The Arctic Environmental Responsibility Index: A method to rank heterogenous extractive industry companies for governance purposes

Abstract

The Arctic Environmental Responsibility Index (AERI) covers 120 oil, gas, and mining companies involved in resource extraction north of the Arctic Circle in Alaska,

Accounting infrastructure and promissory sustainable extractive industries: an actor-network theory analysis

“…Investigating the environmental ranking of Russian mining and metal companies, Knizhnikov et al (2021) discover the role of this ranking system in fostering corporate self-assessment for future alignment with international practice. Overland et al (2021), examining the Arctic Environmental Responsibility Index ranking covering 120 extractive companies, argue that this ranking acts as a governance tool, triggering environmental competition among extractive companies for higher rankings and putting low-ranked extractive firms under legal and public pressure. This supports the prior observation of Espeland et al (2016) that there is a strong association between the performative effect of ranking and emotion, particularly anxiety when a ranking generates a fear of inferiority and thus stimulates continuous efforts to improve ranking position.…”

Arctic Justice

“…A fruitful initial step is to investigate existing scholarly activities in classifying responsibility. Existing literature on companies in the Arctic is firstly, environmentally focused (Hennchen, 2015;Loe et al, 2017;Overland et al, 2021), and then secondly, livelihoods focused (Wettstein, 2009;Olawuyi, 2016;McQueen, 2019). This is perhaps not surprising considering the environmentally sensitive context in which the Arctic region exists.…”

“…This is evident in business and management scholarship in the Arctic, but often in a limited project-based approach. The environmental focus of responsibility by companies is highlighted through the development of an Arctic environmental responsibility index for companies' activities (Overland et al, 2021). Table 4.1 shows what are the most and least responsible companies active in the region.…”

“…A more extensive definition is found in Sardo (2020, p 73), who concludes that 'agents bear responsibility not in virtue of the individual causal contribution capacity, but because they participate in and benefit from carbon intensive structures, practices and institutions that constitute the global political and economic system'. The first observation from a more extensive definition is why, then, are two of the most active companies in fossil fuel activities in the Norwegian Arctic defined by Overland et al (2021) as the most responsible? Being responsible for clean-ups, or supply chains, merely upholds structural injustice in the Arctic and, moreover, globally.…”

Sustainability Development Goals Initiatives of Multinational firms: Empirical Evidence from Emerging Economy

“…Specifically, SDGs targets that aim to increase positive externalities. Based on prior studies (e.g., Saeed et al, 2022;Overland et al, 2021) this study will construct an index based on firms' investment 7 towards respective SDG goals to capture the variable. This study will measure dependent variables as follows:…”