HUMAN CAPITAL AND ENVIRONMENT AS FACTORS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: PRIORITIES OF ENTERPRISES IN THE KARELIAN ARCTIC

The need to ensure the sustainable development of the Arctic makes it relevant to study the current priorities and actions of local businesses in this direction. The purpose of the study is to determine for the economic entities of the Karelian Arctic the most significant factor of sustainable development out of the two considered ones – human capital and environmental quality. The work is based on the data for 2012–2020 of the Federal State Statistics Service, KareliaStat, corporate questionnaires of the environmental rating agency «ERA», as well as companies' reports on sustainable development. Methods: variance and regression analysis, content analysis and case study method. The results of the study showed that in recent years there has been increase in companies' expenditure on environmental protection and decrease in expenditure on personnel. This is mainly due to the increased level of environmental responsibility of large enterprises. They also allocate significant funds for the development of human capital, but this, due to the existing structure of employment, does not lead to increase in the average regional characteristics. The factor load of indicators of the socio-economic and ecological situation of the region with regard to expenditures on human and natural capital was determined. The novelty of the work is in combination of quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis and the study of poorly studied investment and economic practices of the subjects of the Karelian Arctic. The theoretical significance of the study is to expand the conclusions of earlier works on economic factors and clarify the role of some of them at a certain stage of institutional, socio-economic and environmental development of the region. The practical significance is associated with obtaining information for building a comprehensive strategy for sustainable development of the territorial system, taking into account the current orientation of its enterprises, and also determining the most relevant areas of stimulation of economic entities in order to intensify their actions to ensure sustainability.