Certified Good? Perceived Legitimacy of Sustainability Standards for Biofuels (Lars Friberg)

The empirical research is focused on sustainable biofuels and processes to develop standards for these but raise important broader issues of goal conflicts and policy trade-offs devising policies to address climate change. New standard initiatives have no incumbent legitimacy and are dependent on the acceptance and engagement from relevant stakeholders to build their perceived legitimacy. Lars’ research puzzle is: how does a standardisation initiative engage with stakeholders and what are the mechanisms through which they build perceived legitimacy for their processes? To examine this Lars has chosen the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels process as his empirical case study. Drawing on the emerging neo-institutional literature on non-state authority and legitimacy he analyses the process through which stakeholders engage and contribute in different ways to the establishment of perceived legitimacy for the standardisation initiative.

PhD student: Lars Friberg, contact: Lars Friberg