Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
moving some workers up the decision-making ladder (which would be the ortho-
dox Marxist approach). Rather, negating the structure refers to construction of an
alternative structure outside of the organisational hierarchy. This would lead to the
conducting of experiments towards socially and ecologically sustainable energy
management. Indicators of such a development might be workers who organise
themselves externally of the dominating organisational hierarchy (maybe with in-
centives by other societal actors, like labour unions).
18.6 Conclusion
This article investigated a case of corporate energy management in which the en-
vironmental manager used a suggestion scheme to mobilise workers' knowledges
to improve the energy and environmental performance of the corporation. We
found that the hierarchical form of organisation as well as bodies and forms of
knowledge reproduced structurally a contradiction: Hierarchies were deemed in-
strumental for optimising corporate greening, but effectively prevented this opti-
misation. Thus, we conclude, good environmental management - situated within
the framework of ecological modernisation - sticks to hierarchical organisation.
And this very kind of organising constitutes a barrier to sustainable development.
In our case this became obvious when showing how proper practice within the
hegemonic rationality of ecological modernisation assumes superior knowledge by
environmental experts.
These experts occupy positions in social space which allow them to decisively
shape corporate environmental decision-making. It is their task to know better
than so-called 'average' workers about environmental issues. Therefore, if work-
ers - as shown in this case - frame ideas to contribute to sustainable energy man-
agement in a way which is not compatible with the rationality of ecological mod-
ernisation then their ideas are likely to be lost. We find that the environmental
manager uses a
form of knowledge
, which was specific in fitting to the rationality
of ecological modernisation. In the course of this, however, alternative forms and
by that bodies of knowledge were sidelined and therefore lost to sustainable de-
velopment. Thus, the manager's knowledge practice renders corporate energy
management unsustainable. This micro-level-based analysis is paralleled by the
macro take of Blühdorn and Welsh (2007) who argue that we live in an “era of
post-ecologism [where] its eco-politics [are] the politics of unsustainability”.
Further, this article argues, hope to overcome these contradiction lies in the ne-
gation of hierarchies. Rather than bare adjustment to structures of hierarchies,
more sustainable approaches to energy management may be found outside the
structures identified as problematic, i.e. outside of hegemonic organisational hier-
archies. Thus, for affected to contribute to sustainable development it seems ade-
quate to recommend engaging with experiments outside corporate rationality aim-
ing to reconfigure the structure surrounding the organisation, rather than
stabilising it. A social structure outside, which would allow for sustainable energy
management within the corporation, would be characterised by its recognition of
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