A sustentabilidade das regiões de produção intensiva de suínos depende de destinos alternativos para os resíduos gerados. A calcinação da casca de arroz pode gerar sílica vítrea para substituição parcial de aglomerantes comerciais. A utilização de cinzas de casca de arroz como material pozolânico para argamassas e concretos tem merecido atenção considerável, nos últimos anos, não apenas por melhorar suas propriedades mecânicas, mas, sobretudo pelos benefícios ambientais gerados, com a redução do consumo de clínquer. A falta de sustentabilidade ambiental pode limitar o crescimento econômico da suinocultura, dada a tendência do setor de crescimento concentrado em grandes empreendimentos, e, por conseqüência, do aumento da poluição por dejetos. Assim, barreiras à expansão do setor podem surgir em estados onde o problema ambiental já está instalado, a exemplo de Santa Catarina. Com a busca de alternativas que solucionem ou minorizem tal problema, este trabalho tem como objetivo testar as cinzas de cama sobreposta de suínos à base de casca de arroz, como material alternativo em diferentes proporções de substituição do cimento Portland em argamassas. A cama sobreposta de suínos foi proveniente do município de Rio Verde, Estado de Goiás, onde atualmente são criados 110.000 suínos em sistema de confinamento. As cinzas foram obtidas por calcinação em mufla laboratorial nas temperaturas de 400, 500 e 600ºC, beneficiadas por moagem e, a seguir, passadas na peneira ABNT nº 200 (# 0,074 mm) e nº 325 (# 0,044 mm). A caracterização de cinzas incluiu a determinação do índice de atividade pozolânica com a cal hidratada e com o cimento Portland. As cinzas foram testadas como substitutos parciais de cimento Portland. As argamassas foram preparadas na proporção cimento:areia de 1:1,5 e com fator água-cimento de 0,4. Três porcentagens de substituição do cimento comercial foram usadas: 10, 20 e 30% em massa além das argamassas de referência sem substituição e com 10% de sílica ativa. O desempenho das argamassas foi avaliado aos sete e aos 28 dias com a determinação da resistência à compressão axial com corpos-de-prova cilíndricos de 5 cm x 10 cm e cura por imersão em água. As cinzas da cama sobreposta de suínos, calcinadas a 600ºC e com substituição de até 30% em massa de cimento Portland, produzem argamassa de excelentes propriedades. Quanto à finura do material, foi observada diferença significativa (P<0,05) nas cinzas passantes na peneira ABNT nº 325 queimadas a 600ºC. As resistências das argamassas produzidas com cinzas passantes na peneira ABNT nº 200 e nº 325, com teores de 10, 20 e 30% de substituição, foram superiores às de argamassas com 0% de substituição e com 10% de sílica ativa. / The sustainability of intensive areas of swine production depends on alternative destinations for the generated residues. The calcination of rice husk can generate vitreous silica for partial substitution of commercial agglomerates. The use of rice husk ashes as pozzolanic material for mortars and concretes has deserved considerable attention in the last years, not just for improving their mechanical properties, but also for the environmental benefits linked to the reduction of clinker consumption. The lack of environmental sustainability can limit the economical growth of swine production, due to the tendency for concentration in sites with intensive activity, and, as a consequence, the increase of the contamination by wastes. Thus, barriers to the sector expansion can appear in regions where the environmental problem is already installed as, for example, in Santa Catarina State, Brazil. Aiming alternatives that can solve or decrease such a problem, the objective of this work is to test the ashes of swine deep bedding based on rice husk as an alternative binder in mortars. The swine deep bedding ashes were originated from the district of Rio Verde, State of Goias, where now 110,000 swine are produced in confinement system. The ashes were obtained in a laboratorial furnace at the temperatures of 400, 500 and 600ºC and processed in two granulometric distributions by passing through the nº 200 (# 0.074 mm) and nº 325 (# 0.045 mm) mesh sieve. The ash characterization included the determination of pozzolanic activity index with lime and cement. The husks were tested as partial substitutes of Portland cement. The mortars were prepared in cement:sand proportion of 1:1.5, and with water/cement factor of 0.4. Three percentages of substitution of OPC were used: 10%, 20% and 30% by mass, plus the reference mortars without substitution and with 10% of silica fume. Mortars performance was assessed at seven and 28 days by determining the axial compressive strength with 5 cm x 10 cm cylindrical specimens and cure by immersion in water. The results indicated that the ashes obtained at 600ºC with substitution of up to 30% by mass of Portland cement, produced mortars with excellent properties. There was significant difference (P<0,05) in the ashes by passing through the nº 325 burning of 600ºC. The mechanical strength of mortars produced with ashes passing in the sieve nº 200 and with 10 - 30% of cement substitution was superior to the strength of mortars with 0% of substitution and with 10% of silica fume.

