Mapping understandings of corporate social and sustainability responsibility in an era of green transition in Swedish Sápmi: recommendations for extractive industry improvements

Abstract

In northern Sweden, extractive industry activity, such as wind power and mining, has intensified due to the so-called green transition. Hence, friction between the Indigenous Sámi people and extractive companies has increased. The objective of this study is to explore the experiences of and recommendations for corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in extractive industries among the Sámi people in Sweden. A qualitative study based on 13 in-depth interviews with Sámi people shows that while extractive industries communicate their commitment to CSR outwardly, on websites and in written material, there is a discrepancy between that communication and Sámi people’s experiences of the companies’ actions when operating on Sámi lands. This ethnographic study uses an inductive approach to analyse interview data and explore major themes, including views on stakeholder engagement in an era of societal transition. The study provides recommendations on how industries can enhance their interactions with Sámi people and communities.

Introduction

Tensions between Indigenous peoples and extractive industries are common occurrences globally. While not all Indigenous communities or Indigenous persons are opposed to extractive industries, there are numerous examples of clashes between industries and Indigenous groups, for example the Native American protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock, the Fosen protests against wind turbines on Sámi land in Norway and the Gállok protests against iron mining on Sámi land in Sweden (Cambou, 2024; McQueen, 2018; Persson et al., 2017). These tensions arise from conflicting views on how land and natural resources should be managed. Also, while Indigenous peoples’ rights are acknowledged in international declarations such as the United Nations Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries (ILO-169), rights to their traditional lands and territories are often neglected (Åhrén, 2016). Furthermore, Indigenous peoples’ perspectives on responsibilities towards both environment and communities are often ignored in interactions with extractive industries (Kepore et al., 2013; Long, 2022).

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), as described by Carroll (2016), includes four primary dimensions: economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic. Society requires that businesses be able to sustain themselves (through being profitable) and that they follow applicable laws. Society expects businesses to conduct their affairs ethically. Society also desires good corporate citizenship by businesses, that is, a form of “giving back” to society through donations to worthy causes (Carroll, 2016). O’Faircheallaigh (2008), in his work on CSR, extractive industries and Indigenous peoples, explores questions on whether corporations’ social responsibilities should or could be made compulsory (p. 2). Furthermore, O’Faircheallaigh (2008) argues that CSR has the potential to benefit Indigenous communities as it can provide platforms for negotiation. Boiral et al. (2019) suggest there is a knowledge gap regarding how extractive companies manage their relationships with Indigenous communities in practical terms and call for further investigation into how corporations incorporate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) (p. 708). CSR has evolved and is today sometimes described as corporate sustainability responsibility. However, Bansal and Song (2017) show that social responsibility and sustainability responsibility, even though often blurred in scholarship, were once distinct fields exploring relationships between business and society. The question is whether replacing social with sustainability removes some of the responsibility towards Indigenous communities in this era of green transition. Ironically, placing a stronger emphasis on sustainability can blur the lines between corporations’ responsibility towards all of society, including Indigenous communities, and the responsibility to keep making a profit.

In January 2023, Swedish government officials, along with representatives of LKAB, a Swedish state-owned mining company that operates the world’s largest underground iron ore mine in Kiruna, announced what is known as the Per Geijer Deposit. LKAB (2023) claimed that the find contained mineral resources of rare-earth metals exceeding one million tonnes of oxides, making it the largest known deposit of its kind in Europe. The Per Geijer deposit is located on the reindeer-herding Sámi community Gabna’s land. A mine there could mean the end of traditional reindeer herding for Gabna. LKAB’s (2024) website states: “We have a continuous dialogue with the Sámi in our surroundings to understand their interests and find ways to work together.” Furthermore, the LKAB Guidelines for Human Rights, also on their website, lists Indigenous peoples as one of five special focus areas for the company. However, LKAB’s President and Group CEO, Jan Moström, was quoted in the Per Geijer announcement press release stating: “. . .We must change the permit processes to ensure increased mining of this type of raw material in Europe. Access is today a crucial risk factor for both the competitiveness of European industry and the climate transition.” (LKAB, 2023).

