Identification and transfer of important factors for sustainability initiatives implementation

ABSTRACT Cardo is a large, multinational previously fragmented company with a history of completely separated management and decision processes (between the divisions), this has enabled as many different ways of choosing and implementing different initiatives as there are offices. The latest step in the change process was implemented during the spring of 2010, since then, Cardo consists of two divisions with the purpose of further unifying the divisions under the Cardo brand. The two new divisions are Cardo entrance solutions and Cardo flow solutions. Cardo mainly operates in the water and logistics area, two areas that because of the recent changes in the environmental focus among most companies have become of the highest importance for a future sustainable company as well as society. This fact shows that there is a huge business potential for the organization that manages to integrate the environmental work into their operations. Within the organization several sustainability initiatives have been implemented and Cardo wants to identify these initiatives in order to learn and evolve from them which hopefully will result in that Cardo will stand better prepared for all the upcoming sustainability initiatives. The purpose of this report is therefore to investigate previously implemented sustainability initiatives, mainly ones with an environmental and economical focus in order to identify the most important factors for the implementation of sustainability initiatives. The three investigated initiatives will all be analyzed separately from a series of theoretical areas. In the final chapter they are compared to each other in order to identify what was done in a good way and what needs to be improved. Based on the theory and the empirical findings from the investigated initiatives the most important areas in which a discussion is shown are kind of change, statement of direction, involvement, communication, motivation and leadership. These findings are all closely connected and affect each other to a great extent. Therefore it is important in to follow them from the very beginning of each new initiative. Keywords Change management, strategy, communication, knowledge transfer, situational leadership, motivation, sustainabilit