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Social Washing in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Firms

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: The growing importance of social sustainability fosters firms to communicate their social impact, e.g., through environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting. Unfortunately, firms’ actions are often not consistent with their communication. When action and communication on social sustainability are incongruent, social washing emerges. This paper aims to provide an exploratory analysis, based on multiple case studies, to investigate the dimensions and practices of social washing in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms. The results reveal that the main social washing practices in AEC are misleading assessment of impacts, cherry-picking, inadequate or absent involvement of the local community, and concealment of modern slavery. We propose a framework for operationalizing the analysis of social washing practices in AEC firms. Finally, we provide an overview of the dimensions and practices of social washing, laying the groundwork for future studies on the topic.

Source: Journal of Management in Engineering

DOI: 10.1061/jmenea.meeng-6095

Authors: Giorgio Locatelli, Ilaria Zagaria, Giacomo Dei, Tristano Sainati

Institution: Politecnico di Milano

Language: English

Topic: Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting

Subfield: Strategy and Management

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Responsible consumption and production

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W4403190137

FWCI: 3.763

Cites: 89

Cited by: 11

Related to: 10