Reduced Costs and Increased profit. Sustainability and Role Modelling as Goals and Means for Swedish State-owned Enterprises

Abstract

The Swedish state owns 46 different enterprises (2020), whose activities are described every year in the Annual report for state-owned enterprises. In the year of 2007, it was decided that these companies must present a sustainability report every year, and in 2016 Agenda 2030 and the 17 UN goals for a sustainable development were included in the state’s ownership policy. But how does the Swedish government motivate the state-owned enterprises to work with sustainability and how has the government’s use of the concept changed over time? In this article, this is analysed using both qualitative and quantitative methods and taking the Annual report for state-owned enterprises 1999–2017 as a point of departure. The analyses show that sustainability comprises more areas over time, and that the most frequent argument for working with sustainability concerns economic gain. Reasons having to do with the future of the planet, on the other hand, are never mentioned. It has, however, been questioned if the enterprises really do earn money from working with sustainability.

In addition to motives for implementing sustainability in the activities of the companies, it is also analysed how the state-owned enterprises are described as models for other companies. The areas highlighted in such discussions are sustainability, equality between men and women, diversity, ethics and environmental issues, i.e. aspects that are important for the Swedish self-perception. The Swedish state-owned enterprises are, however, rarely characterized as being models; instead, it is reported how they should be models. This could be understood as an expectation, but also as a request directed towards the management of the state-owned companies.