Another Swedish state-owned company is Vattenfall AB, a European energy company dealing in hydro, wind and solar power. Like LKAB, Vattenfall AB has a long history of operating on Sámi land. According to their website, Vattenfall (2024)

recognises that our activities could impact indigenous peoples located in the areas in which we operate. To minimise the risk of negative impact on the indigenous peoples, including on reindeer husbandry, we have clearly defined stakeholder engagement processes, as well as best practice guidelines to respect indigenous peoples’ rights, which all employees are expected to follow.

In addition, a linked flyer by Vattenfall (2023) called “Approach towards indigenous people in Sweden,” states that Vattenfall strives to respect Sámi rights, as stipulated by both national and international law, and outlines how this will be done. Both LKAB and Vattenfall are major players in the green transition, and both outline their commitment to CSR on their websites.

The Sámi people, of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula (the Sámi area is known as Sápmi), are the only recognised Indigenous people in the European Union (European Commission, 2024). In Sweden, there is currently a strong push for a so-called green transition. “Greener” industries, including fossil-fuel-free steel production, and the expansion of wind power, are part of these projects (Muslemani et al., 2021). Many project sites are located within Sápmi. According to Sandström (2024), the use of green terminology in policy, while at the same time neglecting to seek consent from Sámi and local communities for large-scale industrial projects, implies elements of green colonialism in the way a green transformation is adopted. Indigenous peoples are also disproportionately burdened by, for example extraction of energy transition minerals and metals (ETM), as 54 % of ETM projects exist on or near Indigenous peoples’ lands (Owen et al., 2023).

The objective of this study is to explore Sámi people’s experiences of and recommendations for CSR conduct in extractive industries in Sweden. Based on qualitative ethnographic research, it highlights Sámi people’s views of CSR in a rapidly moving era of green transition in Swedish Sápmi. Climate change puts pressure on both industries and Sámi communities, albeit in different ways. While industries must rapidly adopt low-carbon strategies, these often demand more access to Sámi lands. Hence, exploring different ways of improving interactions between these stakeholders is urgent. While there are several studies exploring themes such as green colonialism in Sápmi, few studies seek to understand Sámi perspectives on how industries and Sámi can interact in this era. By exploring Sámi people’s views and letting their voices be heard on the topic of CSR, this study contributes new understandings of possible industry improvements in terms of Indigenous stakeholder engagement. It responds to the following overarching research question: How do Sámi people in northern Sweden experience and evaluate CSR practices of extractive industries operating on Sámi lands, and what recommendations do they offer for improvement in the context of the green transition?

Methodology

The study concerns the part of Sápmi that lies within the Swedish borders. As it is conducted with Sámi research participants, positionality is important (Hurley & Jackson, 2020). Accordingly, it is important to note that the author is a Swedish researcher with extensive experience working and conducting research with Indigenous Peoples on Indigenous lands. I have received academic training and research supervision from Indigenous scholars and have collaborated on projects co-owned by Indigenous organisations (Sehlin MacNeil, 2017). I am committed to research practices that are respectful, reciprocal, relationship-centred, and that honour Indigenous voices. As a Swedish scholar working on Sámi land issues, I recognise the power dynamics inherent in conducting research with Indigenous people and communities. This position, as an outsider, requires me to prioritise community-guided methodologies, including collaborative design of research questions, and to actively avoid imposing frameworks that may misrepresent Indigenous knowledge and knowledge systems.

Study area

In Sweden, the exact number of Sámi inhabitants is not known as the country does not employ any sort of census to document the population regarding ethnicity (Axelsson & Mienna, 2021). The Sámediggi (Sámi Parliament in Sweden) estimates that between 20,000 and 40,000 Sámi people live in Sweden (Sámediggi, 2024). Of these, approximately 4,600 individuals own reindeer, although the total number of Sámi people engaged in reindeer husbandry is not precisely known. Under Swedish law, only Sámi people are permitted to own reindeer, and Sámi property and customary rights are closely tied to reindeer ownership (Allard, 2015). There are 51 Sámi reindeer-herding communities in Sweden. Each community is allowed a set number of reindeer, according to calculations of the respective areas’ capacity. This is governed by Swedish law. Reindeer in Sweden are semi-domesticated: they follow migratory routes, and the Sámi reindeer herders follow their animals (Sarkki et al., 2022).

Other Sámi customary livelihoods include hunting and fishing as well as duodji, Sámi craft. There are nine Sámi languages, all of which are today endangered (Outakoski et al., 2018). According to Helander et al. (2022), the basis for Sámi culture and identity is the connection with the land, and language is one of the most critical aspects of any culture (p. 370). When Sámi lands are threatened or destroyed, so is Sámi culture, including languages.

