PAPER

Communicating a Green Corporate Perspective: Ideological Persuasion in the Corporate Environmental Report

Marianne Mason 1

and Robert D. Mason 2

Abstract This study examines the corporate environmental reports of 100 companies listed in the 2009 Fortune 1000 in order to illustrate how this type of genre communicates a green corporate ethos to audience members who are trying to distinguish between greenwashing tactics and true environmental concerns. The authors analyze how corporate environmental reports are constructed at macro and micro discursive levels to promote a socially responsible image to in-group (e.g., employees and stockholders) and out-group (e.g., consumers)

1 Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA 2 Georgia Gwinnett College, Atlanta, GA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Marianne Mason, Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Georgia State University,

PO Box 3970, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA

E-mail: [email protected]

Journal of Business and Technical Communication

26(4) 479-506 ª The Author(s) 2012

Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav

DOI: 10.1177/1050651912448872 http://jbtc.sagepub.com

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members. The results of the analysis show how these reports use ideo- logical persuasion to influence or change audience members’ opinions about corporate environmental sustainability.

Keywords corporate ethos, corporate environmental reports, greenwashing, ideologi- cal persuasion

Sustainable business practices serve as blueprints for resource use that

strives to meet human needs and yet preserve the environment for both

present and future generations. This type of business model that weighs eco-

nomic decisions with environmental concerns has become the new corpo-

rate standard for accountability for many large companies. By engaging

in sustainability initiatives, and reporting such initiatives to employees,

shareholders, environmental groups, and citizens at large, companies are

addressing shifts in social goals (see Aras & Crowther, 2009; Green,

2008). For large companies, being green and going green is about projecting

an awareness and understanding about current societal concerns in order to

‘‘open up new avenues of revenue, and help keep employees, shareholders

and customers happy’’ (Mincer, 2008, p. 4).

Corporations address the relationship between doing business and fol-

lowing responsible business practices in their corporate social responsibility

(CSR) policies (Clark, 2000; Herrmann, 2004; Moreno & Capriotti, 2009;

Waddock, 2004). At present, (CSR) reporting is one of the three largest

budgeted items for communication departments in large companies

(Hutton, Goodman, Alexander, & Genest, 2001). One venue for articulating

and disseminating a company’s social policies is the corporate environmen-

tal report. Addressing a company’s impact on the environment has become

routine corporate practice because ‘‘consumers and other stakeholders pre-

fer companies that embrace social responsibility’’ (Dawkins & Ngunjiri,

2008, p. 286). The need to reconcile income potential with the notion that

companies have a responsibility to society and the planet fits into modern

stakeholder theory (Freeman, 1984). This theory recognizes the corpora-

tion’s need to communicate with its inside members (e.g., stockholders and

employees), with those with whom it does business, and with society at

large. In this modern corporate framework, companies take on the role of

political institutions with social responsibilities and a public image to

protect (Brønn & Brønn, 2003).

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Corporate environmental reports share many features with other types of

company-controlled communication, such as mission statements and annual

reports. Companies use reporting genres to stress organizational values,

such as their commitment to investors, clients, and the community at large

(see Bart, 1997; Bartkus, Glassman & McAfee, 2000; Morphew & Hartley,

2006; Rarick & Vitton, 1995; Stallworth-Williams, 2008; Van Riel, 1995).

Corporate environmental reports also serve to address public skepticism of

a company’s green image, such as charges of corporate greenwashing

(Balmer & Gray, 1999; Gray & Balmer, 1998; Vanhamme & Grobben,

2009)—‘‘tactics that mislead consumers regarding the environmental

practices of a company’’ (Parguel, Bernoit-Moreau, & Larceneux, 2011,

pp. 15–16). Studies have shown that the public’s attitude toward a company

is negatively affected by the company’s token efforts toward environmental

sustainability (Creyer & Ross, 1997; Laufer, 2003; Mohr & Webb, 2005;

Murray & Vogel, 1997). Thus, companies that wish to remain competitive

and build a strong corporate image cannot ignore public skepticism when

constructing their corporate environmental reports.

This article examines the corporate environmental reports of 100 Fortune

1000 companies in order to illustrate how these reports communicate the

ethos of corporate environmental stewardship to audience members who

‘‘attempt to distinguish between truly virtuous firms and firms taking

opportunistic advantage of sustainable development trends or, otherwise

stated, between reputation and rhetoric’’ (Parguel et al., 2011, p. 15). We

show how companies use ideological persuasion (Van Dijk, 1998) in their

corporate environmental reports in order to promote themselves as socially

responsible to in-group (e.g., employees and stockholders) and out-group

(e.g., consumers) members whose opinions about corporations and their

role in society need to be either influenced or changed.

