Reimagining Sustainability: An Interrogation of the Corporate Knights' Global 100

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2014

Keywords

sustainability, sustainable development, globality, corporate responsibility, organizational communication

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2014.906477

Abstract

This study examines sustainability reports of the Corporate Knights' “Global 100 Most Sustainable Companies in the World” in order to examine if and how they have been affected by Arturo Escobar's original critique of sustainable development (SD). Via thematic analysis, the study reveals that these corporations have circumvented Escobar's assessment by emphasizing sustainability as corporate growth and profit, without addressing some of the most prominent social concerns in our world today. The goal of this study was to trigger new ways of imagining SD, which speak to issues of equality and justice. Thus, it advances a view of sustainability that is driven by the logic of nature rather than by the logic of market. This study also suggests that researchers and practitioners should define praxis through engagement with local communities rather than through the traditional top-down approaches to sustainability.

Was this content written or created while at USF?

Yes

Citation / Publisher Attribution

Environmental Communication, v. 8, issue 3, p. 388-405.

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