Dois temas de interesse nacional se destacam: a preocupação com o meio ambiente e o processo de internacionalização de empresas brasileiras. O primeiro deles explora a sustentabilidade do planeta, com recorrente alusão às externalidades negativas provocadas pelos negócios e o consumo de uma sociedade global e afluente. No segundo, noticia-se a respeito do sucesso e contribuição das exportações como alavanca do desenvolvimento do país. A respeito desses dois temas uma pergunta se apresenta: seria pertinente explicar que o atual sucesso de nossas exportações possui influências fundamentadas na responsabilidade ambiental, em particular as práticas de gestão ambiental na corporação exportadora? Assim, a intenção deste estudo foi verificar empiricamente se as boas práticas de gestão ambiental influenciavam o sucesso nas exportações das grandes empresas exportadoras brasileiras listadas em publicação especializada. O estudo foi dividido em duas fases: na primeira, fundamentado na teoria, desenvolveu-se um modelo teórico utilizando a metodologia de modelagem de equações estruturais, para ser confirmado através de pesquisa de campo. Por intermédio de questionários preenchidos pelos responsáveis pelas áreas de gestão ambiental e exportações escolhidos por conveniência, 59 empresas melhor posicionadas, por valor exportado, participaram no levantamento dentre diversos setores,abrangendo operações no período 2005 a 2007. Os principais resultados evidenciam que as empresas participantes na pesquisa apresentam certa maturidade na condução dos negócios pensando na sustentabilidade ambiental, dentre outros pontos fortes. Porém foram percebidas fraquezas como: não se valem da rotulagem ambiental para comunicar seu compromisso ambiental; poucas utilizam a análise de ciclo de vida (ACV), ou comparam resultados ambientais com seus pares ou outros setores econômicos; a grande preocupação dessas empresas é adaptar ambientalmente os produtos exportados às exigências legais dos países importadores. No desenvolvimento da modelagem foi usado o software SmartPLS que se baseia em equações estruturais; a associação (no caso influência) direta entre o constructo Boas Práticas e o Sucesso Exportações apresentou correlação negativa, portanto foi desprezada. Foi testada variável moderadora que explicou a influência indireta entre os efeitos das boas práticas de gestão ambiental com os investimentos de P&D e promoção, com alto grau de confiabilidade interna e razoável significância. / Two themes of national interest stand out: the concern with the environment and the process of internationalization of Brazilian companies. The first explores the sustainability of our planet, with appealing allusion to the negative externalities provoked by businesses and consumption of a global and flowing society. In the second, regards the success and contribution of exports as a lever of the development of a country. From these two issues a question arises: do corporation´s environmental responsibility influences the current export firms? The aim of this study is to verify empirically if the best practices of environmental administration influences the success of the greater Brazilian exporter. The study was divided in two phases: in the first, based in the literature theory, a theoretical model was build using the structural equations modeling methodology, to be confirmed through field research (the second phase). Questionnaires filled out by the responsible by the areas of environmental administration and exports department chosen by convenience, 59 companies better positioned, by exported amount in the period 2005 to 2007. The main results evidences that the participant companies in the research present certain environmental sustainability in the business context among other strong points. However there are weaknesses as: companies are not been worth of the environmental label to communicate environmental commitment; too few firms use the life-cycle analysis (LCA), or too few also compare environmental results with their pairs or companies from other economical sections; the great concern of those companies is to adapt environmentally the products exported obeying to the legal demands of the countries importers. In the development of the modeling the software SmartPLS was used to build structural equations models; results show that there are no direct influence between environmental best practices construct and the export success: it was found negative correlation; therefore it was despised. A new test was conducted under a variable moderator that explained the indirect influence among the effects of the good practices of environmental administration with the R&D investments and promotion, with high reliability and reasonable significance.

