Work

Corporate buzzword or genuine commitment? A corpus-assisted analysis of corporate ‘net-zero’ pledges by major global corporations

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: In recent years, corporations have faced growing pressure to address their environmental impact, leading many to pledge ‘net-zero’ emissions. This study employs corpus-assisted discourse analysis to examine how Fortune Global 500 companies communicate their net-zero commitments in their sustainability disclosures. Specifically, we conduct frequency, collocate, and concordance analyses to examine how the term net zero is discursively constructed and the solutions proposed to achieve this goal. Our findings support media observations that net zero has rapidly become a central theme in corporate discourse. However, corporate disclosures often frame net zero as a “journey” or an “ambition” and place a stronger focus on setting targets over concrete strategies to reduce emissions. These results raise questions about how credible corporate net-zero commitments are.

Source: Applied Corpus Linguistics

DOI: 10.1016/j.acorp.2025.100142

Authors: Matteo Fuoli, Annika Beelitz

Institution: University of Birmingham

Language: English

Topic: Discourse Analysis in Language Studies

Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Climate action

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $1,440