IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/seaccj/v44y2024i3p193-216.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Taking Carbon into Account in Capital Budgeting: A Field Study of Municipal Energy Companies in Finland

Author

Listed:
  • Timo Hyvönen
  • Matias Laine
  • Jukka Pellinen

Abstract

Climate change represents a fundamental challenge for human societies. The use of fossil fuels (e.g. coal, oil, gas and peat) in industry, transportation and energy production plays a substantial role in accelerating global warming. This qualitative field study draws on interview data to explore how Finnish municipal energy companies, which are often dependent on fossil fuels, take carbon into account when planning long-term investments. The study focuses on six middle-sized local energy companies, all of which have recently made substantial investments in their power plants. Our results indicate that carbon emissions have emerged as a significant environmental consideration for these organisations. Drawing on the theoretical approaches of institutional isomorphism and epistemic communities, we discuss how different institutional pressures, as well as social and technological carriers of ideas, have influenced the development of practices in the sector. Given the need for a major sustainability transition across the economy, the findings of this study point to the importance of understanding the role of epistemic communities and various carriers of ideas in different settings, as well as of exploring how these elements could be used to accelerate change in key organisational fields.

Suggested Citation

  • Timo Hyvönen & Matias Laine & Jukka Pellinen, 2024. "Taking Carbon into Account in Capital Budgeting: A Field Study of Municipal Energy Companies in Finland," Social and Environmental Accountability Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(3), pages 193-216, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:seaccj:v:44:y:2024:i:3:p:193-216
    DOI: 10.1080/0969160X.2024.2337655
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/0969160X.2024.2337655
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/0969160X.2024.2337655?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:seaccj:v:44:y:2024:i:3:p:193-216. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/REAJ20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.