During the last years, the importance of sourcing in firms has increased. Globalization, fierce competition and an increased level of outsourcing are common explanations to why firms have highlighted the potential to realize savings and the value creation that the Purchasing department can generate. One trend that follows in parallel with globalization is an increased pressure from society on firms to take responsibility for the impact that its products and services have on the environment. This responsibility creates even more attention as outsourcing involves trade with suppliers in low wage countries, where the level of environmental and social responsibility is not always satisfying. The Purchasing department, the firm’s interface with suppliers should therefore, together with the firm’s Environmental department, play a key role in the firm’s contribution towards sustainable development. As few previous studies have covered this interplay the purpose of this thesis is to investigate the internal interaction between firms’ Purchasing and Environmental departments and to examine why the interaction take the shape it does. The research approach is based on a qualitative case study of Volvo Cars and Sandvik Materials Technology. Our theoretical foundation is the interaction and network perspectives which we have applied on the internal network within a firm. With input from our pre-study, made at the pharmaceutical company Recip, and our theoretical framework, an adjusted interaction model has emerged. This model has been used as a base for the structure of our research findings and analysis. Our main conclusions are that the firm’s relation to its surroundings strongly affects the shape of the internal interaction between the Purchasing and Environmental departments. Additional influencing factors, that the firm has a greater chance to change, are characteristics on a firm level. Positive impact on the interaction has the following characteristics: A structure with cross functional teams, locally placed environmental coordinators that enable lear...
