Sustainable development for oil companies: a case study from Thailand

Following growing concern about the negative impacts of industrial development on the environment, notions of sustainable development can be used as a basic framework to maintain development without compromising the quality of the environment for future generations. The complex and dynamic nature of environmental protection and industrial development requires close collaboration between the industry and the wider society. This study examines societal attitudes towards industrial development using Thailand’s National Oil Company (PTT) as a case study to understand the complexity of the environmental challenges, the impacts of development and the interaction with management interventions. The study develops a theoretical and practical understanding of sustainable development tools such as environmental management systems (EMSs), public participation and corporate social responsibility (CSR) and how these perform and interact with stakeholders surrounding an industrial complex, largely run by PTT. Findings from the study can be used to improve the performance of the sustainable development tools used by PTT, and more broadly the petroleum industry.
This study was designed to quantify and reveal stakeholders’ views on sustainable development tools by employing a mixed methods approach that combines quantitative and qualitative data within a spatial perspective. The results have shown that the local stakeholders’ perceptions of the environment and the environmental performance of industry are highly dependent on location. Such information is vital to review environmental performance and develop EMSs. The results suggest that stakeholder analysis is essential for designing the suitable participation methods, which will enhance stakeholder engagement with the environmental information within EMSs and public participation. The findings show the study of stakeholders’ expectations of CSR could help in the development of appropriate CSR definition and enhance ensuring CSR performance. The results of this study emphasise the importance of societal attitudes in the improvement of the sustainable development tools. This study has shown that the environmental problems and sustainable development challenges are too complex for a single method to capture. The mixed methods approach used in the study may be applied by an industrial organisation to improve sustainability performances and achieve sustainability objectives of an organisation and enhance the lives of populations that live in areas surrounding industrial plants.