Browsing by Author "Raittinen, Elliroosa"

The importance of corporate responsibility (CR) has increased, and it has become significant for all industries and companies. The Finnish sawmill industry has acknowledged the issue of environmental impact and responsibility for many decades. As the general awareness of CR has increased on the global level, the management and understanding of CR have developed as well in the sawmill industry. The focus of this thesis was to reveal the medium size sawmills’ managers attitudes to CR, and how the CR goals have been realized in the sawmills, and how the UN’s Sustainable development goals (SDGs) are represented in the sawmills’ CR strategies and realizations. The second target was to exam the development of CR in sawmill industry in the last ten years. The thesis is a qualitative research. The empirical data was collected by interviewing the managers of medium-sized sawmills in Finland between January and March 2020. The interviewing method based on semi-structured theme interview and the data analysis combined the qualitative and the thematic analyse methods. Based on the results, the interviewed managers perceive CR generally positive, and they see CR as a positive push-effect on the companies’ research and development processes. The managers found out that the most efficient way for medium size sawmills to execute CR is by integrating CR into the company’s strategy and daily operating processes. According to the sawmill managers, CR and business should be seen as a whole, and CR should be seen in every business sector of the company. The focus of sawmills’ CR actions is based on environmental and social responsibility. The economic responsibility was hard to define by the sawmill managers. The executed CR actions on sawmills are compatible with SDGs. Based on the findings, the most important SDGs in sawmills industry are Good health and well-being, Decent work and economic growth, Responsible consumption and production, Climate action, as well as, Life on land. The most significant change has happened in the shareholders’ awareness of CR. Furthermore, climate change and the loss of biodiversity have become more visible in general discussions and in companies’ CR actions. However, there is lack of CR marketing resources in Finnish medium size sawmills, which could be solved by cooperating with other companies and the Finnish sawmill federation. After the comparison of the findings to the previous literature, it could be concluded that Finnish sawmill industry is still on the reactive CR level with their CR, even if their attitudes have turned slightly more towards proactive CR level during the last decade.