What is a bumble bee worth? How to manage green investments to create and capture sustainable value in Swedish AEC organizations

Abstract

Due to the shift among capital actors and the implementation of the EU Taxonomy, sustainability and finance is getting increasingly linked, and green investments has been identified as an enabler to change the EU economy. Consequently, companies in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry will need to transform their businesses to align with the changing environment. This thesis aims at investigating green investments and their impact on the AEC business environment, and how the future benefits of green investments better can be managed, valued, and motivated by an architecture and engineering consultancy firm. To reach the aim, a qualitative research strategy with an inductive reasoning was applied, and the study consist of a literature study, qualitative interviews, and a case study. According to this study, the main incentives to why construction companies make green investments are due to stakeholder pressure. Further, it could be identified how green investments will increase the demand for green services. In order to manage green investment and sustainability, environmental competences and capabilities are essential, and both intra-and interorganizational collaboration appear to be of high value. Green investments have the potential to transform the AEC sector, because ‘not being green’ should be considered a business risk.