This approach to the discursive analysis of corporate environmental

reports adds to the limited contemporary research on environmental sustain-

ability and organizational communication, providing insight into how the

discourse structure of such reports directs and shapes audiences’ percep-

tions within a particular corporate ideological framework, such as environ-

mental sustainability (see Aras & Crowther, 2009; Bullis, 1997; Dawkins &

Ngunjiri, 2008; Dayton, 2002; Livesey, 1999, 2001; Livesey & Kearins,

2002; Moreno & Capriotti, 2009; Stiller & Daub, 2007). In this study, we

analyze the structure of the corporate environmental report so as to docu-

ment the relationship between the hierarchical content of this genre and the

goals companies promote in order to convince their audience members of

their environmental ideology. We also analyze the microstructure, the

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linguistic components, of the corporate environmental report so as to exam-

ine how companies persuade their audiences of the sincerity of their efforts

as environmental stewards. But first we explain our method for this study

and discuss the effects of language use in influencing the mind-set of audi-

ence members.

Method

Our corpus consists of 100 corporate environmental reports of companies

listed in the 2009 Fortune 1000 (see Appendix). We selected these reports

by using a random-number generator. The majority of these reports are from

the food, drug, and consumer-products industry; specialty retailers; and the

utilities and energy sectors. These industries are among the most frequently

represented in the Fortune 1000 list. Table 1 illustrates the distribution of

the environmental reports in the corpus by type of industry.

The environmental reports in the corpus were prepared by the compa-

nies’ communication departments. They are a type of company-controlled

communication that is broadly disseminated in the companies’ corporate

Web sites (see Morsing, 2006; Parguel, Bernoit-Moreau, & Larceneux,

2011; Van Riel, 1995). For these companies, and many that operate inter-

nationally, the Internet has increasingly become the preferred medium for

communicating corporate environmental practices (see Clark, 2000; Esrock

& Leichty, 1998; Gunnarsson, 2009). Some of the reasons that companies

Table 1. Types of Industries Represented in the Environmental Reports

Industry Total

1. Food, drug stores, consumer products 22 2. Specialty retailers 21 3. Utilities: gas and electric 16 4. Energy 8 5. Petroleum refining 7 6. Chemicals 6 7. Household and personal products 6 8. Food services 4 9. Pharmaceuticals 4 10. General merchandiser 3 11. Airlines 2 12. Automotive services 1 Total 100

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prefer the Internet for such purposes are that it provides a high level of

accessibility at a low expense (Schlegelmilch & Pollach, 2005) and rich

opportunities for argumentation and interactivity (Coupland, 2005). Figure 1

illustrates how Sara Lee, a company whose report is included in the corpus,

uses the Internet to disseminate its corporate environmental mission (Sara

Lee, 2010, p. 49).

The index page shown in Figure 1 provides a visual representation of the

structure, communicative devices, and imagery often found in this type of

report. The imagery, although not the focus of our study, enhances and

furthers the company’s message.

We examined the rhetorical and discursive devices that these corporate

environmental reports use to communicate a green ideology to audience

members, analyzing the data manually at both macro and micro levels.

To ensure accuracy, we each independently coded the structural and lin-

guistic components of the corpus. The authors also reviewed each other’s

coding of the corpus.

Genre analysis theory and semantic-based approaches guided our coding

and parsing of the data. We analyzed the macrostructure of each report by

coding the type of discourse move (see Bazerman, 1989; Bhatia, 1993,

1998, 2004; Biber, Connor, & Upton, 2007; Swales, 1990). Moves are

Figure 1. Index page for Sara Lee 2010 sustainability report.

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structural elements that deliver the content of the genre and are classified by

type of rhetorical function or theme (Bhatia, 1993). Across reporting gen-

res, the two common moves are to introduce and to establish credentials.

Our analysis of the corpus accounts for these two moves as well as for sub-

moves that are specific to the genre. This classification method establishes

the type, rate, and frequency of each rhetorical move in order to discover the

companies’ rhetorical preferences and hierarchical sequencing (i.e., priori-

ties) when reporting on their environmental commitments, goals, and ideol-

ogy. As we will show, the hierarchical sequence in this type of genre is not

random but rather reflects rhetorical tools and cognitive strategies used for

ideological persuasion. These strategies include recognizing the role that

audience members’ prior knowledge or schema play in their understanding

of the content of the genre (Fairclough, 1993).

