Sustainability: Towards a Common Understanding - Case study of an international logistics chain between Sweden and Brazil

Abstract

In pace with a growing awareness of sustainability, companies have started to adapt this concept into their corporate strategies. But today’s lack of a common understanding of the concept based upon the specific industry and resources available, results in segmented and dispersed strategies. If businesses can realise what distinguishes perceptions of sustainability between industries and countries, the path towards a common understanding of the concept and mutual contributions to it will be considerably improved. In order to investigate these different approaches, a case study is conducted, focusing on an international logistics chain of a Swedish trading company within the forest industry. Findings suggest three major aspects causing variation in the perception of sustainability. Primarily, sustainability’s long-term orientation is problematic to adapt in Brazil. Rather, a short-term vision dominates people’s perceptions, which in a business context means that profits and costs are the only important drivers. In Sweden, businesses have reached a next stage where consideration to sustainability is crucial for survival. Secondly, sustainability actions are stakeholder driven, where customers are the strongest force for changes and therefore cause imbalances due to their different impacts. Thirdly, poor institutional management complicates processes of sustainability. Despite significant discrepancies among the countries, a unification of standards towards sustainability for all actors within a logistics chain is not only desired from interviewed parties, but may also stand as a potential solution to how overall efficiency of sustainability is founded.