Successfully Implementing Environmental Sustainability Strategies : Important affecting and enabling factors

Sammanfattning: Purpose – The purpose of this research is to investigate how organizations successfully can implement sustainability strategies. To fulfill the purpose, three research questions were established: What factors are important to consider when implementing environmental sustainability strategies? How do these factors affect the implementation of an environmental sustainability strategy? How can these factors enable a successful implementation of sustainability strategies? Method – To achieve the purpose of this study, a case study has been conducted at an organization where empirical data has been collected through interviews, observations, and document analyses. Further, a literature review was carried out to establish a theoretical framework. The empirical data and theoretical framework have been compared and analyzed in order to answer the research questions and fulfill the purpose. Findings – The findings provided six important factors in the implementation of environmental sustainability strategies: organizational structure, organizational culture, internal communication, management control, leadership, and employee motivation. The factors affect the implementation by hindering and facilitating alignment, common understanding, efficient communication, employee involvement and motivation. Further, the factors can enable a successful implementation by creating a mutual understanding of the strategy's vision and goals and establishing an organizational alignment in relation to the strategy. Last, the research indicates that a holistic consideration of these factors is needed. Implications – The research did not contribute to new theories, however, it provided increased knowledge on various factors that affect and enable environmental sustainability strategy implementation. Further, the research suggests that the factors should be considered holistically and simultaneously to achieve organizational alignment and mutual understanding. Limitations – The study is a single case study where one organization has been explored and a limited number of interviews have been conducted. The credibility of the study is believed to have increased further if multiple organizations had been studied with more interviews.