What does it take for a building construction company to systematicly work environmentally?
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Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master Thesis
Master Thesis
Program
Industrial ecology (MPTSE), MSc
Publicerad
2013
Författare
Askmar, Emelie
Bodlund, Carolina
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
Globally an increasing number of larger organisations devote substantial time and resources to environmental management today and the natural environment has come to be one of the most important aspects of an organisation’s business (Henriques & Sadorsky, 1999). Requirements are today put forward by authorities, clients and other stakeholders concerning more environmentalfriendlier products and processes and are expected to be even more far-reaching in the years to come (Andersen & Neergaard, 2005). Implementation of various environmental management systems is today a commonly used tool for organisations in order to improve their overall environmental performance and also a reply on the authorities and external stakeholders growing demands on an active environmental work (Ammenberg, 2004). Regardless of this development, many organisations within the building construction sector are reluctant to implement an environmental management system due to the perception that the implementation and operation of such a system involves expenses only. Today the building construction and real estate sector accounts for a significant part of Sweden’s total environmental impact (Eco-Cycle Council, 2010), which clarifies that companies in the building construction sector should not be submitted without responsibility of changing the negative trend of being a huge contributor to negative environmental impacts.- This masters’ thesis is studying a single building construction company named Byggnads AB Tornstaden that is in the process of implementing an environmental management system. The first aim of this study is to investigate how the company’s internal stakeholders commit to environmental issues and their future work with the environmental management system. The first question that guided the research was: What does it take for a building constructing company to work environmentally? Additionally, this study aimed to help the company perform an initial environmental review and therefore the second question to guide the research was: What are the significant environmental impacts Byggnads AB Tornstaden contributes to? In order to answer these questions different data collecting methods have been used including literature reviews, an interviews study, observations, assessment of internal documents and a workshop with the internal stakeholders was held. This masters’ thesis study concludes that negative attitudes towards environmental work must be changed in order to improve the company’s current environmental performance and to increase commitment towards environmental work among the internal stakeholders. Further in order for Byggnads AB Tornstaden to get committed internal stakeholders and to get a sustainable environmental work, they have to implement shared environmental values, a common environmental baseline and give all internal stakeholders the opportunity to influence the future environmental efforts. It was also concluded that if the company are aiming on having a sustainable and long-lived EMS, they must include environmental questions and issues on the agenda. Additionally, environmental practise must be integrated in the internal stakeholders’ daily activities to avoid the perception that environmental work is an additional element on top of already pressed working positions; otherwise the environmental work will not be prioritised. The initial environmental review identified that the majority of the environmental aspects of Byggnads AB Tornstaden’s were associated with resource use, education and waste management. This result illuminates the need for education and increased knowledge for the internal stakeholders, in order for them to be able to decrease and mitigate the environmental impact created by the company’s activities.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
Hållbar utveckling , Annan teknik , Övrig annan teknik , Sustainable Development , Other Engineering and Technologies , Other Engineering and Technologies not elsewhere specified