Sustainability has recently received an increased level of attention across all sectors over the world, the construction industry is no exception. This industry is one of the most complex and dynamic sectors. Consequently, promotion of sustainability within the construction industry is a leadership challenge that requires a unique leadership style. Existing literature has been focusing on leadership and sustainability that have been investigated separately with little rigorous research regarding the linkage between these two concepts in the management research. It has been noticed that all these studies were within national and specific contexts. The promotion of sustainability varies from one country to another due to the fact that each country has its own climatic conditions, cultural patterns, and traditional settlements. The present study investigates how leadership styles of leaders in construction firms shape the promotion of sustainability in two different contexts. A multiple case study was applied, and data was collected through conducting interviews with twenty managers charged with the promotion of sustainability in Sweden and Saudi Arabia to fulfil the research purpose by adopting a qualitative research approach. The MLQ model was used to identify the participants’ leadership styles. Furthermore, the United Nations Global Compact framework was used to segment the cases in terms of the promotion of sustainability. The study concludes that two of the identified leadership styles do not work similarly in Sweden and Saudi Arabia. Transformational leadership styles shaped the promotion of sustainability at a high level in Sweden, but at a low level in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, transactional leadership shaped the promotion of sustainability at a high level in Saudi Arabia, but at a low level in Sweden. While the passive leadership style shaped the promotion of sustainability at a low level in both countries. Managers can use these findings to promote sustainability practices and shape their styles of leadership taking into account contexts that differ from one country to another.

The fashion industry is the second dirtiest industry that pollutes the planet. H&M is one of many fashion brands that strive to improve the environment by introducing sustainable products and initiatives. This research aims to study how H&M communicate sustainability in the fashion industry context during the selected period. The data is mainly collected from Instagram, the most popular communication platform in the fashion industry and supported by data from brick-and-mortar stores, the website and the semi-structured interview. To fully understand the case, this research identifies H&M brand identity and brand extension in sustainability. The fashion brand communication and sustainability communication are the main theoretical framework of the study. The methods of the study are semi-constructed interview and content analysis. The brand identity of H&M is found to be positivity, collectivity, and inclusivity and openness, trendsetter and youthful. The brand extension at H&M can be found in several levels from the establishment of the H&M Foundation to Conscious collection and Conscious Exclusive collection. H&M applies several of fashion brand communication strategic tools to communicate sustainability. The obstacles and limitations of H&M are found to be a conflict of interest between the business and sustainability, downplayed by the nature of fast fashion, an inconsistency of communication, and difficulty to access to the sustainability information. It is found that the unique characteristics of the fashion industry and the creation of brand identity can solve the normalisation paradox of sustainability communication discourse, as well as overcome five barriers from greening. At the same time, the weakness is the decreasing of potential to create reflexivity of sustainability issues which is due to the language and tone of communication. Another weakness is the decreasing potential of sustainability to be normalised in the fashion industry which is due to the number of information available from the brand.

This study was designed to explore how consumers perceive voluntary emission compensation as a companies’ sustainability strategy and how to achieve common action between companies and individual consumers towards sustainability. Emission compensation as companies’ sustainability strategy has appeared to be a complex strategy from the consumers perspective, and there are multiple challenges in order to implement it effectively. The study includes 20 individual consumers which were examined through five different focus groups, with the focus on attitudes towards sustainability and emission compensation. In the study, we combine companies’ communication with signal theory to individual consumers’ consumption behaviour by applying the theory of planned behaviour. The main findings were that in general, individual consumers do not believe that voluntary emission compensation is an effective strategy towards sustainability. Instead, individual consumers indicate regulations as a requirement in order to effectuate emission compensation. Moreover, individual consumers seem to have low trust in companies’ sustainability communication in general because the information on emission compensation was specifically lacking. This study adds in-depth analysis of consumers perceptions of compensated everyday life products, such as food, to the existing body of research which has mainly focused explicitly on aviation and air travel industries. Moreover, these studies have been quantitative in nature and our study reveals the deeper foundations why consumers think as they do.

This master thesis depicts the topic of urban mining and its possibilities and challenges in the city of Malmö. Because of present day’s high consumption and construction our resources are becoming scarcer. In order to continue to build and consume the way we do, we need to look at other alternatives to obtain these resources. One sustainable alternative is urban mining which is based on society as a resource base where material accumulating over time is a metal storage that can be used through reuse or recycling. This thesis is limited to one type of urban mining which refers to unused cables and pipes that lie underground, so called hibernating cables. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the possibilities and challenges with urban mining in the city of Malmö and to research the Kabel-x urban mining method and its implementation possibilities. To successfully understand the challenges and possibilities a qualitative approach was taken where semi-structured interviews were conducted to see attitudes towards urban mining as well as to identify stakeholders who would work with an urban mining project in the future. The qualitative approach was complemented by a literary research which built the theoretical framework with theories like urban mining, urban metabolism and material flow analysis and sustainability assessments. The empirical discoveries depict topics such as ownership, knowledge-gap or skepticism when it comes to urban mining as well as methods of extractions, but also point to high interest and economic incentives with are in concordance with sustainability aspects. This lead to the conclusion that urban mining shows both possibilities and challenges in Malmö, which proves a challenging but worth implementation. Regarding Kabel-x method, its sustainability aspects and challenges with its implementation, it was concluded that on account of mostly skepticism and knowledge-gap stakeholders proved its implementation challenging but also interesting for urban development.

