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Abstract
Although the dioxin alarm broke at the same time in Sweden and the US in the mid-1980s, Swedish pulp and paper (P&P) firms led the way towards the new market for low-chlorine and chlorine-free P&P products. This study explores the transition in the Swedish P&P industry and contrasts the Swedish case to the US experience. We highlight the importance of already established technological paths to deal with pollution, paths which were strongly formed by the different national environmental policies since the 1970s. Thus while US P&P firms were technologically locked-in when the dioxin alarm broke, the strategy of Swedish P&P firms to proactively collaborate in environmental research and development (R&D) together with a national policy that favoured process integrated abatement technology, helped Swedish firms take technological leadership. This article particularly stresses the implications of technological path-dependency and different national regulatory styles in understanding the evolution of different modes of corporate environmental strategies.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the anonymous referees for their comments, which have been improving the manuscript considerably. We would also like to thank the participants of a session at the European Business History Association Conference in Uppsala, 22–24 August 2013 for valuable and inspiring comments.
Notes
This work was supported by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency [2226-13]; Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (The Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences) [P10-0997:1]; and Ragnar Söderberg foundation (nr. E27/10).
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50. Smith, The US Paper Industry, 133.
51. CitationGunningham, “Environment Law,” 4. In contrast to Sweden, heavy reliance has generally been placed on the design (Best Available Technology [BAT]) or specification standards (which stipulate duty holders exactly what measures to take) rather than on performance (emission level) standards. The Clean Air Act set ambitious national goals for air quality, and in order to guard against ‘agency capture’ of the American EPA, the congress used the ‘hammer clause’ which gave the EPA a strict compliance deadline for its implementation, a strategy that industry considered to be unreasonable (Wallace, Environmental Policy, 114).
52. CitationUekötter, The Age of Smoke, 114 ff.
53. See e.g. CitationYarime, “Promoting Green Innovation”; CitationKemp and Soete, “Inside the Green Box.”
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55. Ibid.
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62. Ibid.
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65. Today Innventia AB.
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69. Jerkeman, Bokslut.
70. Bergquist and Söderholm, “Green Innovation.”
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72. Smith, The US Paper Industry, 134.
73. Ibid., 133.
74. Ibid., 136 ff.
75. When the basic research of IVL and STFI primarily aimed at clarifying the biological effects and chemical composition of the bleach plant wastewater, SSVL had greater focus on process technologies for reducing emissions, although these areas of knowledge – which not least the organisation of the SSVL projects bear witness of – are strongly connected with each other.
76. CitationSSVL, Klorid i återvinningssystem; CitationSSVL, Miljövänlig tillverkning av blekt massa; CitationSSVL, Miljö 90. See also Eriksson, STFIs öden och äventyr, 272.
77. SSVL, Klorid i återvinningssystem, 13.
78. Söderholm and Bergquist, “Growing Green.”
79. The organisation was co-funded by the Nordic countries and operated under the Nordic Council of Ministers, now Nordic Innovation.
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81. SSVL, Miljövänlig tillverkning av blekt massa, 5.
82. Jerkeman, Bokslut, 13.
83. Smith, The US Paper Industry, 136.
84. SSVL, Miljövänlig tillverkning av blekt massa, 7.
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86. SSVL, Miljö 90.
87. Ibid.
88. Waluszewski and Håkansson, “Das Plagiat.”
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97. Waluszewski and Håkansson, ‘Das Plagiat’.
98. This was initially, already in the 1940s, motivated by economic reasons but soon also environmental.
99. Söderholm and Bergquist, “Growing Green.”
100. SSVL, Miljö 90 (see e.g. section 5.3).
101. SSVL, Miljö 90, 19.
102. The ‘chlorine-free’ level was in fact allowed to contain 0.5 kg AOX/tonnage of pulp (Waluszewski and Håkansson, “Das Plagiat,” 224).
103. Waluszewski and Håkansson, “Das Plagiat,” 224.
104. CitationBingel, Sjöberg, and Sjöquist, Från defensiv.
105. Waluszewski and Håkansson, “Das Plagiat,” 223.
106. CitationHardell, “Säldöden.”
107. Environmental issues played a central role in the election and the Green Party entered the Swedish parliament. About the ‘Environmental election’ in 1988, see e.g. CitationGiljam and Holmerg, Rött blått grönt.
108. Centre for Business History, Stockholm, Archive entity: Swedish Forest Industries Federation, Minutes from the Environmental Committee, Protocol No 2, 1990, Appendix 3. Hultman, “Marketing the Environment.”
109. Centre for Business History, Stockholm, Archive entity: Swedish Forest Industries Federation, Minutes from the Environmental Committee 1988–1990, Protocol No 6, 1989.
110. Ibid.
111. Ibid.
112. Smith, The US Paper Industry.
113. Ibid.
114. Gunningham et al., Different Shades, 16.
115. Reinstaller, “Policy Entrepreneurship,” 1380.
116. CitationPowell, Control of Dioxins, 12.
117. Gunningham et al., Different Shades, 59.
118. CitationKonrad, Ecologically Sound Production?, 49; CitationFloegel, “The Medium,” 106.
119. Smith, The US Paper Industry, 131.
120. For a detailed accounting, see CitationPowell, Control of Dioxins.
121. CitationPowell, Control of Dioxins, 4.
122. Norberg-Bohm and Rossi, “The Power,” 231.
123. Smith, The US Paper Industry, 131f.
124. CitationHåkanson and Waluszewski, “Path Dependency.”
125. Floegel, “The Medium,” 106.
126. Reinstaller, “Policy Entrepreneurship,” 1377–1378.
127. CitationPatrick, “TCF Driven by Sound,” 9.
128. Norberg-Bohm and Rossi, “The Power,” 231.
129. Harrison, “Ideas and Environmental,” 73.
130. Ibid.
131. CitationYoung, “Louisiana-Pacifics,” 61.
132. Norberg-Bohm and Rossi, “The Power,” 235.
133. Ibid., 239.
134. Ibid., 230.
135. The majority of the Nordic mills that had switched to TCF in 1994 were of Swedish origin. Only two mills in Finland and two mills in the US had then opted for TCF (Reinstaller, “Policy Entrepreneurship,” 1373).
136. Reinstaller, “The Technological Transition.”
137. Rodden, G. “TCF is here to stay at Södra”. Pulp and Paper International Magazine Okt. 1 (2002) http://www.risiinfo.com/magazines/October/2002/PPI/pulp-paper/magazine/international/october/2002/TCF-is-here-to.html
138. CitationHarrison, “Stora's Skoghall,” 77.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Ann-Kristin Bergquist
Ann-Kristin Bergquist is Associate Professor at the Department of Geography and Economic History at Umea˚ University.
Kristina Söderholm
Kristina Söderholm is a Professor at the Department of Business Administration, Technology and Social Science at Luleå University of Technology.