Background: Climate change has become the most pressing challenge of our time. Current business approaches to sustainability are instrumental that may portray sustainability as a source of corporate profit rather than acting for change beyond mitigation and adaptation. A regenerative approach to sustainability challenges current practices and aims to create and strengthen environmental and social well-being. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to deepen the understanding of how change agents can be a part of a regenerative sustainability transition. This is done by investigating the attitudes of change agents to such a transition. The aim is to contribute to theoretical and practical implications of organizational change theory, addressing the phenomena of organizational regenerative sustainability. Method: The paradigm of this study is of critical realist nature with an exploratory research design. An abductive model inspired the research approach, and semi-structured interviews were performed to collect primary data. A thematic analysis was then performed to draw conclusions from this study. Results: The analysis uncovered both welcoming and reluctant attitudes toward a regenerative transition. The welcoming attitudes were inherently more optimistic toward a regenerative transition, whereas change agents with reluctant attitudes identified more challenges and barriers for implementing a regenerative transition simultaneously as their perspectives were more business-centered. When weighing the evidence, it appears that the welcoming attitudes are relatively more likely to have a positive impact on implementing regenerative change as well as succeed with the initiation.

The current efforts to address global sustainability issues are failing. To avoid the consequences of transgressing the planetary boundaries and simultaneously provide people with the basic needs for human prosperity, we have to overcome a profound challenge. We have to produce economic and social well-being while, at the same time, resolving long-standing environmental problems that threaten our very own existence. To overcome this challenge, new types of values-driven enterprises and innovations that aim to regenerate Earth have to guide global development and decision making.   Therefore, this study investigates a new approach to entrepreneurship called regenerative entrepreneurship, an approach that aims to reframe the meaning and purpose of sustainability by building flourishing socio-ecological systems through innovations and business practices that are regenerative by design. By conducting a multiple case study of regenerative organizations, we have delved into the personal stories of entrepreneurs who, on a daily basis, enact their values to regenerate Earth. Through this, we have answered the question of how regenerative entrepreneurs enact their values to build and maintain regenerative organizations.   The findings suggest that regenerative entrepreneurs enact their values in two ways, proactively and reactively, by constantly aligning and calibrating their values, personally, internally, and externally, making sure that they themselves and all their stakeholders work towards the same vision of regenerating Earth.

Det är centralt för textilföretag idag att implementera hållbarhet i deras strategier och affärsmodell, ett organisatoriskt dokument som syftar till att redovisa ett företags hållbarhetsarbete gentemot deras intressenter är hållbarhetsredovisningar. FNs 17 globala mål (Agenda 2030) tillgodoser företag världen över med riktlinjer och fokusområden inom hållbar utveckling. Agenda 2030 har blivit ett verktyg som används i samband med hållbarhetsredovisning. Studien syftar till att undersöka svenska textilföretags hållbarhetsarbete kopplat till Agenda 2030 för att ge en ökad förståelse för hur textilföretag arbetar med Agenda 2030 målen med utgångspunkt i det traditionella ramverket triple bottom line i relation till det moderna ramverket regenerativ hållbarhet. Studien ligger till grund för vidare forskning kring huruvida FNs globala mål behöver uppdateras för att bli ett verktyg för att uppnå regenerativ hållbarhet. Metod: Studien har en kvalitativ forskningsmetod baserad på dokumentstudie och semistrukturerade intervjuer med ett målstyrt urval. Urvalsprocessen har utgångspunkt i att kartlägga svenska företag som är verksamma inom textilbranschen och arbetar med hållbarhet. I samband med att det empiriska materialet samlades in pågick analysarbete kontinuerligt där det identifierades fem kategorier som syftar till att kartlägga empirin och ligga till grund för en djupgående analys. Teoretiskt Perspektiv: Studien utgår från två teoretiska ramverk, triple bottom line vilket bygger på de tre tre dimensionerna av hållbarhet social, miljömässig och ekonomisk. Följt av regenerativ hållbarhet vilket adderar ett nytt synsätt på hållbarhetsarbetet baserat på återställa, bevara och förbättra. En kort presentation av hur de teoretiska ramverken relaterar till varandra presenteras initialt. Resultat/Analys & Slutsatser: Studien baseras på 12 svenska textilföretag, där majoriteten arbetar med Agenda 2030 samt hållbarhetsredovisar. Fem kategorier identifierades; samarbeten, transparens, produkt, cirkularitet och prioriteringar i empiri och analys. Dessa användes för att kartlägga vilka av Agenda 2030 målen som prioriteras inom textilbranschen och hur det avspeglar sig i textilföretags hållbarhetsarbete, samt om det finns ett samband mellan textilföretags hållbarhetsarbete med Agenda 2030 och regenerativ hållbarhet. Baserat på studien prioriteras främst mål 8, 12, 13 och 17 inom textilbranschen. I slutsats skiljer sig hållbarhetsarbetet med målen åt på olika textilföretag beroende på hur dem prioriterar målen samt arbetar med hållbarhet och huruvida företaget kopplar Agenda 2030 till sina interna mål. Det finns både ett indirekt och direkt samband med regenerativ hållbarhet kopplat till Agenda 2030 beroende på hur textilföretagens hållbarhetsarbete och hållbarhetsredovisningar är utformade. / Today it is crucial for textile companies to implement sustainability in their strategies and overall business model, sustainability reports are an organizational document that aims to mediate a company's sustainability work to its different stakeholders. The UN's 17 Global Goals (Agenda 2030) provide companies worldwide with guidelines and focus areas on sustainable development. Agenda 2030 has become a tool used in connection with sustainability reporting. The study examines Swedish textile companies' sustainability work linked to Agenda 2030 to provide an increased understanding of how textile companies implement the UN’s 17 Global Goals. Based on the traditional triple bottom line framework in relation to the modern regenerative sustainability framework. The study forms the basis for further research on whether Agenda 2030 needs to be updated to become a tool for achieving regenerative sustainability. Methodology: The study applies a qualitative research method with a document study and semi-structured interviews based on a goal-oriented sampling. The sampling process is based on Swedish companies within the textile industry that prioritize sustainability. The empirical material was collected and analyzed continuously, five categories were identified which aim to form the base for an in-depth analysis, discussion, and lastly conclusion. Theoretical Perspective: The study is based on two theoretical frameworks, triple bottom line which includes the three dimensions of sustainability; social, environmental, and economic. Followed by regenerative sustainability, which provides a new perspective on sustainability based on restoring, preserving, and improving. A short presentation on how the two frameworks relate to each other is presented. Empirical analysis and Conclusion: The study is based on 12 Swedish textile companies, where the majority work with Agenda 2030 and sustainability reporting. Five categories were identified during the empirical analysis; collaborations, transparency, product, circularity, and priorities. The five categories were used in order to conclude which of the UN’s 17 Global Goals are prioritized within the textile industry and how it is implemented in companies' sustainability work. Also regarding whether there is a linkage between textile companies' sustainability work, implementation of Agenda 2030, and regenerative sustainability. In conclusion, the most prioritized of the UN’s Global Goals within the textile industry are; 8, 12, 13, and 17. Sustainability work in linkage with Agenda 2030 differs depending on how the specific textile company chooses to prioritize the goals, on their sustainability strategies, and whether they connect Agenda 2030 directly to their internal objectives. There is both a direct and indirect correlation between regenerative sustainability and Agenda 2030, depending on the specific textile companies' sustainability work and reporting structure, strategy, and objectives.