The remote sensing technology is increasingly being used to study land use and vegetation cover changes and identify changes that has occur through different land use activities which may have negative impact on the sustainability of the environment, biodiversity protection and conservation. With increase in population growth rate in Sudan, there has been an increase for food crop production with agriculture playing a prominent role in livelihood security for the increasing population.   The increase use of irrigation and mechanisation has brought about an increase in demand for agricultural land use in Sudan with the conversion of other land use types and vegetation for agricultural land use. This does have effect and impact on the vegetation and environment with the country highly exposed to the incidence of environmental and social hazards and disasters including drought and desertification, deforestations, floods, loss of biodiversity, ethnic conflicts and poverty.   The research study work focused on agricultural land use changes in the country with the aim of investigating the agricultural land use changes that has occurred in the country from 1986 to 2002 using the remote sensing technique. This is important for agricultural land use planning and sustainability monitoring to reduce the negative impact of agricultural land use for crop production and increase long term resource use and environmental sustainability. Two remote sensing methods were used for the classification analysis to identify the land use changes namely the NDVI and the parallelepiped classification techniques. The NDVI method was used to identify the changes in the agricultural land use vegetation cover classes and determine the magnitude of changes in land area use that has occurred from 1986 to 2002 when the former and latter remote sensing images were acquired. The parallelepiped classification technique was however used to identify the aggregate agricultural land use changes in the area of study and conversion to and from other categories of land use. A qualitative analytic technique was also used to identify the possible causes of the changes that have occurred in Sudan in the study period using empirical materials.   The research study result gives information on the role the remote sensing technology can play in analyzing land use cover changes for agricultural land use sustainability monitoring.

Le soja est l'un des produits alimentaires les plus importants et en croissance rapide sur le marché mondial. Grace à l'introduction de variétés de soja GM, l'Argentine est devenue le troisième producteur mondial, ce qui a entraîné des impacts relevant au niveau environnemental, social et économique. Objectif de l'étude est d'évaluer la résilience sociale des communautés rurales cultivant du soja en Argentine et d'évaluer la durabilité actuelle du système du soja. Au même temps, l'analyse de l'expansion de la production de soja de l’Amérique latine vers les pays africains représente un élément de continuité dans l'évaluation du phénomène au niveau mondial. Le cas d’étude du système de soja en Argentine - fortement influencé par l'introduction des OGM et par les changements qui en découlent dans l'utilisation des terres, la modernisation et l'organisation du travail - avec son accent particulier sur les communautés rurales, souligne que la résilience sociale et la résilience écologique sont étroitement interconnectées pour garantir la durabilité sociale, qui, à son tour, est en corrélation étroite avec la durabilité environnementale et économique. Le secteur agricole argentin a montré une bonne capacité d'adaptation et de réorganisation démontrant être économiquement performant, mais les coûts sociaux et environnementaux qui en découlent sont lourds, consistant en une perturbation profonde de la structure originaire des communautés rurales et de l'écosystème naturel. Le système du soja est extrêmement rigide - en raison de la hyper spécialisation et de la dépendance marquée de l'exportation - ce qui le rend très vulnérable aux changements de la demande internationale de soja. Le système actuel est fortement critiqué par la société civile, le blâmant d'être la cause de problèmes environnementaux et de risques pour la santé humaine. Pour contraster efficacement les conséquences négatives du modèle du soja, un rôle important doit être joué par les politiques, qui devraient définir des mesures de développement durable pour améliorer la résilience des communautés rurales et favoriser une transition vers des systèmes de production alimentaire plus durables / Soy is one of the most important and fast growing food commodities in the global market. Thanks to the introduction of GM soy varieties, Argentina has become the third producer in the world, what entailed significant impacts at environmental, social and economic level. Objective of the study is to assess the social resilience of the rural communities cultivating soy in Argentina and to evaluate the current sustainability of the soy system. At the same time, the analysis of the expansion of the soy production from Latin America to African countries represents an element of continuity in the evaluation of the phenomenon at global level. The case study of the soy system in Argentina – strongly influenced by the introduction of GMOs and the consequent changes in land use, modernization and work organization – with its specific focus on rural communities, highlights how strongly social and ecological resilience are intertwined in the identification of mechanisms to guarantee social sustainability, which, in turn, is strictly interrelated with environmental and economic sustainability. The agricultural sector showed a good capacity of adaptation and reorganization demonstrating being economically performing, but social and environmental costs were heavy, consisting in a deep disruption of the original rural communities structure and of the original natural ecosystem. The soy system appears extremely rigid – because of the hyper specialization and the marked dependence on export – what makes it very vulnerable to changes in the international demand for soy. The current system is strongly criticized by the civil society, blaming it to be the cause of environmental problems and of health risks. To effectively contrast the negative consequences of the soy model, a significant role must be played by policy makers, who should define sustainability policies to enhance the resilience of the rural communities and to move towards more sustainable food production systems.

