In August 1972 a medical survey revealed that an alarming number of the refinery's employees had developed cancer. It was suspected – and later confirmed – that this was due to exposure to nickel in the working environment. In the coming decades, mitigating cancer risks became the management's most serious challenge. However, this was not the only environmental issue that craved attention. The refinery also had to face increasing pressure to limit its external pollution.

The Norwegian business system changed in the 1970s and 1980s as large, export-oriented industrial firms lost much of their position as pillars of society. The advent of modern environmentalism altered the relationship between industrial companies, political authorities and the wider civil society. It was no longer enough to offer well-paid jobs or to secure substantial export revenues. Industrial plants like the nickel refinery also had to satisfy increasingly more stringent environmental requirements.

One could find a similar development all over the Western world. This implied that multinational companies and their subsidiaries had to operate in a new type of political economy, where environmental issues became much more important. The question in this case study is how the Kristiansand subsidiary, the mother company and the local union tackled these challenges? How did a multinational firm like Falconbridge comply with Norwegian regulations? What responsibility did the company assume for its sick employees and what standards did it follow?

Corporate Environmental Strategies

Industrial companies reacted very differently to environmental issues and the changes in the business system.