Browsing by Author "Blom, Heidi"

The significance of preventing the climate change in cities and urban areas is nowadays increasingly recognized. The increasing relevance of urban areas in climate policy has created new opportunities for collaboration between the private and public sector. The non-state actors have often a key role when climate policy is implemented locally in urban areas. The Ilmastokumppanit project is founded by Helsinki city and it is a part of the activities that aims for a carbon neutral Helsinki. This thesis explores the motivations, drivers and barriers to implement climate actions and to participate in the voluntary Ilmastokumppanit project among companies. The thesis was carried out using qualitative content analysis and only companies from the Ilmastokumppanit project were used as the target group to improve the comparativity. The supportive members in the project were not accepted as a part of the target group. The data for the thesis were collected as semi-structured expert interviews which were recorded, transcribed and coded. Deductive content analysis and a framework examining the reasons behind the climate actions of the UK FTSE 100 companies was used to analyse the data. The framework categorizes the reasons behind the climate actions into motivations, drivers and barriers which is subdivided into themes. The interviewees highlighted for-profit activities, networking, corporate responsibilities and remaining competitive in the future as motivators. Drivers were less identified and the interviewees highlighted factors related to climate-friendly activities as a manifestation of their time and the need for networking. Factors related to legislative issues and the low oil price were identified as barriers. The framework lacks internal factors influencing the company and creating a new theme to the motivations titled employee pressure or internal pressures should be considered. Several factors were raised which influence the willingness of companies to act in the field of climate issues and to participate in networks. The results might be interesting to those leading the Ilmastokumppanit project. It would be useful to examine the legislative barriers more comprehensively to facilitate wider climate actions.