A cidade é palco dos grandes conflitos e dos grandes problemas contemporâneos. Mais que mero cenário, no entanto, o espaço urbano é um elemento ativo na formação da história da cidade. Para além de sua existência física e material, o território urbano é um código de significação e subjetividade. Ele é responsável por favorecer ou dificultar as trocas entre cidadãos, as transformações sociais que se estabelecem ao longo do tempo, a qualidade de vida da população. Como a cidade está em contínuo movimento, existe uma relação que ultrapassa a ordem funcional entre os grupos sociais e o espaço urbano. É nela que o Homem pode projetar sua identidade, situar sua presença no mundo, exercer sua cidadania. Cidadania nasce na cidade. A civilidade supõe o bom convívio urbano e civil, que ultrapassa o controle de normas e autoridades. Civilização é poder viver em uma cidade na qual, de um lado, injustiças sociais sejam combatidas e, de outro, as mais diversas aspirações individuais possam ser atingidas. O desafio do planejamento urbano atual consiste, dessa forma, na organização do espaço não para reprimi-lo, mas para favorecer o diálogo entre diferentes etnias, classes, carreiras, estilos. Permitir a comunicação entre espaços públicos e privados. Revitalizar a relação entre o indivíduo, o coletivo e a natureza. Tornar a cidade sustentável. Este trabalho aborda essas questões, analisando a sustentabilidade como um instrumento na busca de melhor qualidade ambiental urbana. Além disso, apresenta uma metodologia para o planejamento urbano sustentável, aplicada no estudo de caso sobre Poços de Caldas, em Minas Gerais. / The city is the stage of great conflicts and great contemporary problems. More than a mere scenario, the urban environment is an active element in the formation of the history of the city. Beyond its physical and material existence, the urban territory is a code of meaning and subjectivity. It is responsible for favoring or making difficult the exchange between citizens, the social changes throughout the time, and the standard of life of the population. As the city is in continuous movement, it comes out a relationship that exceeds the functional order between the social groups and the urban environment. At this place, the human being can project its identity, point out his presence in the world, and exert his citizenship. The citizenship is born in the city. The civility assumes urban and civil conviviality that exceeds the control of standards and authorities. Civilization is a way of being able to live in a city in which social injustices are fought as well as the most diverse individual aspirations can be reached. Therefore, the challenge of the current urban planning consists in the organization of the environment - not to suppress it, but to favor the dialogue between different etnias, social standards, careers, and styles. Furthermore it should allow the communication between public and private environments, revitalize the relationships between the individuals, the collective and the nature, and turn the city sustainable. This work focuses these questions, analyzing the sustainability as an instrument for searching a better quality of the urban environment. Moreover, it presents a methodology for the sustainable urban planning, applied to Poços de Caldas, in Minas Gerais.

Title: The Role of Organizational Culture on Green Marketing Level: Final Thesis for Master’s Degree Program Authors: Lucia Gido Chuwa  and Ukpemeobong Usen Ibokette Supervisor: Dr. Daniella Fjellström Examiner: Dr. Maria Fregidou-Malama Date: June 2020   Aim: The aim of this study is to explore the influence of organizational culture on green marketing. Method: This study applies a qualitative research approach on seven selected companies in Sweden and Nigeria.  We interviewed seven people using seven semi-structured interview questions and we carried out thematic data analysis by grouping the findings into common themes to guide our discussion. Result &amp; Conclusions: This study concludes that organizational culture influence implementation of green marketing as it dictates what happens within the organization and how it happens. The organization that embraces environmental values in its culture needs to disseminate it to all employees to create common understanding and commitment towards its implementation. We also discovered a lower level of customer awareness on green marketing which requires more efforts by organizations and stakeholders to create this awareness or advocacy which will help firms investing on green marketing to sell their products. Suggestions for future research: We suggest a future study which could complement this study using a bigger sample size. We also propose a comparative future study which may help to highlight how implementation of green marketing in developed countries like Sweden differs from the developing countries like Nigeria. Furthermore, we suggest an explorative study on how best the customer awareness on green marketing can be enhanced so that to support green marketing. Contribution of the thesis: This study contributes to the body of knowledge about organizational culture, environmental sustainability and green marketing through highlighting how organizational culture influence implementation of different components of green marketing mix, which was an underexplored area. We also contribute that customer awareness is an important aspect to encourage green marketing Key words: Green marketing, green marketing mix, organizational culture, Sweden, Nigeria, environmental sustainability and Natural Resource Based View Theory.

