Over the last decades, industrial development has brought prosperity and wealth together with triggering unintended ecological degradation. Therefore, a modern society has increasingly demanded companies to take responsibilities for the effects of those business activities that have a negative impact on the environment. Among businesses this has increased the interest towards adopting proactive approaches and practices which aim to reduce these negative impacts. Therefore, the topic of proactive integration of environmental concerns into or-ganizational structure and day-to-day operations is highly relevant and deserves to be investigated.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze why and how companies integrate environmental concerns in their business operations and organizational structure as well as to investigate the critical factors that enable such integration. In this thesis, the integrated deductive and inductive research approaches are applied and the qualitative study is selected in order to better understand the motivations, challenges and perceived benefits for companies when proactively integrating environmental concerns into their business operations and organizational framework. Moreover, the multiple cases study of three Swedish manufacturing companies, namely: Volvo Buses, Trelleborg and Kinnarps is selected as the research strategy. By conducting semi-structured in-depth interviews with the environmental managers, there has not been found a generic pattern as for the ways of incorporating environmental concerns into the operational activities and organizational structure. Nevertheless, the evidence of performing environmentally-conscious design and manufacturing (ECD&M) as well as implementing environmental management systems (EMSs) for achieving improvements in material utilization, hazardous waste and emissions reduction, efficient energy consumption and the use of different systems to prevent possible accidents and environmental emergencies have been identified in the studied manufacturing companies.

The thesis concludes with the essence of main reasons and benefits from adopting the environmental practices and eco-efficient strategies. Furthermore, the empirical results focus on the tools and methodologies supporting this proactive adoption. Thus, while Design for Environment (DFE) has gained much attention in theory, still only some elements of this methodology are being experienced by studied companies. In line with this, material selection process is recognized in all three organizations as a vital component in product design. As for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), although is the most reliable method for outlining the environmental performance of products still its use and implementation is disadvantaged by its complexity, comprehensive scope and time-intensive application. The empirical results also show that the focus on products, unlike manufacturing processes and manufacturing facili-ties, is still neglected to a certain degree. Furthermore, products are still not within the main focus of ISO 14001. Consequently, from an environmental point of view, EMS covering a wider scope would be preferable and a more useful tool when striving for a sustainable development. Finally, some critical factors for a successful integration of the environmental concerns in business practices are also identified.