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Teaching and Learning Resource ( TLR)
1. Title
Critical Reading of Corporate Environmental Reports: A Discourse-Based Approach.
2. Keywords
Business; environmental policy; environmental reporting; discourse analysis.
3. Introduction
Businesses have developed a range of management practices in response to the various environmental issues that confront them. One of these is the communication to stakeholders of information about their own corporate environmental performance. This may involve the presentation of environmental information as an integral part of annual reports to shareholders, or - more commonly - as more or less free-standing corporate environmental reports (published in print or on company internet sites). On one level, environmental reports can be read - in a relatively straightforward way - in order to find out about companies' environmental performance and to evaluate any claims they might make to being 'environmentally responsible'. Such an approach tends to generate a polarised response to the practice of environmental reporting. On the one hand, it can be interpreted - positively - as a process by which companies are able to demonstrate the genuine efforts they are making to become more environmentally responsible. Against this, it can be interpreted - negatively - as a form of greenwashing: a process by which companies seek to portray themselves as being environmentally responsible when in fact they are not. These interpretations are, however, rather superficial. Specifically, they both tend to obscure the contested nature of fundamental 'understandings' that are embedded in texts such as environmental reports. These might relate to issues such as:
In order to make informed judgements about the practice of environmental reporting, students need to be able to identify and think critically about understanding such as these. One way of going about this is to adopt what might be called a discourse-based approach. This would involve assessing:
4. Aim
The aim of this TLR is to provide students with the tools for adopting a critical, 'discourse-based' approach to the reading of environmental reports, as a means of developing a sociologically-informed view of the significance of corporate environmental reporting in contemporary environmental politics.
5. Learning outcomes
After using this TLR, students should:
6. Pre-requisites
Students should have some background knowledge of environmental reporting (eg approximate numbers of companies currently reporting; industry sectors in which reporting is most common; use of print and electronic media as a means of publication; typical content of reports; range of organisations advocating reporting; schemes and initiatives of which reporting is a component). (See Section 12.) They should also have some knowledge of environmental ethics/values, and be familiar with the idea that the production of knowledge can be seen as a process of making 'knowledge claims'. (These topics are introduced in a number of related TLRs. See Section 13.)
The TLR has been designed to be used broadly as follows. (Timings are based on a class size of about 30 students. Smaller and larger class sizes could be accommodated by varying the number and size of groups.)
Stage 1:
1. Introduce the TLR, reviewing the nature of the content, the aims and learning outcomes, and the way in which the TLR will be used. (10 mins)
2. Give the students the Briefing Sheet and instruct them to:
3. Clarify - in an all-class discussion - any problems that students were unable to resolve in their groups. (15 mins)
4. Instruct the students - in their own time - to obtain a copy of the environmental report of a company of their choice (one report per group; ideally with no duplication between groups) (see Section 15 for further guidance on this); and to undertake (with reference to the Briefing Sheet) a discourse-based analysis of their report. (120 mins)
Stage 2
1. Ask each group to report back on the key points of its analysis. (30 mins)
2. Conclude the session with a general discussion of issues that have arisen. This might involve asking questions such as:
8. Instructions to students
As directed by tutor.
9. Stimulus Material
The stimulus material for this TLR consists of a Briefing Sheet and a set of corporate environmental reports. The Briefing Sheet is provided with the TLR (see below), while the environmental reports should be obtained by the students as part of the learning exercise. (See Section 7.)
10. Degree stage
The TLR has been developed primarily for use at level three. It could be used at an earlier stage, but students at level 2 and (especially) level 1 are less likely to possess the background knowledge and analytical skills necessary for achieving the learning outcomes.
11. Resource requirements
Students will need to be provided with the means for obtaining copies of environmental reports. (This can be done by contacting companies (in writing or by telephone) or - in some cases - directly from company internet sites.)
Where students do not already have sufficient background knowledge of environmental reporting, this TLR could be preceded by a mini-lecture on the subject. Alternatively, students could be required to find out about reporting for themselves - within the context of an individual or group research project.
The aims and/or learning outcomes of this TLR are related to those of other TLRs listed in the following 'thematic cluster':
14. Follow-up activities
This exercise could be repeated with different kinds of environmental 'text', including literature produced by academics, business organisations, governmental bodies, journalists, NGOs and QUANGOs. It could also be adapted for use in the analysis of TV documentaries.