abstract: Firms have increasingly taken on the commitment to sustainability due to environmental and social concerns. Environmental and social sustainability can create firm value and social welfare through cost reduction and revenue growth. While indicating a desire to do more, firms face challenges while engaging with stakeholders in their supply chains – suppliers and consumers. Suppliers are key partners to achieve cost reduction while customers can be the driver for revenue growth. If firms do not overcome the challenges properly, such a win-win situation of both firms and their supply chain stakeholders may not exist. This dissertation aims to understand and suggest ways to overcome the challenges which firms and their supply chain stakeholders face while collaboratively pursuing sustainability. In the first essay, I investigate the financial impact of a buyer-initiated supplier-focused sustainability improvement program on suppliers’ profitability. The results indicate that a supplier sustainability program may lead to short-term financial loss but long-term financial gain for suppliers, and this effect is contingent on supplier slack resources. The second essay of this dissertation focuses on the consumers and investigates their reactions to two types of firm environmental sustainability claims – sustainable production versus sustainable consumption. The results indicate that firm sustainable consumption claims increase consumers’ purchase, thus leads to larger firm sales, whereas firm sustainable production claims decrease consumers’ buying intention, then result in smaller firm sales. Therefore, I show that, contrary to extant belief, firm environmental sustainability can decrease consumers’ intention to buy. Finally, a firm may be impacted when some of its upstream or downstream stakeholders, or its own operations, are impacted by a natural disaster, which are becoming more frequent due to climate change. In the third essay I study the joint effect of market attention and donation timing on firm stock returns based on the experiences of firms who donated to the 2017 Hurricane Harvey. I conclude that neither the first donors nor the followers can mitigate the negative stock returns due to disasters. However, firms who match their donation timing with market attention experience less negative stock market returns compared to other counterparts. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2020

Att modeindustrin har stor inverkan på miljön har varit känt inom industrin sedan decennier och allmänhetens medvetenhet ökar för varje år. I övergången mellan retorik och praktik, där konsumenter allt mer kräver transparens kring faktiska åtgärder snarare än retoriska eller performativa hållbarhetsinitiativ, uppstår ett behov av studier kring hur företag arbetar eller kan arbeta med hållbarhet i praktiken. Tidigare forskning identifierar inköpsfunktionen som en vital funktion för företag att agera hållbart. Inom modeinköp saknas forskning som återger ett helhetsperspektiv på inköparens arbete med gröna inköp. Tidigare forskning menar att inköparens beslut har en direkt påverkan på miljön, dock saknas forskning som undersöker hur stort utrymme inköpare inom modebranschen har att fatta gröna inköpsbeslut. Föreliggande studie syftar till att undersöka vilket utrymme inköparen har att ta beslut som påverkar miljömässig hållbarhet (i sitt företag) samt kartlägga var i inköpsprocessen inköparens miljömässiga hållbarhetspraktiker utförs. Syftet har genererat tre frågeställningar; (I) Vilken agens har inköpare på svenska modeföretag att ta beslut relaterade till miljömässig hållbarhet? (II) Vilka faktorer påverkar inköpares agens att ta hållbara beslut? (III) I vilken/vilka fas(er) av inköpsprocessen har inköpare möjlighet att vidta miljömässiga hållbarhetsåtgärder? Syftet och forskningsfrågorna undersöktes med utgångspunkt i en undersökningsmodellen baserad på en sammanlänkad version av Min och Galles (1997) ramverk för hållbara inköpsstrategier, med tillägg av leverantörshantering, samt van Weeles (2018) modell för inköpsprocessen. Undersökningsmodellen visar de tre huvudsakliga rollerna och aspekterna som påverkar gröna inköpsstrategier, samt att dessa även påverkar varandra. Vidare möjliggjorde modellen kategorisering av miljömässiga hållbarhetsåtgärder vidtagna av inköpare i inköpsprocessen. Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ datainsamlingsmetod för att besvara forskningsfrågorna och syftet. Det empiriska materialet samlades in genom sju semistrukturerade intervjuer på svenska modeföretag. Åtta informanter med yrkestiteln inköpare eller som verkade inom inköpsfunktionen intervjuades. Intervjuerna återspeglar de miljömässiga hållbarhetsåtgärder som förekommer inom inköpsprocessen för den specifika inköparen. Resultatet går därmed inte att likställa med företagens hållbarhetsarbete inom hela verksamheten. Resultatet och analysen visade att inköpare på de undersökta företagen hade varierande agens som påverkades främst av företagsstorlek. Kartläggningen av inköpsprocessen visade att samtliga hade agens att vidta miljömässiga hållbarhets åtgärder i orderläggningsfasen och sju av åtta hade agens i specifikationsfasen. En minoritet av inköparna kunde vidta åtgärder vid leverantörsval. / The substantial impact the fashion industry has on the environment has been commonly accepted in the industry for decades and public awareness is increasing every year. As consumers are increasingly demanding transparency on outcome