Paper short abstract:

Through multi-actor strategies of 'environmental stewardship', MNCs can better integrate Southern primary producers into a resilient supply chain which can gain global legitimacy. Beyond this instrumental role, such strategies play performative roles in reinforcing neoliberal environmentalism.

Paper long abstract:

For at least the past decade, business organisations have been building 'environmental stewardship'. As a general driver, tensions arise between company supply chains and communities dependent on the same natural resources. Hence multinational companies (MNCs) face various risks to their natural resource base, reputations and markets, sometimes from environmental protest. They seek to soften the conflicts through multi-stakeholder engagement of various types, especially through cooperation with non-governmental conservation organisations (NGCOs). Interdependencies on natural resources are identified by natural capital assessments. Cross-company sectoral partnerships have set voluntary environmental standards, which are variously accommodated or shaped by companies' supply-chain changes. Such inter-related partnerships are analysed here for two MNCs, Kering's cashmere from Mongolia and Olam's palm oil from Gabon.

Through various partnerships, these companies better integrate Southern primary producers into a resilient supply chain which can gain global legitimacy, especially in the North. Beyond their instrumental role, multi-actor relationships play performative roles in validating neoliberal environmentalism, i.e. relegating environmental and development issues to business leadership. These arrangements manage deeper tensions arising from the prevalent development model, namely: economic growth through global markets. From a neo-Gramscian perspective, multi-actor processes strategically help to protect business hegemony but have potential to contest it.