Indigenous methodologies and ethics

This research follows an Indigenous methodologies and ethics framework, adhering to the three Rs: Respect, Reciprocity and Relationships (Reid & Taylor, 2011). The study was part of a larger research project, financed by the Swedish Energy Agency. The Sámi communities most likely to be affected by the research results were represented in the larger project’s reference group and could thus give valuable input to research design and questions. This aligned the research with respectful and reciprocal processes, as well as building trust and relationships. This reference group consisted of representatives from Sámiid Riikkasearvi (the interest organisation for Sámi reindeer herding in Sweden), Sirges Sámi reindeer-herding community, and Stockholm Sámi Association. Efforts to honour reciprocity and acknowledge the time and experiences shared by community members have included compensation for work time lost due to participation in the research, an open conference, a popular science booklet outlining the research results (including summaries in three Sámi languages) and various lectures to Sámi organisations. This aligns the study with Indigenous ethics requirements, specifically Sámi ethics requirements (Sámiid Riikkasearvi, 2024a). In addition, the study underwent a formal Human Research Ethics approval by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority (DNR 2020-00745).

Participant selection and data collection

The study includes 13 in-depth interviews with Sámi research participants: seven men and six women, aged between 25 and 65 years, residing in multiple locations in Sweden. The participants all have experience of interactions with extractive industries in various capacities. In-depth interviews are commonly longer and used to explore a specific topic (Schensul, 2012, p. 90). The interviews were all approximately one hour long. The research participants are Sámi reindeer herders and reindeer owners, business owners, cultural workers, politicians, business employees, members of Sámi associations and Sámediggi, and pensioners. A referral or snowball technique was utilised to recruit research participants (Morgan David, 2008). Key research participants, with significant experience of interactions with extractive industries, were selected in dialogue with the reference group; those research participants then recommended others (Riemer, 2012). The in-depth interviews were conducted digitally between June 2022 and June 2023. Zoom was used because of restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic still lingering in Sweden. All interviews were recorded using an external voice recorder. The recordings were transcribed using a professional service. The interviews were conducted and transcribed in Swedish; the author then translated the direct quotes to English.

Data analysis

The study was guided by three interview questions, and the method used for coding was inductive, that is, codes were generated from the data (Riemer, 2012, p. 177). A “constant comparative method,” as described by Riemer (2012) on ethnographic research, was used: as the interviews were taken up over the course of several months, the data analysis started when data collection started and expanded as more data was collected. Thus, “ themes begin to emerge across categories, which are tested as new data are collected” (pp. 178–179). The process continued until the interviews provided no new information and saturation was reached. Each interview was listened to after being recorded, and each transcript was read through several times to identify categories and prominent themes. NVivo 14 was used to assist data analysis. The coding process started with an initial open coding phase, followed by axial coding to form categories by identifying relationships between codes. To ensure reliability and consistency, multiple rounds of coding were conducted, and the codes were cross-checked against the data. The codebook was developed through a repetitive process of reviewing and refining the codes based on the data, using an inductive approach. In total, 30 codes were used, and 295 passages were coded across the dataset.

Results

This study aims to examine Sámi people’s experiences and recommendations concerning CSR practices in Sweden’s extractive industries. This section details the results from the in-depth interviews. It outlines the major themes, number of coding references and sources, and gives examples of references supporting the themes, in the form of direct quotes. Each top-level theme corresponds with an overarching interview question. For clarification, the terms “extractive industries” and “companies” are used interchangeably in the narratives, and include all businesses involved in hydro power, wind power, mining and forestry.

Insufficient stakeholder engagement in CSR communication

Regarding extractive industry CSR communication, the interview data indicate that stakeholder involvement and engagement are low. Table 1 shows that six of the research participants said that companies did not communicate their social responsibility to Sámi communities at all, and 11 of the participants said that CSR was something only communicated to the general public but not applied in practice with Sámi communities. Furthermore, all the Sámi participants showed a lack of trust in the social responsibility conduct of extractive industries in Sweden.

Table 1.

Overview of major themes in responses to what CSR is and how it is communicated.

