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Sniðmát Meistaraverkefnis HÍ Master’s thesis in Environment and Natural Resources Westfjords and the EarthCheck environmental certificate Cooperation between municipalities and companies Kristín Halldóra Halldórsdóttir Instructor: Helga Ögmundardóttir Graduation month October 2020 1 Westfjords and the EarthCheck environmental certificate Cooperation between municipalities and companies Kristín Halldóra Halldórsdóttir Final thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of a MA degree in Environment and Natural Resources Instructor: Helga Ögmundardóttir 30 ECTS Faculty of Sociology, Anthropology and Folkloristics School of Social Sciences, University of Iceland Graduation October 2020 ii Westfjords and the EarthCheck environmental certificate: cooperation between municipalities and companies This final thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of a MA degree in Environment and Natural Resources. The thesis may not be copied in any form without the author’s permission. © Kristín Halldóra Halldórsdóttir, 2020 Reykjavik, Iceland, 2020 iii Útdráttur Sveitarfélög á Vestfjörðum hafa fengið starfsemi sína umhverfisvottaða af EarthCheck. EarthCheck vottunin leggur þá skyldu á herðar sveitarfélaganna að bæta frammistöðu sína í umhverfismálum og vinna að sjálfbærri þróun. Íbúar Vestfjarða og fyrirtæki á svæðinu eru ekki skuldbundin til að uppfylla þau viðmið sem EarthCheck setur. Markmiðið með þessari rannsókn er að kanna hversu mikla þekkingu forsvarsfólk fyrirtækja á Vestfjörðum hefur á EarthCheck umhverfisvottuninni auk þess að greina hvaða leiðir eru færar til að hvetja fyrirtæki á Vestfjörðum til að leggja meiri áherslu á umhverfismál. Til að öðlast dýpri skilning á viðhorfum þátttakanda var beitt eigindlegri rannsóknaraðferð. Alls voru tekin 16 viðtöl við starfsmenn fyrirtækja á Vestfjörðum. Þau voru tekin í júlí og ágúst 2020. Niðurstöðurnar gefa til kynna að fyrirtæki á svæðinu hafi ekki mikla þekkingu á EarthCheck umhverfisvottuninni. Einnig töldu viðmælendur að sveitarfélög á Vestfjörðum legðu almennt ekki mikla áherslu á umhverfismál. Flestir viðmælendur telja að mjög mikilvægt sé fyrir rekstur fyrirtækja að hafa umhverfisvottun eða mótaða umhverfisstefnu, því viðskiptavinir þeirra krefðust iðulega upplýsinga um hvort starfsemin sé sjálfbær. Stór hluti viðmælenda vildi einnig auka samstarf sveitarfélaga og fyrirtækja á Vestfjörðum í umhverfismálum og töldu sumir að aukin þátttaka almennings gæti ýtt undir árangursríkt samstarf. Niðurstöður rannsóknarinnar benda til að sveitarfélög á Vestfjörðum eigi kost á að auka samstarf sitt við fyrirtæki á svæðinu og sameina krafta allra til að efla sjálfbæra þróun á Vestfjörðum. iv Abstract The municipalities in the Westfjords have been awarded with an EarthCheck environmental certificate. This certificate requires the municipalities to reduce their environmental impact and work towards achieving sustainable development, while the residents and the companies operating within each municipality are not required to follow the EarthCheck guidelines. This study aims to determine what knowledge the companies in the Westfjords have about the EarthCheck certificate and how the companies can be encouraged to put more emphasis on environmental issues. A qualitative research method was used for this research to gain a deep understanding of the participants’ views and opinions. There were 16 interviews conducted in July and August 2020, with representatives from companies in the Westfjords. The results of the study indicate that the companies in the Westfjords do not have much knowledge about the EarthCheck certificate and they felt that their municipalities had not been putting much emphasis on environmental issues in general. Most companies acknowledged the importance of having an environmental policy or a certificate because their customers frequently requested information about whether their operation was sustainable. Many of the participants wanted increased cooperation with their municipality on environmental issues and some of them suggested that one way to achieve that is by increasing public participation with the companies. These results suggest that the municipalities in the Westfjords have a potential for increasing cooperation with companies in the Westfjords which might facilitate an environment where they can unitedly work towards achieving sustainable development. v Preface This master’s thesis which is valid for 30ECT was conducted in July and August 2020 under the supervision of Helga Ögmundardóttir, lecturer at the University of Iceland. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to everyone that made this study possible. For starters, I would like to thank Bjargey Anna Guðbrandsdóttir for suggesting this project for my master‘s thesis. I would also like to thank María Hildur Maack from the Westfjords Nature Research Centre for entrusting me with this project because without her, this project would not have happened. I couldn’t be more thankful that María applied for a grant on my behalf at the Icelandic Centre for Research which made it possible for me to spend the whole summer focusing all my attention on this thesis without having to work a full time job elsewhere as well. Without mentioning any specific names I would like to thank those that made it possible for me to travel in the Westfjords for three weeks by providing me with a place to stay. Moreover, I would like to thank all the participants that put time aside for the interview during the summer vacation season. I couldn’t be more thankful for my parents who have always supported me and given me the confidence to finish my master’s degree. Finally, I would like to thank Helga Ögmundardóttir for her support on this master’s thesis, for answering my endless questions and listening to my concerns. vi Table of Contents Útdráttur ................................................................................................................... iv Abstract ..................................................................................................................... v Preface ...................................................................................................................... vi List of Tables ........................................................................................................... viii List of Figures ............................................................................................................ ix 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 2 The municipalities in the Westfjords ....................................................................... 7 2.1 Population decline ............................................................................................ 11 2.2 Transportation .................................................................................................. 16 2.3 Occupation ........................................................................................................ 18 2.4 EarthCheck environmental certificate .............................................................. 23 2.5 EarthCheck and the Westfjords ........................................................................ 26 3 Methodology ....................................................................................................... 31 4 Results ................................................................................................................. 35 4.1 Lack of information on the EarthCheck environmental certificate .................. 35 4.2 Small size of the municipalities ......................................................................... 41 4.3 Public Participation ........................................................................................... 47 4.4 The value of an environmental policy .............................................................. 52 5 Discussion ............................................................................................................ 61 6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 63 References ............................................................................................................... 66 Appendix – Interview questionnaire ......................................................................... 74 vii List of Tables Table 1. Population in the municipalities in the Westfjords on January 1st, 2020 (Hagstofan, 2020). ................................................................................................ 9 viii List of Figures Figure 1. The Westfjords in Iceland (Byggðastofnun, n.d.) (blue square added by author). ................................................................................................................. 7 Figure 2. The nine municipalities in the Westfjords (Landmælingar Ísland, 2014). ........... 8 Figure 3. Population Decline in the Westfjords from 1998 – 2020 (Hagstofa Íslands, 2020c). ................................................................................................................ 12 ix 1 Introduction This thesis provides the reader with a basic understanding of the municipalities in the Westfjords, the challenges they are dealing with in relation to population decline, transportation and occupation, as well as the EarthCheck environmental certificate that they have been awarded with. The objective of this thesis is to explore what the companies in the Westfjords know about the EarthCheck environmental certificate
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