To examine the micro features of the corporate environmental reports,

we used a transitivity analysis (Halliday, 1994, 2002, 2005). Transitivity,

according to Halliday (1994), examines how people use language to per-

ceive the world: ‘‘Language enables human beings to build a mental picture

of reality, to make sense of what goes on around them and inside them’’

(p. 106). When applied to the study of corporate environmental reports,

this type of analysis provides insight into how these reports use language

to shape audience members’ opinions about corporate environmental

sustainability.

The Effects of Language Use in Influencing the Mind-Set of Audience Members

Before we examine the structure of corporate environmental reports and its

role in expressing the company’s ideology, we must consider the effects of

language use in influencing the mind-set of audience members. At the crux

of this discussion lies the relationship between cognition and discourse

processing:

Discourse understanding and influence is a complex process that is a function

of both the structures of discourse as well as of the mental processing and rep-

resentation of recipients. That is, whether or not, and how, people are influ-

enced by talk and text also depends on what they already know and believe.

(Van Dijk, 1998, p. 244)

The influence of language in ideological persuasion presupposes cogni-

tive conditions, such as people’s previously attained knowledge and beliefs.

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This type of knowledge shapes individuals’ personal and socially shared

beliefs. In principle, this notion implies that the acquisition of new ideologies

does not take place on a clean slate. Individuals thus evaluate an ideological

message, such as a company’s stated stance on the environment, through the

fulfillment of plausible (individually or socially held) truth criteria.

People’s prior knowledge affects their evaluation of a text, such as a cor-

porate environmental report, by helping them to distinguish between true or

false conditions. For readers of corporate environmental reports to accept a

view or a position that is presented to them and be persuaded, one of two

conditions must be met: First, they have no alternative opinions or ideolo-

gical presuppositions that would interfere with their acceptance of an ideo-

logical standpoint such as corporate environmental stewardship. Second, if

their previous knowledge includes facts or opinions about companies and

the environment that potentially challenge the ideological standpoint pre-

sented in corporate environmental reports, a change of knowledge must

occur. The first condition facilitates ideological persuasion because the

readers lack social knowledge (or knowledge about the company) that

clashes with the ideologies presented to them. As Parguel, Bernoit-

Moreau, and Larceneux (2011) put it, ‘‘if consumers have no other

information to explain the company’s motives to communicate . . ., then

no alternative inputs are accessible, and so transfer from the attribution

of communication should happen automatically’’ (p. 18). The second

condition, on the other hand, demands that ideological persuasion

include changing readers’ mind-set about an ideology or an understand-

ing that is different from their own, such as a skeptical view of compa-

nies and their role in society.

In our analyses of the macrostructure and microstructure of corporate

environmental reports, we discuss how corporate environmental reports

achieve ideological persuasion. We illustrate how this genre is constructed

to facilitate an audience’s acceptance of a company’s stated green ideology.

This construction entails prioritizing and selecting commitments and objec-

tives at a macro level coupled with discursively presenting actions, events,

and facts, such as those supported by (taken-for-granted) truth criteria, at a

micro level.

The Macrostructure of Corporate Environmental Reports

The corporate environmental report is considered a hybrid or mixed genre

(Bhatia, 2004) that draws mainly from the discursive generic values of

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reporting genres (e.g., narrations and arguments) and promotional genres

(e.g., descriptions and evaluations). By combining these two types of

genres, a corporate environmental report informs audience members of the

company’s actions and efforts to protect the environment and promotes an

image of good environmental stewardship.

The hybrid nature of corporate environmental reports allows companies

to compete with one another for customer and worker loyalty. The macro-

and micro-discursive elements of these reports are organized and selected to

highlight the positive aspects of the company. From the standpoint of dis-

course development, the commingling of promotional and reporting activ-

ities furthers the authors’ private intentions (i.e., exploitation of discursive

devices) to market the company within a contemporary (environmentally

friendly) corporate paradigm (Barrow, 2005; Bhatia, 2004; Ottman,

1994).

In corporate environmental reports, two key moves deliver the reporting

and promotional functions of the genre: establishing credentials and intro-

ducing sustainability initiatives. In our corpus, the establishing-credentials

move is composed of one to six paragraphs that summarize the company’s

stated objectives, beliefs, and values. For example, Figure 2 shows how

PPG (2008) used this type of move to introduce its core values and commit-

ment to the environment in its corporate sustainability report (p. 15). As we

can see in Figure 2, the report contains images to enhance the audience’s

understanding of the company’s green efforts.

