Organisational responses to climate change: do collaborative forums make a difference?

Abstract

Innovative and effective responses to climate change require that we move beyond reliance on government to include organisations spanning different sectors, such as not‐for‐profit, private, and community groups. Interactions among these organisations in collaborative networks—or “forums”—may provide important mechanisms to successfully address climate change impacts. This paper investigates the relationships between organisational participation and involvement in forums and responses to climate change. Survey data show that people from many organisations are participating in forums and using these meeting points to discuss climate change, even when forums are intended to serve other purposes. The data suggest that participation in any type of forum is related to organisational responses to climate change. Attributes such as type of organisation and knowledge of climate change issues were also found to be related to organisational responses to climate change but these became less important when climate change was discussed in forums. The results of the research suggest that a practical way to increase the volume and variety of organisational responses to climate change may be to encourage participation in forums and/or to influence existing networks to incorporate more discussions of climate change issues.

Identifying and tracking key climate adaptation actors in the UK

“…Different types/sizes of organisations, working within different sectors, across different scales, and performing different roles and/or responsibilities, are all identified. Such diversity ensures that different values, interests and concerns are represented (Green et al 2018). Yet, despite the UK government clearly calling for a more bottom-up approach to adaptation in its NAP, we found little evidence that this rhetoric is consistently reflected in the documents the government has published on adaptation between 2006 and 2015.…”

“…Tompkins et al 2010). This is concerning because as Green et al (2018) have found, it is crucial to involve a wide diversity of actors with different issues, from different sectors, working across different scales, to ensure different values, interests and concerns are represented in efforts to tackle climate change. How to do this is not always clear.…”

“…These goals range widely from profit seeking to more socially responsive aspirations around education, healthcare and welfare (Berkhout 2012). Likewise, organisations have different structures, cultures and capabilities to help achieve their goals (Willows and Connell 2003;Arnell and Delaney 2006;Berkhout et al 2006;Hoffman et al 2009;Green et al 2018). Such realities remind us that economic thinking alone rarely guarantees action.…”

What are the connections between collaboration values and communication practices? An investigation exploring collaborators’ perceptions of supports and constraints in collaboration practice

“…They may perceive sustainability issues as a low priority within their organisations and leverage the knowledge and discussions from interorganisational collaborations to influence decision-makers (Gustavsson, 2008). This enables them to strengthen their position and transform their home organisations (see also Green et al, 2018). While studies on corporate social responsibility communication in private organisations show similar struggles for decision-influencers to gain legitimacy and influence their organisations toward sustainability (Christensen et al, 2015), there are limited investigations into the external influence interor-ganisational collaborations may have in this regard.…”