Collaborating for energy efficiency in Swedish shipping industry: interrelating practice and challenges

Abstract

As achieving environmental sustainability is a complex problem, it is often recognized that no organization can accomplish this systemic change by itself; thus, multi-actor collaboration is needed. Regarding the specific issue of increased energy efficiency, previous research has highlighted the need for collaboration and knowledge exchange among actors. However, insights from literature suggest that despite all the good intentions, establishing multi-actor collaboration can be both complicated and difficult to achieve in practice. In this paper, an in-depth qualitative, ethnographic-inspired study of an emerging collaboration aiming for increased energy efficiency within the shipping industry is used as a foundation to better understand the practices and challenges involved in the organizing of multi-actor collaboration. The findings reveal how the interrelating of collaboration practices and experienced challenges influenced the development of the collaboration. The paper contributes to the current discussion on how to organize for sustainable development. Also, practitioners managing and participating in multi-actor collaborations addressing complex societal issues can benefit from the findings.