The second move, introducing sustainability initiatives, supports the

establishing-credentials move by revealing actions that the company has

taken or plans to take to promote environmental sustainability. This

move may include a lead or summary section that precedes a variety

of submoves or steps specific to an area of environmental sustainability,

such as energy use and water conservation. Figure 3 illustrates how

Kraft Foods (2010) introduced its sustainability initiatives in its corpo-

rate environmental report. In this move, companies persuade audience

members of their environmentally sound business practices by present-

ing a goal-oriented approach.

Following Kanoksilapatham (2007), we classified the distribution and

types of moves and submoves in the corpus as either conventional (C) or

optional (O). Table 2 shows this distribution.

The establishing-credentials move is composed of at least one lead

paragraph and often (84% of the time) four or more additional paragraphs. The lead paragraph lays out the company’s broad objectives and goals, as

example 1 illustrates:

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(1) PPG is committed to operating in a manner that is protective of people and

the environment. Through its business and manufacturing practices as well as

its innovative products, the company is focused on stewardship and conser-

vation, which not only helps protect the environment, but also gives PPG a

competitive advantage in the marketplace. (PPG, 2008)

In example 1, PPG gives a justification for its environmental policy that is

consistent with audience members’ sociocognitive understanding of the role

of corporations in society (i.e., primarily to make a profit). PPG, however,

reconciles its need to be competitive in the marketplace with the need to be

Figure 2. Establishing-credentials move for PPG 2008 corporate sustainability report.

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good stewards of the environment. This position promotes the notion that a

company does not have to sacrifice its social responsibilities in order to

make money.

Subsequent paragraphs in the establishing-credentials move outline a

company’s environmental policy and lay out how the policy shapes its

Figure 3. Introducing sustainability initiatives for Kraft 2010 corporate report.

Table 2. Distribution and Classification of Moves and Submoves in the Environ- mental Reports

Move/submove a

Classification % of Corpus

Establishing credentials (C) 100 Introducing sustainability initiatives (C) 100

Summary (O) 31 Energy use/greenhouse gas emissions (C) 100 Waste management/recycling (O) 91 Water conservation (O) 86 Alliances (O) 36 Sustainable packaging (O) 30 Sustainable agriculture (O) 21

aWe listed only the submoves that appear five times or more in the environmental reports.

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operating practices locally or worldwide. Example 2 illustrates how a

corporation uses this type of move to introduce its operating principles:

(2) Dedicated to minimizing the impact of its operations on the environment,

Hertz enacted a proactive Sustainability Program which enables worldwide

operations to strive for consistently sound environmental behavior. The

objectives of Hertz’s Sustainability Program are based on principles of

preventing and minimizing environmental impact from its operations and

promoting continuous improvement of the program. (Hertz, 2010)

In example 2, the company links the mantra of continuous improvement to

its environmental policy. This strategy evokes audiences’ background

knowledge of what constitutes a committed approach to environmental

stewardship.

The move introducing sustainability initiatives, on the other hand, serves

to demonstrate that a company is acting on its environmental commitments,

beliefs, and goals. This move addresses the company’s implied promise

(i.e., commitment) that it will abide by sound environmental practices.

As example 3 illustrates, some companies begin this move by including a

summary section that links their corporate commitments, as initially stated

in the establishing-credentials move, to their overall environmental

practices:

(3) Several years ago, Sara Lee Corporation adopted its Environmental Pol-

icy, which guides our global environmental practices. (Sara Lee, 2010)

Of the environmental reports in the corpus, only 31% included a summary section in their introducing sustainability initiatives. More often, such

initiatives serve as a header for various submoves that show how the com-

pany is addressing environmental sustainability. The companies repre-

sented in our corpus address six key categories: energy use/greenhouse

gas emissions, waste management/recycling, water conservation, alliances,

sustainable packaging, and sustainable agriculture. The energy use/green-

house gas emissions category appears in all of the environmental reports

in the corpus, and thus we classified this category as conventional in the

genre. The companies in the corpus, then, apparently have a vested interest

in addressing the public’s concern about the responsible management of

energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

Because the other submoves do not always appear in these reports, we

classified them as optional. The submoves waste management/recycling

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and water conservation are observed often in the corpus, 91% and 86% of the time, respectively, whereas the submoves alliances, sustainable packa-

ging, and sustainable agriculture are observed less often. With the exception

of alliances, the submoves are used primarily to communicate the compa-

nies’ efforts to limit their environmental footprint, often in an active or mea-

surable manner. Example 4 illustrates this point with the most common

submove in the corpus, energy use/greenhouse gas emissions:

