Michael Søgaard Jørgensen

The Social Shaping of the Participation of Employees in Environmental Work within Enterprises - Experiences from a Danish Context

The paper deals with the shaping of the participation of employees in environmental work within enterprises. The paper is based on two case studies on Danish enterprises, which, as part of the development of their environmental work, emphasized employee involvement. The cases show that it is difficult to maintain the participation of employees in environmental work, even in enterprises with an intention to do so. The cases contribute to the identification of those situations during the shaping of environmental work in an enterprise where choices concerning employee participation are made: (1) The need of management to involve employees in the environmental work; (2) The competence building among employees and local supervisors; and (3) The stabilization of the environmental work into routines and structures. The theoretical approach draws on organizational theory emphasizing the connection between environmental strategies, measures and competence needs, and the shaping of the participation of employees as social processes formed by the existing culture and the pressure generated by the preventive environmental work.

Environmental management in Danish transnational textile product chains

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse environmental responsibility of companies from industrialized countries when they source materials and products in countries with less environmental protection.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is a study of corporate environmental management in the Danish textile and clothing sector, with 13 cases based on interviews and material from reports and websites. The criteria for choosing the cases were variety of size and market segment, and a mixture of companies that take environmental initiatives and companies for which it was not known whether they take environmental initiatives.Findings – Several different environmental practices were identified: some companies were early which got sustained initiatives, and some early and not sustained initiatives; some companies were late with sustained initiatives, and some late and not sustained initiatives; and finally, some have a practice without environmental initiatives. Dominating types of initiatives are c...

Green technology foresight of high technology: a social shaping of technology approach to the analysis of hopes and hypes

High tech visions play an important part in public technology policy and are often promoted through technology foresights. The article presents and analyses results from a green technology foresight of nano-, bio- and information- and communication technologies initiated by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency with the purpose of acquiring knowledge about the environmental potentials and risks related to the three areas of technology. The foresight was organised with a social shaping of technology (SST) approach to the field in order to cater for the complex relationship between societal demands, technology options, innovation dynamics and environmental impacts. The approach involved studying actor-networks, laboratory programmes and technology trajectories as well as deconstructing different stakeholders’ high tech visions. The identified environmental potentials and risks related to the three areas of technology and recommendations for future governance of research, innovation and application areas are discussed.

Has Social Sustainability Left the Building? the Recent Conceptualization of "Sustainability" in Danish Buildings

Abstract Sustainable buildings have often been niche products, but in recent years a new approach has emerged in Denmark aimed at mainstreaming and normalizing this mode of construction and seeking to attract ordinary Danes through market conditions. The aim is to present an alternative conceptualization of sustainable buildings to the ecocommunities’ vision and to involve traditional building firms in their design and development. From a theoretical perspective, the mainstreaming of sustainable buildings can be seen either as an example of ecological modernization or technological transition. The new conceptualization has implied a narrower approach to sustainability and a lack of social sustainability measures. While earlier paradigms of sustainable buildings emphasized themes such as community building, self-provisioning, local empowerment, and shared facilities, such objectives are largely absent in the new types of sustainable buildings. We question to what extent it is possible to design sustainable settlements without social sustainability. By viewing sustainable buildings as technological configurations, we argue that the multiactor approach, fragmentation of roles, and absent initiatives for social sustainability influence the buildings’ environmental performance and should be important for the next generation of these structures.

Eating at worksites in Nordic countries: National experiences and policy initiatives

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review national experiences and policy initiatives within worksite eating in four Nordic countries, in order to compare the experiences and identify import ...

Environmental Management in Product Chains

The product chain — the chain of interacting suppliers and customers, which together make up the activities from raw material extraction to handling of waste connected to a product — plays an important role in the shaping and management of environmental aspects connected to the production and consumption of a product, for example, a piece of clothing. To illustrate, with lack of environmental focus, a retail chain may only be willing to pay a certain price for the product because their business strategy focuses on price competition with the other retailers. Therefore the retail chain does not care about the environmental protection measures taken by their suppliers and the retail chain procurement persons do not control the environmental aspects of the manufacturing at the suppliers’ facilities. In contrast, as an example of proactive environmental management, a manufacturing company may initiate direct supply of organic cotton from a number of small farmers in order to be able to protect their own workers during the manufacturing of T-shirts from the cotton.

