Ann-Charlotte Stenberg

The value of communicative skills for developing an energy strategy

A case study is presented of how a public-sector client organization engaged with a political directive on energy efficiency in buildings. The value of communication skills of built environment professionals is explored during a strategic change process. An interpretative approach is used to study the organizational discussions and interactions between mainly a senior engineer (an energy expert), the management team and officials. It demonstrates how the political directive led to an initially ambiguous energy target, but was successfully framed, contextualized and anchored within the organization. This change process was shaped by key actors’ ability to influence others. Use of discursive competence is important for explaining what stakeholders may gain from the changes needed to meet the energy target. The focus on the role of a senior engineer (middle management rather than top management) provides a novel perspective on how strategies develop and are adopted in organizations.

The Interpretative "Green" in the Building: Diachronic and Synchronic

The aim of this paper is to link the historical development of green building on a national level to current actions and interpretations on an organizational level, addressing this issue from two perspectives: a diachronic perspective and a synchronic perspective. Using a social constructivist model as a theoretical framework, we analyzed the interplay between green discourse and green action in the management of the environment. We explore the interpretative flexibility of “green building” as it has been constructed, communicated, and interpreted through time and across institutional and organizational boundaries. The empirical basis consists of a literature review and a qualitative study of three municipal housing companies in western Sweden. We found that the plurality of meanings of “green building” allows competing ideologies and special interests to gain rhetorical prominence and to influence decision-makers’ views of what is to be prioritized. To conclude, there seem to be strong incentives to make use of ambiguity rather than clarity in relation to green building.

The social construction of ‘green building’ in the Swedish context

Abstract To understand how ‘environmental consideration’ and related concepts are defined and translated into physical artifacts in contemporary green building projects, we need to be aware of the existing streams of ideas that have contributed to the present understanding of green building. Depending on ideological stance and power distribution, ‘green building’ may have different meanings and values ranging from a techno-centric positioning to an eco-sensitive one, yet the same language is often used. This article reviews the development of green ideas in the Swedish building sector, taking its point of departure in the 1960s. The focus of the article is the ways in which translations of ‘green building’ have been used historically to mobilize different groups of actors. The aim of this journey is to provide insight into the environmental discourse in the Swedish building sector today and to generate a discussion on the role of discourse in environmental policy making. Furthermore, a better understanding of the environmental problem from a historical perspective may lead to more comprehensive solutions to current and future environmental problems.