(4) ITT uses solar energy at some sites, like our pump plant in Shenyang. We

are now looking at all of our Defense sites—representing 7 million square

feet of space—to determine the best candidates to use solar energy as their

prime energy source. (ITT, 2009)

In example 4, the company provides a specific instance of its environmental

efforts, such as its use of solar energy in one of its plants. This serves to con-

nect the company’s promises, as stated in the establishing-credentials move,

with actions that have been or, in theory, can be verified by third parties.

The submove alliances, on the other hand, has the unique function of

directing audience members’ attention to the company’s sustainable busi-

ness practices that are accomplished by teaming with another entity. Exam-

ple 5 shows how the company uses this particular move to affirm its efforts

to develop joint collaborations with an established green organization:

(5) Over the last fiscal year, Sara Lee has been working closely with our infra-

structure partner, HP, to find ways to save energy and reduce waste across our

global IT operations. These efforts focus primarily on server virtualization,

green data centers, cloud computing, employee computer and printer use and

development of more transparent metrics to monitor our progress toward

these goals. (Sara Lee, 2010)

Although examples of the submove alliances appear less often in the corpus

than energy use/greenhouse gas emissions, waste management/recycling,

and water conservation, this submove lends legitimacy to the concept of

sustainable development by banking on the strength of partnerships to shape

and reproduce corporate rhetoric, particularly if the partner company is well

established and respected globally (see Livesey, 1999). Having such exter-

nal backing that is not perceived ‘‘as controlled by the company increases

the positive impact of CSR campaigns’’ (Parguel et al., 2011, p. 16). In this

sense, the creation of alliances—strategic team membership and collabora-

tion—legitimizes the company’s green status and efforts.

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The Microstructure of Environmental Reports

The macrostructure of corporate environmental reports is organized to

direct readers’ attention to key areas that promote the company’s mission

and its efforts to achieve it. The microstructure of these reports, on the other

hand, supports the macrostructure through linguistic components that fur-

ther the higher level macro functions. By examining the microstructure,

we find how language is used in this genre to establish a connection

between the company’s ideology and its good corporate citizenship.

To find how language is used to persuade audience members to accept

ideological positions, we performed a microtextual transitivity analysis of

the corpus. At its core, transitivity analysis is concerned with the mental

picture that language users, for example, those who construct corporate

environmental reports, have of the world and how they transmit it to an

audience (see Halliday, 1994, 2005). It identifies how language users

encode in their linguistic choices their views of reality and their evaluations

of specific experiences. This type of analysis when applied to written dis-

course provides linguistic tools to examine three basic elements of a clause:

participants, processes, and circumstances. These elements establish who

does what (and to whom), what is done, and when or where it is done, as

illustrated in example 6:

(6) Alcoa [participant/actor] is meeting [process] the challenge in the com-

munities [circumstance] in which we do business. (Alcoa, 2010)

In example 6, the first element in the clause is the participant, Alcoa. In gen-

eral, participants are grammatically expressed as nouns or noun phrases. In

this instance, Alcoa is the doer of the action, the actor. Actors may act alone

or upon a recipient—another person or object. Such recipients are classified

as targets or goals. The second element in the clause is the process (the

semantic nucleus of the clause), consisting of the obligatory verb ‘‘is meet-

ing.’’ The process involves the circumstance described in the clause, which,

in this example, is ‘‘the challenge in the communities.’’ The process may be

accompanied by more than one circumstance, such as the time, place, or

manner of the event described in the clause.

In the next sections, we discuss how language is used in corporate envi-

ronmental reports to express what companies stand for as corporate actors

(i.e., environmental stewards). We focus on the discursive choices present

in the lead section (usually the first paragraph) of each move and submove

in the genre. We propose that by examining critically each microstructural

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discursive choice within a particular macrostructural move, we can uncover

the types of discourse that companies in the corpus use to persuade their

audience to form certain opinions about a stated green ideology.