Theme	Sources	Coding references	Direct quotes
CSR is just lip service	11	24	“And then they talked about social responsibility and so on, outwardly. But it was sort of like gender equality plans and so on, mostly lip service.” “ . . . it is something abstract that doesn’t have any, from what I understand, practical meaning, it’s like some sort of cosmetics that large companies use to get to act in whatever way they want . . .”
CSR is not communicated by companies to Sámi communities	6	11	“There is not one company that has communicated CSR to us, and we are in contact with many, many companies.” “It’s one of those concepts that they throw around when they’re in meetings on a different level.”
Companies use wrongful information about their CSR in reports	2	4	“For example, LKAB, they have reports, that turn out not to reflect reality. It is only what they want to present.”

CSR: corporate social responsibility.

Inconsistencies between CSR communication and corporate actions

Table 2 shows that all the research participants find CSR conduct underdeveloped, especially in the large Swedish state-owned extractive industries. Larger companies were seen as less socially responsible, particularly as socially responsible conduct was being outsourced to sub-consultants. However, several research participants spoke of smaller companies being better at CSR and linked this to better local knowledge and understanding. Furthermore, different views on what social responsibility entails were seen to create problems, where the Sámi participants highlighted their responsibility to protect land and nature for future generations, as opposed to corporate responsibility to make a profit for shareholders. Despite this, the data indicate that the Sámi participants have a strong desire for meaningful inclusion and dialogue.

Table 2.

Overview of major themes in responses to how CSR communication matches company actions.

Theme	Sources	Coding references	Direct quotes
Top-level theme: CSR underdeveloped in Sweden	13	91
Difficult holding Swedish state-owned companies accountable for CSR	6	23	“With a private company you can go to the shareholders and say ‘hello, you have a company here that is in violation of Human Rights, do you really want to be shareholders in such a company?’ But what do you do when they are state-owned?”“. . . large state-owned, you can’t get to them. They can act in whatever way they want, because they have all the power backing them. With support from the law, they can do whatever they want.”
Asymmetric financial and power relations between companies and Sámi and local communities	5	16	“On our part we almost always have a power deficit or a resource deficit.”“. . . you kind of feel like that if you receive money from Vattenfall, then you need to be quiet after that . . . It feels like if it is . . . sort of blood money.”
Different understandings of social responsibility	7	15	“Industry says that they are socially responsible because they contribute to the welfare . . . And then they meet an Indigenous People, where the social welfare rests in the lands that we have inherited and that we are taking care of for coming generations.”
Social responsibility is very underdeveloped in Swedish companies	6	12	“I would say that it is so underdeveloped that it doesn’t exist. And it is not just private actors, it is the state-owned companies too, they should have an even higher standard of CSR.”
Companies prioritise financial responsibility over social responsibility	7	8	“It [CSR] is always about economy. It costs money and it’s not mandatory according to law, it’s voluntary, so they don’t do it.”
Sámi have little power to influence companies’ actions	5	8	“We really have no dialogue with Vattenfall or feel that we can influence or contribute our views.”
Stakeholder involvement can become an added burden for Sámi communities	3	5	“You end up in a hostage situation when you enter a consultation.”
Swedish state tries to avoid engaging with Sámi rights	3	4	“The verdicts that have fallen [in favour of Sámi rights] and the things that have happened, the Swedish majority society and Sweden as a nation are trying to avoid them.”
Top-level theme: Local vs large companies and CSR	6	21
Larger companies less socially responsible	4	11	“. . . another issue is that CSR often is expected to be practised or performed by sub-consultants. It’s not the company, municipality or authority that we meet that takes responsibility for CSR, it’s a sub-consultant.”“As soon as a person or a team has acquired knowledge and there’s a possibility to have real dialogue, they’re swapped out. I wonder if it’s systematic, to avoid creating relationships. Because it’s when we can start having breakthroughs, when you can move forward in a mutual dialogue, that they’re swapped out, and we’ve seen that repeatedly.”
Local smaller companies more socially responsible	4	9	“We had . . . a lone company man and he wanted to establish a system so that we would receive a sort of commission that would increase per windmill that he placed on our lands . . . He acted respectfully, and he didn’t hide that he wanted to build more and get more permits.”“In my experience, the more local they are, the more social responsibility they have naturally.”

