Tap Dancing Around Sustainability:The Case of Palm Oil Key Stakeholders

Sammanfattning: The Swedish Initiative on Sustainable Palm Oil in food and cosmetic and detergent industries hasemerged in 2014 following other EU national initiatives. This thesis project aims to explore thecondition of the initiative by examining who the key important stakeholders are and how these palmoil key stakeholders in Swedish market develop and implement their Sustainable Palm OilInitiatives. A qualitative approach using case study technique is used to guide the study andsupported by a combination of several theoretical frameworks, such as stakeholders’ theory and thevalue chain concept to address the research questions. Rooted from six organizations as study cases,the study found that the key important stakeholders for these organizations in developing andimplementing the initiatives are retailers, suppliers, consumers, trade associations, and Non-Governmental Organizations. Furthermore, the study also found that these six organizations useethical sourcing tool based on Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil certification scheme toimplement the Initiative in their respective member companies. As authorisers, the Swedish FoodFederation and the Swedish Cosmetics, Detergents and Toiletries Association developed Palm OilWorking Group and a simple platform for their member companies both in Swedish food andcosmetic and detergent industries in order to spread and manage the initiative. Världsnaturfonden,on the other hand serves as an external influencer that conducts lobbying and facilitations to supportSwedish companies to use certified segregated palm oil products to drive responsible palm oilproduction. The results show that Kicks, Croda, and Fazer facilitate the operationalization of ethicalsourcing initiative throughout their primary and supporting value chain activities. In addition,intertwined relationship between upstream and downstream parts of palm oil supply chain networksinfluences the outcome of the Swedish Initiative on Sustainable Palm Oil in spreading the initiativetoward market transformation in Sweden.