politics, business and the making of vehicle emission regulations in Sweden and Europe, 1960-1980s
- 2021
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to an improved historical understanding of the challenges and complexities involved in constructing systems of governance of motor vehicle air pollution. The specific aim of the study is to explore the development of regulatory vehicle emission standards in Sweden between 1960 and the 1980s as well as to analyze this development within its broader European economic, regulatory and environmental policy context by adopting a transnational approach. The overarching research question concerns the historical dynamics and processes that created obstacles to implementation of stringent vehicle emission standards in Sweden from 1960 through the 1980s. To answer this question, the study focuses specifically on expert, business, and governmental actors’ interaction in the political process in Sweden, seeking to reveal these actors’ motivations, justifications, and power to influence the outcome.The study concludes that one set of difficulties concerned the relationship between vehicle emission standards and international trade, in the sense that stringent emission standards, which in turn are dissimilar from internationally adopted norms, raise trade barriers with implications for trade and foreign relations. The Swedish government, however, implemented stricter standards than those in Europe on three occasions between 1968 and 1982. Both the Swedish and the international car industry were greatly opposed to the Swedish government’s implementation of standards that were more stringent than those adopted in Europe, though the Swedish industry was not opposed to the government’s environmental ambitions as such. On the international arena, since the late 1960s, the thesis shows that the car industry favored international harmonization of technical regulations and lobbied national governments toward this end, while the study further concludes that the Swedish car industry was unsuccessful in its attempts to oppose regulation at home. Another set of challenges was related to the knowledge creation process and the requirement that these standards should reflect technical, economic, and scientific knowledge. The thesis shows how Swedish techno-scientific experts were key actors in the Swedish system of vehicle emission governance, while techno-scientific knowledge was an important tool in justifying Swedish unilateral policies to industrial actors and foreign governments. Still, producing techno-scientific knowledge is a time-consuming process and requires considerable resources. For small countries, the relative costs of producing techno-scientific knowledge are higher than producing it in the immediate political, economic, and technical context – i.e., together with other European countries and car industries. However, the thesis further concludes that the knowledge created in the Swedish system for vehicle emission governance was an important tool for linking standards with other progressive countries: both in terms of implementing goals on air pollution control that were more ambitious than those adopted by most European countries and for coordinating implementation of these standards as well as new fuel infrastructures. This thesis contributes new historical knowledge and perspectives of relevance to several bodies of literature. By displacing the EEC/EU from the center of analysis, the thesis offers the literature on European integration new perspectives. The thesis also adds knowledge regarding the construction of technical standards by shedding light on the role of knowledge creation in developing and implementing standards in a transitional setting. The thesis, moreover, contributes to the literature on the political power of business by closely tracing the car industry’s attempts to influence the regulatory development.
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| 38. |
- Söderholm, Kristina, et al.
(författare)
-
Firm-collaboration and environmental adaptation. : the case of the Swedish pulp- and paper industry 1900-1990
- 2012
-
Ingår i: Scandinavian Economic History Review. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0358-5522 .- 1750-2837. ; 2:60, s. 183-211
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article addresses the importance of research and development (R&D) collaboration for environmental adaptation in the Swedish pulp and paper industry. It reviews the collaborative efforts initiated during the first half of the twentieth century, and investigates in particular how these efforts were influenced by the advent of modern environmental legislation in the late 1960s. We find that during the early period the underlying motives for environmental R&D collaboration were related to the presence of local resistance to pollution, over time turning into increased requirements from tightening environmental regulation. When the Swedish Environmental Protection Act was implemented in 1969, the long-lasting tradition of collaborative R&D activities facilitated the development and the adaptation of cleaner technologies in the sector. The article concludes that in the case of the Swedish pulp and paper industry, the significant environmental improvements witnessed during the 1960s and onwards can only be fully comprehended by acknowledging the role of the industry-wide collaborative activities in R&D. The positive outcomes of this collaboration were in turn reinforced by an environmental regulation system, which facilitated long-term investments in environmental R&D and, in contrast to their Finnish and American counterparts, encouraged internal process changes in the industry.
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| 39. |
- Söderholm, Patrik, 1968-, et al.
(författare)
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Environmental Regulation in the Pulp and Paper Industry : Impacts and Challenges
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Current Forestry Reports. - : Springer. - 2198-6436. ; 5, s. 185-198
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose of ReviewIn this article, we review existing research addressing how environmental regulations have influenced the pulp and paper industry. These regulations appear in different forms and designs and address air and water pollution as well as climate change. The paper devotes particular attention to how various regulations have affected sustainable technological change and the prospects for inducing deep emission reductions without jeopardizing industrial competitiveness and future investments.Recent FindingsExperiences from key pulp and paper regions, not least the Nordic countries, suggest that gradually tightening performance standards have contributed to radical reductions in emissions, e.g., chlorine compounds and biological oxygen demanding agents, and without imposing excessive compliance costs. This outcome can largely be attributed to how the regulations have been designed—and implemented—in practice, as well as to the presence of efficient and legitimate institutions. Long-term emission reduction targets, in combination with extended compliance periods and trustful firm-regulator relationships, contributed to radical technological innovation and permitted radical emission reductions without excessive compliance costs. The development of alternative bleaching technologies is an apt example. In contrast, the impact of carbon pricing schemes, including the EU emissions trading scheme, on carbon dioxide emissions reductions and related technological change in the pulp and paper industry has however been modest. Self-regulation, certification, and community pressure have exerted relatively modest influences on the environmental performance of the industry.SummaryImportant avenues for future research are identified. These include the following: (a) comparative research on how policy mixes in various countries have influenced environmental compliance and innovation; processes; (b) future studies of environmental regulations, their design and implementation, in emerging pulp and paper producing countries, not least China; and (c) research on how environmental regulations can affect ongoing restructurings in the industry towards a broader palette of products in biorefineries.
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| 40. |
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| 41. |
- Söderholm, Patrik, 1968-, et al.
(författare)
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The political economy of industrial pollution control : environmental regulation in Swedish industry for five decades
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Environmental Planning and Management. - : Taylor & Francis. - 0964-0568 .- 1360-0559. ; 65:6, s. 1056-1087
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The paper analyzes the prerequisites for a regulatory-driven transition toward radically lower air and water pollution in industry. This is achieved in the empirical context of the Swedish mining and metals industry, and by investigating the environmental licensing processes during two regulatory systems. The paper derives an analytical framework that explores under what circumstances such licensing processes can result in radical emissions reductions without seriously jeopardizing the competitiveness of the industry. Archived material covering six environmental licensing processes, three during each system, is used to illustrate the various design and implementation issues. The results suggest that regulatory-driven green transitions benefit from trust-based bargaining procedures in which companies are involved in repeated interactions with regulatory authorities, and which extended probation periods permit tests of novel abatement technologies (including innovation). The findings also illustrate the importance of abstaining from simplified normative notions about policy instrument choice (e.g. taxes versus standards).
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