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The management practices of the hotel industry are under scrutiny for having an adverse impact on the environment. This study addressed the problem that hoteliers in Jamaica only focus on foreign exchange earnings and job creation, rather than on sustainable development in their operations. There is a lack of research on small hoteliers' integration of sustainable practices in their operations. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore and understand the lived experiences of 8 small hotel managers on the effect sustainable practices have on small hotel optimization. The conceptual framework consisted of stakeholder theory and corporate social responsibility. Focusing on small hoteliers' perceptions of sustainable practices, the research questions addressed managers' efforts in preserving the local heritage, maintaining the economic and environment and identifying the challenges. The phenomenological design included 8 small hotel managers who participated in telephone, email and Skype unstructured interviews. The data analysis involved transcribing and coding unstructured interviews which resulted in the emergence of 14 themes and 101 subcategories. Results revealed that successful sustainable practices include providing education on the history, culture, and heritage and respecting the environment. The analysis from the transcripts showed that high cost was one of the primary factors for the lack of sustainable practices in small hotels. The findings also showed that there was a need for government assistance in providing funding and education on the benefits of sustainable practices and development. This study could contribute to new and existing hoteliers, government policymakers and business leaders in sustainable strategic planning and development.

A sustainability plan of an organization is useless without effective leadership in its design and execution. The purpose of this case study was to explore strategies that church leaders having at least 7 continuous years of organizational fiscal sustainability and leadership used to ensure fiscal sustainability. The study included 8 face-to-face and 2 phone interviews with 4 senior pastors, 3 associate pastors, a treasurer, a finance committee chair, and a certified public accountant who lived in the Akron, Ohio area along with a review of documents including a leadership meeting agenda and financial committee meeting agenda, provided by study participants. The transformational leadership theory was used to frame this study. Audio recordings were transcribed and analyzed along with interview notes and publicly available documents to identify themes regarding strategies used by church leaders to successfully achieve fiscal sustainability. Data analysis consisted of coding, thematic analysis, and key word analysis, which resulted in 4 major themes: mentoring strategies, where a pastor might get some good advise from someone knowledgeable about fiscal sustainability; training strategies on subjects like planned giving; education strategies on the use of websites and social media tools to improve the effectiveness of fundraising activities; and the importance of choosing the right leadership style as a strategy in improving fiscal sustainability. These strategies may contribute to social change if they are used by pastors and other church leaders to ensure fiscal sustainability in their organizations. Social implications may include increased attention on the varied benefits of sustainability and their adoption by individuals, businesses, organizations, governments, and society.

Many small real estate business leaders lack effective strategies to resume and sustain operations in a postnatural-disaster environment. This multiple case study investigated strategies that 3 small real estate business leaders in southeastern Louisiana used to resume and sustain operations in the aftermath of a natural disaster. The chaos theory and stakeholder theory were the conceptual frameworks for this study. Data were collected from semistructured interviews, and reviews of business continuity plan documents and member checking. The themes that emerged from data analysis were leaders' strategies relating to business planning and innovation, stakeholder engagement, operations management, and disaster responsiveness. Implications of the findings of this study for social change include identification of effective strategies for increasing the sustainability of small businesses in the real estate industry through implementation of proven business continuity strategies that might help keep communities intact, reestablish commerce, and contribute to regional economic sustainability in the aftermath of a natural disaster.

In the United States, nonprofit organizations (NPOs) face a precarious future because of their heavy reliance on the financial support of government funding, other donor agencies, and philanthropic foundation resources. The purpose of this study is to understand how and to what extent leadership of NPOs can benefit from using funder-required performance data to improve organizational sustainability. Using Pfeffer and Salincik's resource dependency theory to explain organizational sustainability, this qualitative multiple case study of 10 NPOs in a northeastern U.S. state includes 14 interviews with NPO leadership, a document review of NPO 990 tax filings, annual performance reports, and board meeting minutes. All data were inductively coded and then subjected to a thematic analysis procedure. Key findings indicated 6 overarching themes associated with NPO sustainability and funder-required performance measures that impact program sustainability but are mainly used for compliance: (a) NPO adoption and use of performance measures; (b) data collection and evaluation for external compliance; (c) information pertaining to financial, operational, and administrative decision making; (d) NPO leadership decisions regarding internal constructs, operations, and management; (e) resource dependency; and (f) sustainability practices. The implications for positive social change include strategies for NPO leaders to use to ensure survival, continuous community impact, and awareness for policymakers regarding legislative and regulatory developments that may inadvertently harm NPOs.

Energy benchmarking and disclosure policies exist in several local and state governments to manage the energy consumption of existing buildings and encourage energy efficient retrofits and upgrades, yet little is known about whether these efforts have improved overall energy efficiency. The purpose of this repeated-measures study was to examine the influence of New York City's (NYC's) Benchmarking Law (LL84) on the energy performance of the city's existing commercial buildings through investigating whether the energy performance of the city's existing commercial buildings significantly improved after the implementation of this policy. The study was based on Ostrom's institutional analysis and development framework. Paired-sample t tests were performed to statistically analyze the annually disclosed energy benchmarking data for 1,072 of NYC's existing commercial buildings that were benchmarked in both 2011 and 2016. Compared to 2011, the study results revealed statistically significant improvements in the energy performance of NYC's commercial buildings by 2016. On average, their site energy use intensity (EUI) significantly reduced by 5%, source EUI significantly decreased by 10%, greenhouse gas emissions significantly dropped by 12%, and ENERGY STAR performance rating significantly improved by 5%. However, these improvements were primarily achieved in 2012, 1 year after the city's energy benchmarking data were publicly disclosed. Additional measures should be considered to maintain continuous energy savings and greenhouse gas mitigation patterns. Positive social change implications include the potential to promote energy-efficient upgrades and inspire the adoption of sustainable building concepts.