Abstract
The present proposal sets out to present an exploration of the sustainability concept within the context of the Russian oil and energy sectors. Due to the high popularity of the term in western research and the presence of conflicting data, it is deemed pertinent to refine the understanding and research influence of sustainability within the above-specified setting. The research question is as follows: how the world’s focus on sustainability influences the Russian Energy and Oil Industry? The data will be gathered through an internet database search and analyzed through a sustainability framework developed by Lucato, Santos, and Pacchini (2017).
Introduction
The concept of sustainability gained global significance due to a variety of concerns including conservation of natural resources, energy crisis, pollution, and other environmental and economic issues. Scholars around the world allocate their efforts to researching the problem of sustainability in many spheres including the energy and oil industry due to its close interconnectedness with sustainability (Anis & Siddiqui 2015).
Many academics note the increased concern among Western energy companies over social and environmental issues of the extraction of energy from natural resources and the sustainability of their practices (Orazalin & Mahmood 2018). However, among Russian energy businesses there appears to be ambiguity in understanding or adherence to the principles of sustainability principles (Tynkkynen 2016; Wheeland 2015).
Besides, it appears that the practices of Russian energy business were allocated modest scientific effort, which the present research will try to address. From these considerations, emerges the following research question: how the world’s focus on sustainability influences the Russian Energy and Oil Industry? In this dissertation proposal a critical literature review, brief methodology, and research design overview will be presented.
Literature Review
Among scholars, there is almost universal concern about the significance of environmental issues posed by modern strategies exercised by energy production companies. The key concept of sustainability, as defined within the energy production context, is a nature-friendly production and delivery of energy that pursues its availability to future generations (Owusu & Asumadu-Sarkodie 2016).
In other research, the problem of sustainability regarding power generation is viewed from the position of ethics, social awareness, and zero-waste and emission strategies (Van der Schoor & Scholtens 2015). Thus, sustainability as a practical and visionary concept relates mostly to mindful exploitation of natural resources in the process of transforming them into energy. Many researchers agree that the issue of pollution and aggressive extraction is a large international concern and should be addressed with coordinated efforts of all countries.
Given the media image of Russia as being reluctant to these issues in practice, the research question appears to be relevant from the standpoint of both theory and application (Yamawaki 2016; Wheeland 2015). Scientific data also seems to be not exempt from problems.
Despite Russian oil extraction and energy, production strategies are claimed to be unsustainable, actual empirical evidence appears to be incomprehensive and controversial. Thus, Russian academics such as Safonov et al. (2013) notice a significant reduction in atmospheric emissions and water pollution across all industries including the oil and gas sphere.
On the other hand, Finnish researchers note that while Russian Federation accounts for 5% of global CO2 production, sustainability does not appear to be among the top priorities of the country and relevant industries (Jääskeläinen et al. 2018). In light of the apparent presence of conflicting data and opinions, as well as the insufficient literature addressing the matter, the dissertation will provide valuable insight on how the global awareness and adherence to sustainability performs among the Russian oil and energy sector.
Methodology
Answering the research question will require analyzing the current status of sustainability within the industries of energy production and oil extraction. Since there are a certain ambiguity and incoherence among scientific literature, the research should settle with an exploratory approach (Zikmund et al. 2013). This method speaks the fact that in poorly explored areas there is a need for generating extensive amounts of data. In addition to that, the fact of sustainability or unsustainability of Russian power generation and oil extraction needs to be established which requires an application of a certain framework.
Lucato, Santos, and Pacchini (2017) argue that measuring scrap generation, oil and electricity consumption, labor cost and other indicators within three core performance areas such as environmental, social, and economic is a preferable and evidence-based way to assess industry’s sustainability. The scholars argue that such a multifactorial method surpasses commonly accepted evaluation models such as the Dow Jones Sustainability index, GRI, and other frameworks.
Research Design
The preferred data collection method would be an internet database search. The databases provide a solid body of peer-reviewed academic sources that present quality data and will establish the credibility of the present dissertation. Both secondary and primary data will be used, as the National Academy of Sciences (2018) considers such practice as appropriate. The core data analysis tool would be the sustainability assessment framework proposed by Lucato, Santos, and Pacchini (2017) as it appears to perform well in application to the production industry. Despite their claims, other sustainability frameworks will be studied and applied as the coherence of data gathered from multiple analysis tools serves as better evidence (Bell, Bryman & Harley 2018; Martín-Gamboa et al. 2017).
Statistical analysis might be employed as well to measure quantities parameters of performance in the three areas within the sustainability tool by Lucato, Santos, and Pacchini (2017), as Ali and Bhaskar (2016) argue it will contribute to the meaningfulness of research outcomes. The limitation of the current research is the inability to access original Russian academic databases with current national research. Hence, there is a possibility of a biased outlook on the issue.
Reference List
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