Adverse effects of the green transition on Sámi people and communities

Today, it is impossible to discuss CSR in the Swedish part of Sápmi without including the green transition. Table 3 shows that most of the research participants view the green transition in Sweden as nothing more than a scheme to develop more industrial projects, which contribute to increased stress for Sámi people and communities. Research participants also spoke of experiencing a strong power deficit in processes around extractive industries’ green transition projects. Several other causes for stress were mentioned, including potential loss of traditional reindeer herding through loss of land and an unmanageable increase in industry-related processes. Despite this, several research participants stated that they were for a green transition if it was just and sustainable for all stakeholders.

Table 3.

Overview of major themes related to the impacts of the green transition.

Theme	Sources	Coding references	Direct quotes
Green transition used as excuse for exploitation to make profit	9	31	“This green transition . . . to start projects under that pretext . . . it’s almost a green light.”“We notice this climate change. And we realise the need to transform. But that cannot happen at the expense of the nature that we live off. But these large companies, they’ve just found a new business niche.”
Sámi not against green transition if just	4	15	“If there had been a sincere desire to share some profit with the reindeer herding Sámi communities and a sincere desire to listen to us when it doesn’t work, I think that it would have been possible to establish more wind power on land where we could live with the disturbances.”“We try to take responsibility for our society through saving the land. So that is really the Sámi CSR, or Indigenous CSR. We know how to do that. We take responsibility for our society.”
Colliding perspectives of nature	4	12	“From a Western perspective nature is there for humanity and from an Indigenous perspective we are there for nature.”
Enormous added burden för Sámi communities	3	11	“It is a myriad of industry related matters, and I can only imagine when we’ve gone even further into this green colonisation of northern Sweden, how our board meetings will be. In our community we have a board meeting once a month and we often have 60-something industry-related items at each board meeting.”
Fear of future	2	8	“We need protection. Maybe reindeer herding is just a small part of the whole Swedish operation, but oh so important, unless they want to kill us off. Or kill off traditional reindeer husbandry. . . Because if we stop traditional reindeer husbandry, we have no protection.”

Discussion

The results from this study show that in this particularly urgent era of green transition, CSR has a role to play. Tables 1 to 3 show that the Sámi participants find social responsibility conduct in extractive industries to be insufficient and underdeveloped in Sweden. Furthermore, there is a strong sense that CSR is only communicated to shareholders but not applied in practice with Sámi communities. Despite this, the Sámi participants desire effective CSR and would like to see extractive industries improve their stakeholder engagement, as shown in Tables 4 and 5. Ranängen and Lindman (2018) studied CSR practice and stakeholder interests in Nordic mining and found that several areas could be improved, such as “understanding the local society and using its input for decision making” (p. 676). The results of this study support their findings.

Table 4.

Overview of responses to changes in CSR conduct that Sámi people would like to see.

Theme	Sources	Coding References	Direct Quotes
Companies should initiate dialogue, include and show consideration for all stakeholders on equal terms	7	16	“I would like companies to have ongoing dialogue with the reindeer herding Sámi community, but also the local population that live in the area. And that they would show a sincere interest in improving environment issues and conditions for traditional livelihoods.”
CSR should build on in-depth knowledge about stakeholders’ situations	4	13	“What it must build on, CSR, it is actually an in-depth knowledge about each other’s conditions. . . that the company has the knowledge about what are Sámi? What is Sámi culture? What is reindeer husbandry, what does it require?”
Need for coordinating organisation and certification of CSR	4	12	“Companies who are socially responsible should actually be rewarded.”“There should be an overarching coordinating organisation for wind power for example, that could ask the Sámi community – are there places where you could consider contributing to energy production, wind, water or whichever way? And if you would contribute in this area, what disturbances would it mean, what resources would you need to be able to handle it?”
Sámi should be able to say no and companies should be able to abstain exploitation	5	10	“[We need] A clear right to say no to large projects. Then we would be equal in a negotiation. Today we don’t have negotiations. Today we are informed and steamrolled.”
CSR holds potential for Sámi communities if used correctly	5	10	“A correct application of CSR and Agenda 2030 could have enormous significance for Sámi people, both in the core areas of Sápmi but also in the other parts of countries where Sámi live.”“We don’t use those words to the companies, but I see now, thanks to us talking about it, that we need to get better at it.”
Companies should compensate Sámi people for cultural losses and health issues connected with exploitation of land	2	5	“When that piece of land disappears or you can’t access it any longer, the connection to the land disappears. And how could that be compensated? Or could it be saved? Can special efforts be made? It could be efforts to save language. It could be documentation of lands and such things. But these soft issues, they are pushed aside all the time. They are sort of forgotten.”

