Environment

A total of seven statements pertained to the driver ”Environment” (see Table4.6and Figs. A36‐A41 of Appendix A).

Six of the seven statements were rated by at least one person with ”strongly agree”, and all seven with ”agree”. Few statements exhibited high levels of disagreement as the response

”strongly disagree” was only observed for two statements.

4.2.4.2 Environment, work environment, and health

Two statements pertaining to the Environment driver regarded the work environment. One of these statements was about the psychosocial work environment (Fig.4.13). This statement (”Dig‐

ital solutions and climate considerations will lead to solitary work/working from home, which may

Table 4.6.Environment: Number of statements by theme and block

Themes Block 1 Block 2 Block 3 Sum

Sustainability 2 1 1 4

Interaction, cooperation, and culture 1 1

Job creation, job destruction, job change, and predictability 1 1

Productivity, efficiency, and competitive advantages 1 1

Sum 5 1 1 7

Figure 4.13. Environment: Psychosocial work environment

Block 1: To what extent do you agree with the following statements?

47 33

21 434343 0.630.630.63

N C

N: number of subjects that completed the item C: van der Eijk’s measure of consensus Digital solutions and climate considerations will lead to

solitary work/working from home, which may hamper social relations in the workplace

Percentage that reported the various response alternatives

Strongly disagree Disagree Neither agree or disagree Agree Strongly agree

hamper social relations at the workplace”) exhibited a consensus score of 0.63. The other state‐

ment pertained to ”physical environment, risks, accidents, and other aspects of the work envi‐

ronment”, for ”Block 2: Agreement and impact (consequences)”. Consensus and agreement with this statement (”A sustainable work environment will become more important as a strategic com‐

petitive factor”, Fig. 4.14) is discussed in the previous section. In addition to that, many of the experts (87%) believed the consequences of this possible development to be positive for the work environment.

Environment: Health No statements were classified under ”health” for the Environment driver.

4.2.4.3 Norway and Denmark

There were no statistically significant differences between the experts from Denmark and Norway in the rating of the statements in round 3.

Figure 4.14. Environment: Physical environment, risks, accidents, and other state‐

ments regarding the work environment

Block 2: To what extent do you agree with the following statements, and to what extent do you think there will be positive and/or negative consequences for the work environment?

22 55 22 404040 0.660.660.66 232323 878787 PosPosPos N C Neg Pos Eval

N: number of subjects that completed the item C: van der Eijk’s measure of consensus

Neg/Pos: Percentage that answered ’some’ or ’considerable’ negative/positive consequences Eval: Overall classification of consequences

Neutral: <70 percent rated ’some’ or ’considerable’ negative or positive consequences NA: No agreement ‐ Less than 50 percent rated ’Agree’ or ’Strongly agree’

A sustainable work environment will become more important as a strategic competitive factor

Percentage that reported the various response alternatives

Strongly disagree Disagree Neither agree or disagree Agree Strongly agree

4.2.4.4 The different panels of the study

For the statements reflecting the driver ”Environment”, there was some apparent disagreement between the sub‐panels with regard to one statement: ”A sustainable work environment will be‐

come more important as a strategic competitive factor” (Appendix C, Table C7). The main differ‐

ence seemed to be that trade union representatives were slightly less inclined to agree with the statement, however, only to the extent that 44.4% reported ”neither agree of disagree”. None of the experts reported less agreement than that.

4.2.4.5 Suggested solutions from the experts

Regarding the driver ”Environment”, the panel of experts had three concrete suggestions to future solutions regarding ”climate change”. A few propositions for legislative future actions are made in the light of climate change and sustainability. According to the expert panel, authorities should, to a greater extent, focus on ethics and sustainability, both within government and in the workplace.

This means ensuring that a sustainable work environment is included in working life agreements.

Finally, the social partners must then support ethical and sustainable developments of the work environment.

4.2.4.6 Environment: Overall summary and conclusion

The seven statements devoted to the topic of the environment, including climate change and sus‐

tainability, revolved around challenges associated with attempting to reduce climate gas emis‐

sions; for instance by cutting back on work travel and increasing remote work with less direct social contact, sustainability as a competitive advantage, and some more general declarative statements

about the prospective development of a work life with increased environmental awareness. Over‐

all, statements pertained to effects of adjustments workplaces will have to make due to climate change.

In general, there was a high level of agreement with statements, and consensus was medium to high, with consensus scores ranging from 0.52 to 0.86. Notably, the most agreed upon statement in the study, namely ”New types of industries and jobs will be created with the green transition”, pertained to this driver (see Figs. A1 and A37 of Appendix A). More than half (52%) strongly agreed with this statement, while the remaining 48% agreed.

Interestingly, the statements pertaining to the environment seemed to be mainly positive or optimistic in nature, referring to new opportunities or constructive ways of meeting new require‐

ments. For example, the three statements receiving the highest consensus scores, and with most experts agreeing, reflected the increased prominence of environmentally friendly solutions, new types of industries emerging due to the green transition, and competitive advantages for corpo‐

rations with ethical and sustainable corporate profiles.

4.2.5 Skills/competence