Process Types and Discursive Goals in Establishing Credentials

The establishing-credentials move includes three types of processes that

Halliday (1994, 2005) defined as material, relational, and mental. Table 3

contains examples from the corpus of each of these processes and their dis-

cursive goals. Material processes, or processes in which the actor does

something, make up 72% of the processes in the corpus. In this process type, the verb committed appears in 91% of the instances. The high rate of usage for this verb is a common feature in corporate environmental reports

because the verb directly aligns the company with its environmental efforts

by making an explicit promise or commitment (see Laufer, 2003; Van de

Ven, 2008). By making an explicit commitment that is linked to the com-

pany’s actions, the company is able to project an image in which its corpo-

rate identity, what it really is, is consonant with its communication, what it

says it is (see Fukukawa, Balmer, & Gray, 2007). From a microstructural

standpoint, the primary cognitive-discourse function of material processes

is to persuade audience members of the company’s dedication to environ-

mental stewardship, whether or not the company’s core business ethos

matches its actions. Constructing a report that is, or appears to be, founded

in ethical and actual business practices is an integral component for initiat-

ing changes in audience members’ perceptions of the connection between

for-profit companies’ actions and their role in society.

The other two process types, relational and mental processes, are used

less often than material ones but play an important role in representing the

company’s environmental ideology. Relational processes ascribe certain

qualities or attributes to a company or entity, such as environmental stew-

ardship. In doing so, such processes, as Hodge and Kress (1993) pointed

out, tend to pass judgments on the company, encoding these attributes in the

green ideological orientations and positions that the company articulates in

this type of report.

Mental processes express the company’s recognition of the role that the

environment plays in society. Such processes are more restricted in their

discursive range and functions than material ones are. Because mental

processes do not directly convey the company’s commitment toward the

environment or require companies to put forth actions or efforts to be good

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ro n m

e n ta

l go

al s.

’’ N

iS o u rc

e

M e n ta

l p ro

ce ss

(1 8 %

o f p ro

ce ss

e s

in th

e co

rp u s)

1 . ‘‘W

e re

co gn

iz e

th at

ad va

n ci

n g

go o d

h e al

th an

d m

ai n ta

in in

g sa

fe ty

e x te

n d s

th ro

u gh

th e

d is

co ve

ry , d e ve

lo p m

e n t,

an d

d is

tr ib

u ti o n

o f

m e d ic

in e s,

to p re

se rv

in g

n at

u ra

l re

so u rc

e s

an d

cr e at

in g

a h e al

th y

e n vi

ro n m

e n t

an d

w o rk

p la

ce .’’

P fi ze

r

2 . ‘‘W

e fe

el th

at w

e h av

e a

co rp

o ra

te so

ci al

, e co

n o m

ic , an

d e n vi

ro n m

e n ta

l re

sp o n si

b ili

ty to

o u r

cu st

o m

e rs

, e m

p lo

ye e s,

an d

sh ar

e h o ld

e rs

.’’

Y u m

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environmental stewards, they tend to be less persuasive than those processes

that can be verified or challenged—which may explain the limited use of

mental processes in the genre.

Process Types and Discursive Goals of Introducing Sustainability Initiatives

Introducing sustainability initiatives is a move that presents supporting evi-

dence for the identity the company puts forth in establishing its credentials.

This move shows the company’s efforts in six areas of environmental con-

cern: energy use/greenhouse gas emissions, waste management/recycling,

water conservation, alliances, sustainable packaging, and sustainable agri-

culture. The microstructural processes used in introducing sustainability

initiatives in the summary and six subsequent submoves are material,

relational, and, very rarely, mental. Table 4 shows the distribution of these

processes within the submoves of the corpus and presents examples of the

processes and their discursive goals.

The content of the summary section provides general information about

the company’s efforts to limit its environmental footprint. This rhetorical

device reintroduces the content of the establishing-credentials move, specif-

ically, the company’s stated commitments and goals, and connects it to the

measures that the company has implemented to fulfill its objectives. This

connection is accomplished at the microlinguistic level by using actional

verbs such as adopted to express material processes, or processes of doing.

Such expression of material processes in the summary component gives

cohesion to the genre by reporting on the company’s actions (e.g., adopting

an environmental policy) and promoting the positive outcomes of such

actions (e.g., guiding corporate environmental practices globally).

For those reports without a summary section, introducing sustainability

initiatives serves as a header (or organizing theme) for six types of sub-

moves that have varying rates of usage (see Table 2). These submoves

address and lay out the companies’ sustainability initiatives by type of envi-

ronmental sector. They include, predominantly, material processes that are

grammatically expressed by actional verbs, specifically reduce, limit, mini-

mize, preserve, partner, work, develop, and produce. Some of these actional

verbs correlate with the type of submove. For example, processes in the

energy use/greenhouse gas emissions and waste management/recycling

submoves are often headed by actional verbs, such as reduce and limit. The

alliances submove, on the other hand, is headed by actional verbs such as

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T a b

le 4 .

