VIRTUAL Prague Research & Teaching Conference

Abstract

The world is moving through a time of prolonged crisis and uncertainty, with fossil fuel use at the center of the climate emergency. While the transition to sustainability and low-carbon energy is urgent, current global policies fall short of meeting critical environmental goals. Recent geopolitical and macroeconomic developments—particularly the war in Ukraine and resulting energy and inflation crises—have diverted attention and resources from climate mitigation toward defense spending, threatening to push sustainable development into the rear-view mirror. Companies, especially in energy-intensive sectors, play a crucial role in this context. They are not only sites of technological innovation and business model transformation but also agents shaping societal discourse and policy. This study investigates how sustainability competencies—understood as the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required to drive sustainability transformations—interact with organizational environments in energy companies in Rogaland, Norway. Using qualitative interviews with sustainability managers and professionals from Stavanger-based firms, we explore how recent structural changes affect sustainability pathways and what competencies are most relevant under these new conditions. Stavanger’s dual identity as a hub for both traditional fossil fuel industries and emerging renewable energy efforts provides a particularly rich setting for analysis. Our aim is to infer which competencies genuinely support transformation in today’s reality, how they are operationalized, and what barriers hinder their impact. This study also seeks to establish a baseline for future research and policy efforts, particularly in aligning education systems with evolving industrial needs in the face of demographic shifts and labor shortages.