Social shaping of food intervention initiatives at worksites: Canteen takeaway schemes at two Danish hospitals:

Aims: The aim of this article is to analyse the social shaping of worksite food interventions at two Danish worksites. The overall aims are to contribute first, to the theoretical frameworks for the planning and analysis of food and health interventions at worksites and second, to a foodscape approach to worksite food interventions. Methods: The article is based on a case study of the design of a canteen takeaway (CTA) scheme for employees at two Danish hospitals. This was carried out as part of a project to investigate the shaping and impact of schemes that offer employees meals to buy, to take home or to eat at the worksite during irregular working hours. Data collection was carried out through semi-structured interviews with stakeholders within the two change processes. Two focus group interviews were also carried out at one hospital and results from a user survey carried out by other researchers at the other hospital were included. Theoretically, the study was based on the social constitution approach to change processes at worksites and a co-evolution approach to problem–solution complexes as part of change processes. Results: Both interventions were initiated because of the need to improve the food supply for the evening shift and the work–life balance. The shaping of the schemes at the two hospitals became rather different change processes due to the local organizational processes shaped by previously developed norms and values. At one hospital the change process challenged norms and values about food culture and challenged ideas in the canteen kitchen about working hours. At the other hospital, the change was more of a learning process that aimed at finding the best way to offer a CTA scheme. Conclusions: Worksite health promotion practitioners should be aware that the intervention itself is an object of negotiation between different stakeholders at a worksite based on existing norms and values. The social contextual model and the setting approach to worksite health interventions lack reflections about how such norms and values might influence the shaping of the intervention. It is recommended that future planning and analyses of worksite health promotion interventions apply a combination of the social constitution approach to worksites and an integrated food supply and demand perspective based on analyses of the co-evolution of problem–solution complexes.

Wind2050 – a transdisciplinary research partnership about wind energy

Strategic orientation and priority setting in energy planning are high on the political agenda in Denmark due to the ambitious national goal of fossil-free energy systems. One key issue concerns the involvement of stakeholders – and non-expert stakeholders in particular – in discussions on how to increase wind power installations (see also the contribution by Olsen in this volume). Another key issue is the emphasis on long-term societal interests and future possibilities regarding changes in the innovation system of wind power, i. e., how to take into account citizens’ multiple concerns regarding the impact of wind turbines on aspects such as environment and health or what is perceived as an unfair distribution of economic gains, as well as how wind turbines could contribute to local development or be seen as a local contribution to a national transition of the energy system. This calls for a transdisciplinary approach to science and innovation based on an exhaustive contextual understanding of interplay, divergences and relationships between stakeholders and methods for transparent strategic priority setting in research.

A MODEL FOR ORGANIZING AND ANALYZING INTEGRATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS IN PRODUCT DESIGN AND RE-DESIGN

Based on examples from research and innovation within nanotechnology, housing, bioenergy, and clothing the complexity of environmental innovation is discussed. A model for a more holistic approach to environmental innovation, which can be used both as part of innovation processes and for analyses of previous innovation processes, is developed. The approach is based on: 1) A scenario perspective on environmental aspects and impacts which implies a focus on the future roles of a product, its users and the surrounding society as imagined by the designers in their considerations about the problems addressed by the product and the solution it is offering. 2) A system’s perspective which implies a focus on the system, which a product is part of, including the need for supporting infrastructures like stakeholder training, waste management etc. 3) A lifecycle perspective to environmental aspects and impacts in order not only to capture environmental aspects from cradle to grave, e.g. related to material extraction and refining, chemical exposure during manufacturing, use and waste handling. 4) A governance perspective on management of environmental aspects and impacts, both in relation to the legitimacy of the environmental problems addressed and the solutions ‘offered’ by the product.

Arbejdsmiljøcertificering som tilsynsredskab og -strategi : Resultater og anbefalinger

Arbejdsmiljocertificering vinder frem i de nordiske lande og specielt i Danmark, hvor de certificerede virksomheder som udgangspunkt har vaeret fritaget for Arbejdstilsynets screeningsbesog siden 20 ...