Greening the invisible hand : how environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) succeed and fall in technology change

This dissertation examines how national environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Sweden and the United States (US) tried to diffuse cleaner production technologies in the pulp and paper industry from 1980-1998. The environmental organizations were: Greenpeace Sweden, Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, Environmental Defense, Greenpeace USA, and Natural Resources Defense Council. The technologies they tried to diffuse reduced dioxins and other organochlorines from mills that bleach pulp for making white paper products. Totally chlorine-free (TCF) bleaching emerged as the cleanest bleaching technology in commercial use: it eliminated organochlorine water pollution. The Swedish environmental organizations, with help from Greenpeace Germany, were more successful at diffusing TCF bleaching. The success in Sweden emerged because the environmental organizations created market demand for TCF paper: they formed collaborative relations with major buyers of bleached paper, proved that TCF paper was a technically viable alternative, and connected environmentally-minded consumers with like-minded manufacturers. Supporting their success were: a longer history of market campaigns to transform paper bleaching, the lack of opposition to TCF paper in Germany (a major consumer of Swedish bleached pulp), and massive seal and fish die-offs in 1988. The failure in the US occurred because the environmental organizations did not create market demand: they disagreed on environmental goals, they did not succeed in forming collaborative alliances with major purchasers in favor of TCF paper, and they could not overcome a sophisticated counter-campaign from environmental laggards in the American pulp and paper industry.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2003

Author dc:creator

• Rossi, Mark S. (Mark Stephen), 1962-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Lawrence Susskind.

• Urban Studies and Planning.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/29947

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/29947