After Greenwashing: Symbolic Corporate Environmentalism and Society (Organizations and the Natural Environment)

Businesses Promote Their Environmental Awareness Through Green Buildings, Eco-labels, Sustainability Reports, Industry Pledges And Clean Technologies. When Are These Symbols Wasteful Corporate Spin, And When Do They Signal Authentic Environmental Improvements? Based On Twenty Years Of Research, Three Rich Case Studies, A Strong Theoretical Model And A Range Of Practical Applications, This Book Provides The First Systematic Analysis Of The Drivers And Consequences Of Symbolic Corporate Environmentalism. It Addresses The Indirect Cost Of Companies' Symbolic Actions And Develops A New Concept Of The 'social Energy Penalty' - The Cost To Society When Powerful Corporate Actors Limit The Social Conversation On Environmental Problems And Their Solutions. This Thoughtful Book Develops A Set Of Tools For Researchers, Regulators And Managers To Separate Useful Environmental Information From Empty Corporate Spin, And Will Appeal To Researchers And Students Of Corporate Responsibility, Corporate Environmental Strategy And Sustainable Business, As Well As Environmental Practitioners--,businesses Are Eager To Promote Their Environmental Awareness Through Green Buildings, Eco-labels, Sustainability Reports, Industry Pledges And Clean Technologies. When Are These Symbols Wasteful Corporate Spin, And When Do They Signal Authentic Environmental Improvements? Based On 20 Years Of Research, Three Rich Case Studies, A Strong Theoretical Model And A Range Of Practical Applications, This Book Provides The First Systematic Analysis Of The Drivers And Consequences Of Symbolic Corporate Environmentalism. It Addresses The Indirect Cost Of Companies' Symbolic Actions And Develops A New Concept Of The Social Energy Penalty - The Cost To Society When Powerful Corporate Actors Limit The Social Conversation On Environmental Problems And Their Solutions. This Thoughtful Book Develops A Set Of Tools For Researchers, Regulators And Managers To Separate Useful Environmental Information From Empty Corporate Spin, And Will Appeal To Researchers And Students Of Corporate Responsibility, Corporate Environmental Strategy And Sustainable Business, As Well As Environmental Practitioners-- Cover 1 Half title 3 Series page 4 Title 5 Copyright 6 Dedication 7 Contents 9 Figures 10 Tables 11 Acknowledgements 12 Abbreviations 15 1 Introduction 17 Core ideas and contributions 26 Book structure 26 2 After greenwashing 31 The rise and fall of greenwashing 31 From greenwashing to symbolic corporate environmentalism 41 Greenwashing is an information disclosure decision 42 Greenwashing is deliberate 43 Greenwashing is initiated by companies 44 Greenwashing is beneficial to firms and costly to society 46 From greenwashing to symbolic corporate environmentalism 47 After greenwashing 53 3 Perspectives on symbolic corporate environmentalism 55 Two perspectives on corporate environmentalism 57 The conventional perspective 58 The critical perspective 60 Comparing the corporate environmentalism perspectives 64 Symbolic corporate environmentalism 66 Symbolic performance and symbolic gaps 71 Symbolic performance 73 Symbolic gaps 78 Consequences of symbolic corporate environmentalism 85 New directions and framing questions 87 4 Drivers and consequences of symbolic corporate environmentalism 92 Strategically investing in green solutions 94 Deciding green solution quantity 94 Designing a portfolio of green solutions 102 Consequences of symbolic corporate environmentalism 107 Static analysis of the costs of symbolic corporate environmentalism 107 Dynamic analysis of the social energy penalty 112 Summary of social consequences of symbolic corporate environmentalism 123 5 Study 1: Symbolic gaps in environmental strategies 125 Proactive environmental strategies and power 126 Explaining symbolic gaps: Decoupling and power 129 Hypothesis development 131 Symbolic performance 132 Symbolic gaps 133 Symbolic performance across fields 135 Symbolic gaps across fields 135 Methods 138 Meta-analytic techniques 139 Results 145 Discussion and implications 148 Empirical summary 152 Corporate environmental strategy and the social energy penalty 153 6 Study 2: Pollution control technology and the production of symbolic capital 156 Pollution control technologies and the competition for symbolic capital 159 Empirical context: CCS demonstration projects 162 Methodology 164 Stage 1: Preliminary interviews in the Canadian CCS context 165 Stage 2: Analysis of CCS demonstration project communications 166 Results 173 Cultural symbols produced by organisations 173 Granting symbolic capital 183 Discussion and implications 187 Empirical summary 189 Pollution control technologies and the social energy penalty 190 7 Study 3: The evolution of measurement and performance standards 197 Carbon accounting as a new measurement standard 199 Research approach 202 Three fields in carbon accounting 203 Practices and practitioners 203 Discourses 208 Discussion and implications 212 Empirical summary 216 Environmental disclosure standards and the social energy penalty 217 8 Measurement and methods 222 Estimating the social cost curve 222 Direct costs of symbolic corporate environmentalism 223 Indirect costs of symbolic corporate environmentalism 227 Method 1: Estimation based on deadweight loss triangles 230 Method 2: Estimation based on utility analysis 234 The perils and promise of estimating the social cost curve 236 Estimating the social benefit curve 237 Measuring the social energy penalty 240 9 Implications and conclusions 242 The social energy penalty 243 Industry self-regulation 245 Organisational decoupling 251 Practical implications 254 Limitations 263 After greenwashing 265 Notes 267 References 276 Index 307 "Businesses are eager to promote their environmental awareness through green buildings, eco-labels, sustainability reports, industry pledges and clean technologies. When are these symbols wasteful corporate spin, and when do they signal authentic environmental improvements? Based on 20 years of research, three rich case studies, a strong theoretical model and a range of practical applications, this book provides the first systematic analysis of the drivers and consequences of symbolic corporate environmentalism. It addresses the indirect cost of companies' symbolic actions and develops a new concept of the "social energy penalty"--The cost to society when powerful corporate actors limit the social conversation on environmental problems and their solutions. This thoughtful book develops a set of tools for researchers, regulators and managers to separate useful environmental information from empty corporate spin, and will appeal to researchers and students of corporate responsibility, corporate environmental strategy and sustainable business, as well as environmental practitioners"-- Provided by publisher Businesses promote their environmental credentials through green buildings, eco-labels, clean technologies and pledges. When are these symbols empty corporate spin, and when do they signal authentic environmental improvements? This thoughtful book provides researchers, regulators and managers with the first systematic analysis of the drivers and consequences of symbolic corporate environmentalism. Examines the underlying symbolic dimensions of corporate environmentalism, helping readers to separate useful environmental information from empty corporate spin