From sustainable management to sustainable development: a longitudinal analysis of a leading New Zealand environmental reporter

Abstract

This paper reports the results of an interpretive textual analysis of New Zealand's most consistent and arguably leading reporter on environmental and social impacts. Since 1995, Watercare Services Ltd, an Auckland-based water utility, has been an award winning environmental reporter. The paper works with all of the organization's reports since 1993 through 2003 identifying and analysing the emergence and development of a sustainable development discourse. Focusing on the language and images used to construct meanings, and the context in which the reports emerged, the paper traces the organization's reporting developments. The paper illustrates how, in evolving from environmental reports to sustainable development reports, the organization has (re)constructed itself from one that sustainably manages resources to one that practises sustainable development. The implications of these developments are explored in terms of the literature on 'capture' and organizational change.

Towards Sustaining the Status Quo: Business Talk of Sustainability in Finnish Corporate Disclosures 1987–2005

“…Springett (2003a) has emphasised that business front-groups have actively sought to mitigate the radical edge of sustainable development so that it would merely refer to the level of environmental and social commitment that corporations are comfortable with (see also Beder, 2002;Gray, 2002;Levy, 1997;Welford, 1997). Therefore, consonant with prior studies (Byrch et al, 2007;Spence, 2007;Tregidga and Milne, 2006) it is maintained here that analysing the business rhetoric of sustainability is important, since solving the urgent global and local environmental problems and progressing towards the ideal of sustainability is considered vital for humankind.…”

“…According to Spence the agenda of sustainable development came originally as something of a surprise to business, causing business actors trouble in understanding and reflecting on it. Spence (2007: 875) further refers to papers by Milne et al (2006) and Tregidga and Milne (2006) and argues that "business manages now to talk confidently about sustainable development and its ability to deal with it." The study at hand shows that similar developments have taken place in the disclosures of major Finnish companies.…”

“…In developing the method the study has drawn on recent studies aiming at deconstructing business language with relatively similar interpretive methods (see Bebbington and Gray, 2006;Buhr and Reiter, 2006;Livesey 2001Livesey , 2002aLivesey , 2002bLivesey and Kearins, 2002;Milne, Kearins and Walton, 2006;Milne, Tregidga and Walton, 2004;Tregidga and Milne, 2006). In practice, this study was conducted through numerous rounds of reading, followed by an interpretive analysis of the features and developments of the texts.…”

“…It is argued that these reports are an active forum through which the discourse of business sustainability is further (re)constructed and (re)structured. The paper thus strives to contribute by showing how the business rhetoric of sustainability has transformed over time (see Buhr and Reiter, 2006;Livesey and Kearins, 2002;Milne, Kearins and Walton, 2006;Tregidga and Milne, 2006). The paper is arranged as follows.…”

Is Sustainability Reporting Becoming Institutionalised? The Role of an Issues-Based Field

“…This discourse reflects ecological modernisation, in which sustainability is important and is accommodated through gradual modification of existing systems (Rossi, Brown, & Bass, 2000). As illustrated in Table Four, the emphasis on 'stakeholders', 'engagement', 'commitments', 'integration', and 'leadership' is shared by many of our interviewees (Tregidga & Milne, 2006).…”