P ro

ce ss

e s

an d

G o al

s o f In

tr o d u ci

n g

S u st

ai n ab

ili ty

In it ia

ti ve

s in

th e

S u b m

o ve

s

S u b m

o ve

P ro

ce ss

G o al

C o m

p an

y

M at

e ri

al (1

0 0 %

o f p ro

ce ss

e s

in th

e su

b m

o ve

) S u m

m ar

y ‘‘S

ar a

L e e

C o rp

o ra

ti o n

a d o p te

d it s

E n vi

ro n m

e n ta

l P o lic

y, w

h ic

h gu

id e s

o u r

gl o b al

e n vi

ro n m

e n ta

l p ra

ct ic

e s.

’’ S ar

a L e e

M at

e ri

al (1

0 0 %

o f p ro

ce ss

e s

in th

e su

b m

o ve

) E n e rg

y u se

/g re

e n

h o u se

ga s

e m

is si

o n s

‘‘B y

th e

e n d

o f 2 0 0 9 , w

e h a d

re d u ce

d ca

rb o n

d io

x id

e e q u iv

al e n t

(C O

2 e )

e m

is si

o n s

fr o m

m an

u fa

ct u ri

n g

b y

3 6

p e rc

e n t. ’’

A b b o tt

L ab

o ra

to ri

e s

‘‘R ed

u ce

e n e rg

y co

n su

m p ti o n

b y

2 5 %

in o u r

co m

p an

y- o w

n e d

st o re

s b y

2 0 1 0 .’’

S ta

rb u ck

s

‘‘B e st

B u y’

s E x cl

u si

ve B ra

n d s

o ff er

co n su

m e rs

a w

id e

va ri

e ty

o f ch

o ic

e s

th at

h e lp

th e m

re d u ce

e n e rg

y co

n su

m p ti o n

d u ri

n g

p ro

d u ct

u se

.’’

B e st

B u y

M at

e ri

al (6

5 %

o f p ro

ce ss

e s

in th

e su

b m

o ve

) W

at e r

co n se

rv at

io n

‘‘B e ca

u se

fr e sh

w at

e r

is b e co

m in

g m

o re

p re

ci o u s,

w e’

re ch

o o si n g

to lim

it o u r

w at

e r

u se

an d

e n su

re th

at th

e w

as te

w at

e r

w e

d is

ch ar

ge d o e sn

’t h ar

m n e ar

b y

w at

e rw

ay s.

’’

K im

b e rl

y- C

la rk

R e la

ti o n al

(3 3 %

o f p ro

ce ss

e s

in th

e su

b m

o ve

) ‘‘T

h e

H e rs

h e y

C o m

p an

y h a s

a so

lid re

co rd

o f m

an ag

in g

it s

w at

e r

re so

u rc

e s

d at

in g

b ac

k to

th e

la te

1 9 4 0 s.

’’ H

e rs

h e y

‘‘W at

e r

is o n e

o f o u r

m o st

va lu

ab le

re so

u rc

e s

an d

re d u ci

n g

o u r

co n su

m p ti o n

is im

p o rt

an t

to S o u th

w e st

A ir

lin e s.

’’

S o u th

w e st

A ir

lin e s

M at

e ri

al (8

1 %

o f p ro

ce ss

e s

in th

e su

b m

o ve

) W

as te

m an

ag e m

e n t/

re cy

cl in

g ‘‘W

e ’r

e a im

in g

to en

su re

th at

o u r

cu p s

ar e

re u sa

b le

o r

re cy

cl ab

le b y

2 0 1 5 .’’

S ta

rb u ck

s

‘‘L an

d O

’L ak

e s

is re

d u ci

n g

p ac

k ag

in g

m at

e ri

al vo

lu m

e an

d d e ve

lo p in

g so

u rc

in g

o p p o rt

u n it ie

s fo

r ad

d it io

n al

re cy

cl ab

le m

at e ri

al s.

’’

L an

d O

’L ak

e s

(c o n ti n u ed

)

495

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T a b

le 4 .