Table 5.

Overview of recommendations for improving CSR conduct on Sámi lands.

Topic	Recommendation
Coordinating organisation for CSR	• Sweden implements a method for coordination of due diligence to ensure CSR (such as a stamp for good CSR, e.g. the Nordic Swan Ecolabel which certifies environmental performance across a product’s entire lifecycle)• Reward companies who practice good CSR
CSR Certification	• Certification based on education and stakeholder involvement• Create a minimum level of knowledge that company employees at all levels must have• Iterative education, not a tick-a-box
Education	• Create education modules on Sámi history, society and culture that employees at all levels must complete• Make education about Sámi part of corporate training• Sámi knowledge as proven experience• Sámi communities to acquire further education about CSR
Reparation and compensation	• Good CSR would be to repair environmental damage one has caused• Good CSR would be to compensate Sámi communities for loss of land, culture and wellbeing due to industry activity
Stakeholder engagement	• CSR must build on enhanced mutual understanding for and knowledge about the respective parties’ conditions• Just conditions where Sámi interests and reindeer herding is considered, on just and sustainable terms
Information and communication	• Actual actions when operating on Sámi land should match CSR communication to the general public.• Companies should communicate their CSR work to Sámi stakeholders

Large state-owned companies were frequently mentioned in the interviews. While Blombäck and Wigren (2009) challenge that company size matters as a determinant for CSR activities, they do reflect on large company CSR often having a focus on a global social agenda. This does not mean that large companies are not affected by societal issues and community opinion, but in relation to this study, it raises the question of whether a focus on CSR in other countries and markets can dilute the CSR activities at home. This notion is supported by Mattila (2007) in a study on Finnish local versus global CSR in small and large companies. Mattila (2007) found that the smaller companies were interdependent on community welfare (p. 7). For example, companies gained profit if the community could access services locally and money stayed within the region and were thus motivated to increase community amenities. Contrary to this, a large company had changed its focus from local CSR to global CSR, and employees and the community felt that “CSR has changed to an ignoble pretence” (Mattila, 2007, p. 7).

Previous studies (Holroyd, 2023; Kløcker Larsen et al., 2018; Raitio et al., 2020) show that Sámi reindeer-herding communities have limited influence regarding industrial projects on their lands. The results from this study show that the participants experience large discrepancies between CSR communication on websites and brochures and actual CSR practice in relation to Sámi people. A central aspect of CSR is that society must be able to trust corporations, this is also something that has increased in recent years (Sagar & Singla, 2004; Zhao et al., 2021). All the Sámi participants expressed a lack of trust in extractive industries due to inadequate CSR conduct. Reasons for this could be a lack of communication with Sámi stakeholders or a lack of building trust through genuine engagement with Sámi and local communities. Genuine engagement would require extractive industries to learn about Sámi society, to communicate about planned projects and potential social impacts, and to include and consider Sámi and local community views. However, if not done correctly, this could result in an added burden for communities already inundated by the large amount of planning and permitting processes taking place in Swedish Sápmi (Österlin & Raitio, 2020).

In the interviews, asymmetrical power relations and differing perspectives on nature were pointed out as creating problems in interactions between extractive industries and Sámi. There is currently a grand narrative being formed in Sweden about Sámi communities simply being opposed to industrial development and thus an obstacle to the much-needed green transition, evidenced by, among other things, articles in national media (Dagens Nyheter, 2023). Portraying Indigenous peoples as backwards and contrary is a convenient narrative where opposing perspectives on land are concerned, a narrative that Indigenous peoples globally, not only Sámi people, are often forced to endure (Sehlin MacNeil, 2018). In Sweden, this grand narrative creates increased racism and polarisation with consequential increased discrimination. When Sámi communities successfully defend their lands through litigation, they often experience further increased violence and racism, affecting health and wellbeing (San Sebastian et al., 2024).

