Strategisk handlerum til grønne opgaver: En undersøgelse af den grønne omstilling i en svømmehal og på et bibliotek

Abstract

Climate change is a global crisis that threatens the human conditions all over the world. The progress towards a more sustainably way of life for all sectors is therefore a challenge that we face in politics, in business, in the public sector, and as individuals. In Denmark the government has set up ambitious sustainability goals, and likewise has the politicians in the city of Copenhagen. These goals are mainly directed to the transition towards green energy and green transportation. To achieve these goals, every part of the society must be able to make a transition towards sustainability. This thesis examines how this transition is carried out in one of the city’s public libraries and in a public swimming pool.

The focus in the thesis is to investigate the two organizations “primary task” and whether this task leaves a “scope for action” to perform activities that can help reduce the impact on climate change. Besides this the analysis also investigates which prerequisites that needs to be in place to perform transitional change activity in the two organizations. In doing so the analysis investigates the specific roles, resources and skills in the two organizations and examens their ability to perform green task as an extension of their primary tasks. The analysis also investigates in which way the two organizations work with incremental og radical innovations in performing green tasks. The analysis of these topics is based primarily on interviews with leaders and employees in the organization as well with citizen using the library and the public swimming pool frequently.

The analysis shows that the primary task in both organizations is relative stabile but that some transition can be detected newer the less. It also shows that the performing of green tasks is easiest to accomplish, if there is a clear connection between the primary task and the green task. For example, if an initiative is valuably for both the economy and the environment at the same time. It is also shown that the primary focus in the two organizations is on incremental innovation. In this regard the analysis finds that it is crucial to have a strong operational capacity in the specific combination of roles, resources and skills to exercise transformative agency. Finally, it is discussed in which way the two organizations can expand their scope of action to perform green tasks. Here the analysis points to three specific strategies which are: 1. Mobilizing external resources to expand the organizations own capability to analyze the complex issues of how to reduce the use of fossil fuels. 2. Use external communication to create legitimacy to perform more green tasks. 3. Undertake a more activistic leadership approach to change the organization towards a more sustainably future.