Renato J. Orsato

The Political Ecology of Automobile Recycling in Europe

This paper addresses the relationship between organizations and the natural environment from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. In doing so, it contributes in three ways. First, it satisfies the need for more political perspectives in environment-related research. Second, by analyzing the end-of-life vehicle issue that the European automobile industry addressed in the 1990s, the paper satisfies the need of developing research that integrates organizational and field-level analysis. Finally, the use of the political ecology framework for the analysis of the end-of-life vehicle issue contributes to the development of a more politically charged institutional theory in which, as the study shows, both inertia and change in organizational fields depend on circuits of political ecology.

The Political Ecology of Palm Oil Production

Abstract The paper analyses the social and environmental issues involved in disputes relating to the sustainability of the palm oil industry. These disputes have been aired in and around the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. We start by developing a review of types of voluntary environmental initiative or green clubs, as they have also been called, in this context. The study is based on extensive fieldwork in the setting of the disputes (the island of Borneo) and analysis of the different levels in the global value chain of the palm oil industry, including local organizations, the industry structure overall, as well as the local governments of Malaysia and Indonesia. The use of the political ecology framework for the analysis of the palm oil industry contributes not only to the development of a more institutional-power perspective, but also provides solid grounds for the understanding of green clubs – an increasingly important type of organization.

Collaborative Innovation for Sustainable Fleet Operations: The Electric Vehicle Adoption Decision

We study the impact of collaboration on the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) among commercial fleets. Using cooperative game theory, we characterize the joint payoffs for the primary stakeholders in the EV adoption decision - the fleet manager, auto manufacturer, and electricity supplier - to determine the conditions under which EVs become economically feasible for commercial eets. We do so in two settings. We first analyze a scenario where all three stakeholders cooperate in the EV adoption decision, a setting pertinent in regions such as France where a national electricity supplier makes such an arrangement feasible. We next analyze a scenario where the fleet manager and auto manufacturer cooperate but the electricity supplier participates as an independent actor, a setting pertinent in regions such as the United States where no single electricity supplier possesses sufficient market scope to become involved in the EV decision on a national scale. We show that convex per unit EV production costs drive a boundary solution for both the two- and three-party coalition EV adoption decision. We also illustrate the impact of carbon and operating cost advantages of EVs relative to internal combustion vehicles on the adoption of EVs and complementary vehicle-to-grid technology. Comparing the regions of EV adoption within the two coalition settings provides insights into the value of the electricity suppliers cooperation and the conditions under which intermediation to promote such cooperation can add value.

Sustainable Fleet Operations in the Postal Sector

Fleet optimization for postal operators (POs) is an important effort towards sustainable transportation in several ways. First, of course, is its direct economic impact through investment, amortization and operating costs. Second, is its impact on the carbon footprint of the PO. While the evaluation of alternative fleet traction systems (e.g., fossil-fuel, hybrid and electric) is in many respects a relatively straightforward financial investment problem, there are additional complexities that make this problem an interesting research problem for sustainable energy. These include the uncertainties in market prices for various sources of energy, including emission credits for carbon leveraging of investments; the problem of infrastructure and support for new technologies; the intangible/reputation benefits of sustainable energy investments for POs; the problem of new technologies and learning effects and, finally; the nature of strategic partnerships and risk sharing that may be needed to achieve the requisite scale of operations to make low-carbon vehicles a feasible alternative for major fleet operators and for the automotive industry. Taking these features into account, this paper will describe a strategic framework for evaluating the possible transformation of postal fleet operations to hybrid or (pure) electric vehicles and present some initial results for this problem. .

Social Learning for Anticipatory Adaptation to Climate Change: Evidence From a Community of Practice:

The literature discussing social learning for Anticipatory Adaptation to Climate Change (AACC) has largely been developed at the societal level of analysis. However, how private companies build resilience and reduce damage to their private goods remains underexplored. Since climate change involves high levels of uncertainty and complexity, companies seeking to proactively adapt to climate change are required to search for specific and nontraditional knowledge. In order to contribute to this discussion, we investigated how a community of practice promotes social learning for AACC. We access the social learning emerging from the community of practice by developing a framework that can also be applied to other complex problems faced by companies. We found evidence of the centrality of social learning for the development of strategies and practices addressing grand corporate challenges, such as AACC. The results contribute to both the literature of social learning and the practice of sustainability management.

Organizational adaptation to climate change: learning to anticipate energy disruptions

Purpose This paper aims to investigate how organizational learning (OL) affects the development of anticipatory adaptation to climate change in companies. Because the need to learn increases in circumstances of greater uncertainty such as the case of climate change, one of the processes that can explain different levels of anticipatory adaptation to climate change (AACC) by companies is OL. Design/methodology/approach The research uses a case study design. Following the procedures of qualitative sampling, an exemplary case of organizational adaptation to climate change in a sector that is extremely affected by the impacts of weather events was chosen. Empirical data collection includes semi-structured interviews and the collection of private and public documents. Such data were analyzed through thematic analysis. Findings The process of OL for anticipatory adaptation to climate change presents substantial differences from the traditional OL process presented by the specialized literature. In particular, the concepts of single- and double-loop learning were challenging to fit into the learning processes required for AACC. Originality/value Organizations have historically been working towards the adaption to external unforeseen events, but anticipatory adaptation to climate change presents new challenges and requires new forms of learning. Previous research has examined the interplay between learning and climate change adaptation, especially at the inter-organizational level. By developing research at the organizational level, this paper addresses a gap in the literature and shows that the required learning to adapt to climate change differs from the traditional learning, described in the management literature.