In terms of stakeholder engagement, consultation is the most common method for companies to access views from Sámi reindeer-herding communities, Sámi associations and organisations, and the Sámi Parliament. Consultation is also regulated by law in the recent Swedish act on consultation in matters that affect the Sámi people, adopted in March 2022 (Sveriges Riksdag 2022). The legislation is structured to guarantee the Sámi people’s entitlement to be involved in decision-making procedures throughout all societal tiers, and to strengthen Sámi influence in issues that are of particular importance to them (Sveriges Riksdag 2022; Sámediggi, 2024). Reviews of the law have been both positive and negative, labelling it a step forward, while also critiquing it for being too weak and not safeguarding the rights of Sámi reindeer-herding communities (Sámiid Riikkasearvi, 2024b). The law does not give Sámi representatives the right to veto. In fact, it states that if an agreement cannot be reached, a consultation can be ended. It also involves several exemptions where consultation with Sámi people is not required, including national defence and security-sensitive activities. This category will include increased military activity due to Sweden’s entry into NATO in 2024, and the need for mining critical minerals, which has been labelled a security issue by politicians and in the media. Both issues will compete for land use with already shrinking Sámi reindeer grazing-lands and will place increased strain on communities. Thus, the law on consultation with Sámi people gives a semblance of championing stakeholder engagement, yet risks becoming an added burden for already inundated community representatives.

Table 4 shows that to achieve a more just green transition, education was highlighted as a place to start. More specifically, extractive industries and businesses that operate on Sámi lands should have mandatory and ongoing education for all their workers, as well as their sub-consultants, on Sámi society and rights. The educational modules should be digital, easy to update and developed by the relevant industry, together with Sámi experts. These modules could be produced as part of a wider Human Rights perspective to include all of society. Extractive industries could play active roles in combating racism and discrimination, rather than allowing stereotypical ideas about Sámi people and communities to flourish. Through active stakeholder engagement, mutual learning, and turning the focus to local communities, a shared idea about what CSR really is could also be formulated. According to the research participants of this study “good” CSR practice would build on mutual knowledge, understanding and genuine engagement, and would include reparation of environmental damage and compensation for loss of land, culture and wellbeing.

Sámi participants’ desired improvements to CSR conduct and recommendations for changes

The third interview question was: With regard to extractive industry CSR conduct, what are changes that Sámi people would like to see? The question generated several recommendations about improvements to Swedish industry CSR conduct on Sámi lands and in contexts where Sámi are involved, outlined in Table 5. These recommendations are based on suggestions shared in the interviews, as shown in Table 4.

Based on the research participants’ suggestions (Table 4), several recommendations for enhancing CSR conduct in extractive industries operating on Sámi lands can be given, as shown in Table 5.

Conclusions

This study aims to map Sámi views of CSR and how Swedish extractive industries conduct their social responsibilities, and building on those understandings, to create recommendations for how extractive industries can improve their engagement with the Indigenous Sámi people. The study is limited to the Sámi research participants’ perspectives and to the Swedish side of Sápmi. Further research should be undertaken with other Sámi people to explore diverse views within Sámi communities in all of Sápmi.

Previous studies show that CSR measures are not enough to safeguard Indigenous Peoples’ rights (Kløcker Larsen et al., 2018), and the results of this study support those findings. However, the results also suggest that there is a need for formalised, effective and genuine CSR in the green transition. The narratives shared by 13 Sámi research participants show that the trust in the extractive industry is low, particularly with regard to the Swedish state-owned companies, but the desire to be informed and involved on equal terms is high. Furthermore, the results show that there are strong experiences of discrepancies between what companies communicate outwardly on websites and in reports regarding their CSR conduct, and the actual actions when operating on Sámi lands and interacting with Sámi people and communities. However, stakeholder engagement, including mutual learning, sharing information, conscious dismantling of power hierarchies in consultation processes, and respect for Sámi worldviews, is highlighted as desired CSR practices.

The results also show that the added pressures brought by the green transition and the new wave of industrialism are impacting Sámi people and communities through increased loss of land and culture. Furthermore, conflicts and polarisation have intensified as Sámi communities are pointed out as an obstacle to a green transition. Consequently, several research participants voiced fears for the future of Sámi people. This is despite many Sámi people being in strong favour of a just green transition, as their livelihoods are heavily impacted by climate change.

The final results are a number of CSR recommendations for extractive industries operating on Sámi lands in Sweden, including: mandatory and recurring digital education on Sámi society and rights; reparation and compensation for environmental damage and loss of land and culture; and implementation of CSR certification.