Motivations for setting science-based targets for environmental impacts in eight Swedish sustainability frontrunner companies

The aim of this study was to find out if, how and in particular why companies are setting science-based goals and targets related to the Planetary boundaries framework (PBs), the Science-Based Target initiative (SBTi) and the Science-Based Targets Network (SBTN) guidelines, or science-based targets more broadly, for environmental impacts. A sub-question was what role culture, in particular values of people and companies, might play for that. A sample of eight sustainability frontrunner companies with awareness of the Planetary boundaries framework was investigated with a predominantly qualitative method. The results showed that the companies have several motivations for setting science-based targets, mostly related to the fact that they are, want to be and want to be seen as leaders in tackling sustainability issues and that science-based targets can contribute to that. The most important motives were related to the company's identity, brand and core values, expectations from stakeholders, to be strategic and focus on what is important, to focus on actions and follow them up, trustworthiness/credibility and ethical considerations. The connection to values was quite clear as suggested by the two most important motivations of 'identity, brand, and core values' and 'expectations from stakeholders'. The most important stakeholder group in this regard are employees, consumers, and owners, in that order. Expectations from stakeholders is connected to changing values in society. In a few cases, sustainability has been part of the companies' core values from the vary beginning, albeit not always labelled as such, or in most cases for a very long time and is considered as a 'part of the DNA'