from interventions, rather than performative sustainability initiatives, there is now a need for studies focusing on how businesses can work with sustainability in practice. Previous research identifies the purchasing function as a vital component for companies to act sustainably. In fashion purchasing, there is a shortage of research which reflects a holistic perspective on green purchasing. Previous research argues that the decisions buyers make have a direct impact on the environment. However, there is a lack of research that examines what agency buyers in the fashion industry have in order to make green purchasing decisions. The purpose of this study is to investigate to what degree a buyer or purchaser can make decisions which affect environmental sustainability within their company and where in the purchasing process they take place. The purpose has generated the following research questions; (I) What agency do buyers/purchasers in Swedish fashion companies have to make decisions that affect environmental sustainability? (II) Which factors affect the buyers/purchasers agency to make sustainable decisions? (III) In which phase/phases of the purchasing process is there a possibility for a buyer/purchaser to make sustainable decisions? The purpose and the research questions were studied with support from an analytical framework based on a combination of the Min and Galle (1997) framework for sustainable purchasing strategies, with an addition of supplier management, and van Weele´s (2018) purchasing process model. The analytical framework shows the three main roles and aspects that affect green purchasing strategies, and how they affect each other. Furthermore the analytical framework facilitated the categorization of environmentally sustainable actions taken by the buyer/purchaser in the purchasing process. The study has been conducted using qualitative data to answer the research questions and the purpose. Empirical material was collected from seven semi-constructed interviews with employees at swedish fashion companies, whose job title included ‘purchaser’ or were working within the purchasing function of the company. The interviews reflect the environmentally sustainable measures taken in the purchasing process by the individual. The result can thus not be equated with the companies' overall sustainability work. Analysis of the data showed that purchasers working at the investigated companies had varying agency to make environmentally sustainable decisions, which was mainly explained by the company size. The mapping of the purchasing process showed that all of the purchasers within the investigated companies had agency to make environmentally sustainable decisions within the ordering phase and seven out of eight had agency in the specification phase. A minority of the purchasers could make environmentally sustainable decisions in the supplier selection phase.

No description available.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore green sourcing in supply chain management by the example of two large organisations. Design/methodology/approach – This study followed an iterative cycle of reviewing literature and empirics as well as conducting analysis and discussion. The literature gathered for this thesis was collected by reviewing ten academic journals as well as publications found through database search. Empirical data was collected from two case organisations, ABB Robotics and Vattenfall, through interviews, internal documents and public statements. The empirical data was analysed separately for each case organisation by use of an analytical model constructed from the literature findings. Thereafter, similarities and differences between the organisations were discussed as well as the thesis’ contributions to green sourcing literature. Findings – We found that although both ABB Robotics and Vattenfall incorporate environmental sustainability to some degree in their respective sourcing processes, their individual performance differed. The main difference between the organisations was found to be the visibility and managerial drive towards the realisation of environmental goals within the sourcing department. From our observations, it was found that Vattenfall to a large extent embraced their environmental goals and that these trickled down to the sourcing department. ABB Robotics on the other hand had numerous environmental goals on corporate level but these lacked visibility in the sourcing department. In comparison to our literature findings is was found that for environmental goals, Vattenfall was in more alignment with the suggestions by the scholars. For the other identified areas important for green sourcing, that being supplier assessment, supplier performance evaluation and supplier collaboration, both organisations were more aligned with our literature findings. Practical implications – In this thesis, four primary elements of green sourcing have been identified: environmental goals, supplier assessment, supplier performance evaluation, and supplier collaborations. Out of these, we found that the first element, environmental goals, is an enabler for the other elements of green sourcing to further evolve and is therefore essential for green sourcing. Originality/value – By looking beyond public statements and policies of environmental sustainability, this thesis has provided a unique insight in how two large organisations have implemented environmental sustainability in practice, from a sourcing perspective.