Increasingly, firms like Patagonia, IKEA, General Mills, or Barilla actively seek to understand their interdependence with nature, build innovative capabilities, and generate more radical shifts toward sustainability. This creates exciting opportunities to investigate exactly how these companies obtain knowledge about ecosystem dynamics and processes and how they use it both to cope with climate change or declining ecosystem resilience and contribute to maintain or even strengthen ecosystems. Despite the considerable potential to advance research on organizational strategy and corporate sustainability, the notion of ‘ecological knowledge’ has yet to enter the scholarly work of management and business organization in a substantive manner. At present, we know almost nothing about the processes, mechanisms, and routines that enable an organization to, first, recognize the value of such knowledge and to, then, systematically access, co-create, integrate and utilize such knowledge into its broader knowledge and resource base. My dissertation attempts to fill this gap and opens up new directions for research on the role of ecological knowledge in corporate sustainability management. More specifically, I ask: What are the processes through which organizations can effectively access, co-create, integrate and utilize ecological knowledge with current organizational knowledge and strategies? I link strategic and organization-focused concepts of knowledge and the perspective of absorptive capacity with the notion of ecological knowledge from modern ecology, especially from the social-ecological systems literature, to shed light on the processes through which organizations can effectively access, co-create, integrate and utilize new ecological knowledge into their operational and strategic decision making. I adopt a qualitative, emergent, and inductive strategy drawing on a grounded research approach to gain an in-depth, cross-validated, and processual understanding of the mechanisms through which organizations can promote and enhance ecosystem health including biodiversity. I undertook my study on the organic agriculture sector, a sub-sector of the modern agriculture and agri-food industry. I collected data from nineteen agriculture and agri-food organizations based in British Columbia (BC), the westernmost province of Canada, using multiple data sources including in-depth interviews, observations, company documents, reports, newspaper articles and field reports. Based on my analysis, I develop a grounded theory about the processes through which organizations can successfully deepen their ecological knowledge and then utilize this knowledge to more sustainably manage their relationships with nature and contribute to protecting or even strengthening ecosystem functionality. With my dissertation, I address the call from scholars in Organization and the Natural Environment (ONE) and Corporate Sustainability for more transdisciplinary cross-fertilization as an essential approach to building compelling new theory and models in the field. First, my analysis offers a more fine-grained understanding of the types, components, dimensions, and characteristics of ecological knowledge. Second, my analysis uncovers a micro-level account of the processes by which individuals as critical actors identify, evaluate and make sense of the organization-environment interrelationships across various scales of time and space. I also identify the multiple personal characteristics of individual actors that influence these processes in various stages and circumstances. Third, my study offers insights into the factors that can strengthen an organization’s relational capacity to build mutual trust and collaboration with holders of ecological knowledge. Fourth, it sheds light on how firms engage with and motivate multiple community stakeholders in building a collaborative process of mutual learning, knowledge sharing, and knowledge co-creation to build joint capacity for coping successfully with many complex challenges of sustainability, thus contributing to the wellbeing of the entire social-ecological system. Collectively, these contributions provide a deeper and more holistic understanding of the processes of acquiring and co-creating ecological knowledge that can allow an organization to transition successfully towards greater ecological sustainability. My dissertation also offers numerous practically relevant insights for businesses facing the challenges of economic, social and environmental sustainability, as well as specific guidance on how companies can protect or enhance their supply of natural capital and contribute toward greater stability of the broader human-nature systems in which they are embedded. / Graduate / 2023-11-15

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