Work

Seeing the limits of voluntary corporate climate action in food and technology sustainability reports

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Corporate climate action is booming with companies across all sectors pledging to contribute towards climate mitigation. Yet, how do companies represent their climate impacts and the possibility for them to act on these? In this study, we explore these questions by analysing the sustainability reports of fourteen of the world's largest food and technology companies. We do this through Carol Bacchi's ‘What's the Problem Represented to be’-approach. As such, we examine how companies' suggested climate solutions constitute and delimit the problems that corporate climate action can and should address. We show that companies' climate solutions emphasise efficiency gains in resource and energy use and substitution of carbon-intensive inputs in production processes, whereas solutions aimed at transforming or reducing consumption and production patterns are largely absent. Rather, companies in the food and technology sectors emphasise why the products and services they provide remain socially necessary in the future. Our study adds to a growing literature illustrating the limits of voluntary corporate climate action.

Source: Energy Research & Social Science

DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2024.103798

Authors: Kirstine Lund Christiansen, Jens Friis Lund

Institution: University of Copenhagen

Language: English

Topic: Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting

Subfield: Strategy and Management

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Climate action, Responsible consumption and production

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,300