15. Recommended reading
16. Users' comments
“If the students are up for a critical debate then this works really well. The ability of the students to criticise CERs through discourse analysis is a very useful tool.”
“You could get the students to access the reports via the web so that they have the responsibility for their learning. Can I suggest Sunderland University as a good site for CERs.”
“This is a very good example of a package that can be used almost off the shelf. I did spend some time getting hold of the CERs, but now that I have them that is not a problem.”
“Tutor needs to do a fair amount of preparation on current state of corporate environmental reporting: guidelines / legal requirements, increase in numbers of companies doing it (with bang up to date figures), latest winners of Corporate Environmental Report of the Year award.”
“If by chance students select the same company, this is a good thing – in our case, this happened twice and the students somehow found different kinds of reports from different years and with different emphases and perspectives – good opportunity for discussion among students.”
“Appears to work just as well if students work individually to source / analyse the reports.”
“If less time is available than is specified in the TLR, it might be worth using the same company’s report for all students. This would also aid standardisation of any coursework developed.”
“If students have no background in environmental ethics, and if time permits, it would probably be worth using other TLRs referred to in Section 13 (‘Links with other TLRs’) first.”
“If less time is available than is specified for the TLR, it might be worth limiting the coverage of the exercise by providing 4 or 5 specific questions to answer rather than requesting a general discourse analysis.”
Briefing Sheet:
Critical Reading of Corporate Environmental Reports:
A Discourse-Based Approach
Text, Meaning and Discourse
The process of reading is far from simple. Amongst other things, it involves a lot more than the straightforward 'transfer' of information from the author via the text to the reader. Whilst the academic literature on this subject is vast and complex, the general point can be illustrated by thinking about the different kinds of meaning - explicit and implicit - which might be said to be 'present' in a text:
Explicit / denoted / literal meanings
Implicit / connoted / metaphorical meanings
It follows from this that if we want to read texts critically, we need to be able to identify and evaluate all of the different kinds of meaning that might be present in a text. In fact, we even need to do a little more than this, because meanings are not simply present 'in' texts. Rather, they are - in part - created by the reader when s/he interprets a text. This is an active process in which the reader makes sense of a text in relation to her/his existing 'knowledge' (values, attitudes, beliefs). Thus, when we try to analyse what a text means to us, we need to think about the meaning that are - in some sense - in the text itself and the way in which we interpret the text in relation to our own existing knowledge. This process of critical - or discourse-based - analysis is made even more complex where multi-media texts are concerned are involved. In such cases, it is also necessary to be able to 'decode' any non-verbal 'messages' associated with images and/or sound.
Corporate Environmental Reports
Businesses have developed a range of management practices in response to the various environmental issues that confront them. One of these is the communication to stakeholders of information about their own corporate environmental performance. This may involve the presentation of environmental information as an integral part of annual reports to shareholders, or - more commonly - as more or less free-standing corporate environmental reports (published in print or on company internet sites).
On one level, environmental reports can be read - in a relatively straightforward way - in order to find out about companies' environmental performance and to evaluate any claims they might make to being 'environmentally responsible'. Such an approach tends to generate a polarised response to the practice of environmental reporting. On the one hand, it can be interpreted - positively - as a process by which companies are able to demonstrate the genuine efforts they are making to become more environmentally responsible. Against this, it can be interpreted - negatively - as a form of greenwashing: a process by which companies seek to portray themselves as being environmentally responsible when in fact they are not. These interpretations are, however, rather superficial. Specifically, they both tend to obscure the contested nature of fundamental 'understandings' about society and the environment (see below) that are embedded in texts such as environmental reports.
Simple Discourse Analysis of a Corporate Environmental Report
In this exercise, you will be required to work in a small group. You should obtain a copy of one corporate environmental report - either by contacting a company (in writing or by telephone) or directly from a company's internet site. Once you have done this, you should undertake a simple discourse analysis of your report. Specifically, you should consider the types of meaning identified in Figure 1, together with any non-verbal messages associated with art work, design, format, graphics, layout, photographs, presentation and so on, in order to address the issues listed below.
What messages does the report convey about the following:
Bibliography
Discourse theory
Discourse-based approaches to environmental politics
Environmental reporting
Environmental management (general texts)
Journals
Internet
For information on issues relating to accountability in business, and Internet addresses for a sample of corporate environmental performance reports, see:
For listings of on-line corporate environmental performance reports, see:
Company websites can also be located by performing Internet searches.