(c o n ti n u e d )

S u b m

o ve

P ro

ce ss

G o al

C o m

p an

y

R e la

ti o n al

(1 9 %

o f th

e p ro

ce ss

e s

in th

e su

b m

o ve

) ‘‘R

e cy

cl in

g, w

as te

m in

im iz

at io

n an

d p o llu

ti o n

p re

ve n ti o n

a re

k e y

fa ct

o rs

in U

S A

ir w

ay s’

e ff o rt

s to

p ro

te ct

o u r

n at

u ra

lr e so

u rc

e s

an d

ac ti ve

ly co

n tr

ib u te

to th

e co

m m

u n it ie

s in

w h ic

h w

e o p e ra

te .’’

U S

A ir

w ay

s

M at

e ri

al (1

0 0 %

o f th

e p ro

ce ss

e s

in th

e su

b m

o ve

) S u st

ai n ab

le p ac

k ag

in g

‘‘R ed

u ce

th e

im p ac

t o f o u r

p ac

k ag

in g.

’’ C

o ca

-C o la

E n te

rp ri

se s

‘‘W e

h a ve

d ev

el o p ed

fo rm

al su

st ai

n ab

le p ac

k ag

in g

gu id

e lin

e s

to h e lp

in fo

rm d e ci

si o n s

as so

ci at

e d

w it h

m at

e ri

al s

u se

d to

p ro

te ct

o u r

w id

e ra

n ge

o f p ro

d u ct

s. ’’

C am

p b e ll

S o u p

M at

e ri

al (9

2 %

o f th

e p ro

ce ss

e s

in th

e su

b m

o ve

) S u st

ai n ab

le ag

ri cu

lt u re

‘‘L an

d O

’L ak

e s,

o u r

m e m

b e rs

an d

th e

ag ri

cu lt u re

in d u st

ry a re

p ro

d u ci

n g

m o re

w it h

le ss

— an

d w

it h

le ss

e n vi

ro n m

e n ta

l im

p ac

t. W

h e th

e r

it ’s

h ig

h e r-

yi e ld

in g

se e d ,m

o re

b e n ig

n cr

o p

p ro

te ct

io n

p ro

d u ct

s o r

ad va

n ce

d an

im al

n u tr

it io

n o ff e ri

n gs

.’’

L an

d O

’L ak

e s

M e n ta

l (8

% o f th

e p ro

ce ss

e s

in th

e su

b m

o ve

) ‘‘S

af e w

ay re

co gn

iz es

th at

th e

w o rl

d ’s

o ce

an s

re q u ir

e u s

to b al

an ce

o u r

o n go

in g

b u si

n e ss

n e e d

fo r

m e e ti n g

th e

gr o w

in g

co n su

m e r

d e m

an d

fo r

se af

o o d

w it h

so u n d

e n vi

ro n m

e n ta

l st

e w

ar d sh

ip .’’

S af

e w

ay

M at

e ri

al (1

0 0 %

o f th

e p ro

ce ss

e s

in th

e su

b m

o ve

) A

lli an

ce s

‘‘B e st

B u y

h a s

p a rt

n er

ed w

it h

S m

ar tW

ay si

n ce

2 0 0 7

to h e lp

u s

re d u ce

th e

e n vi

ro n m

e n ta

l im

p ac

t o f tr

an sp

o rt

at io

n in

o u r

o p e ra

ti o n s.

’’

B e st

B u y

‘‘A ft

e r

m o re

th an

fo u r

ye ar

s, K

-C an

d G

re e n p e ac

e , a

le ad

in g

e n vi

ro n m

e n ta

l o rg

an iz

at io

n w

o rk

e d

to ge

th e r

to re

in fo

rc e

th e

co m

p an

y’ s

p ro

gr e ss

iv e

fi b e r

so u rc

in g

st an

d ar

d s.

’’ K

im b e rl

y- C

la rk

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partner or work. Table 5 provides a distribution of the most frequently used

actional verbs in the six types of submoves in the corpus.

The reports have a submove related to energy use/greenhouse gas emis-

sions (see Table 2). As Table 5 shows, 77 reports use the actional verb

reduce and 15 use the verb limit. Since all the reports use this submove, the

usage rate for these two verbs in the reports that include this submove is the

same as the percentage for the total corpus. By contrast, only 91 of the 100

reports use a submove related to waste management/recycling. Of these 91

reports, 67 use the verb reduce; hence, reduce is used by 67% of all the reports in the corpus with a usage rate of 74% for those reports that include the submove waste management/recycling.

The pervasive use of material processes grammatically expressed by

actional verbs in a variety of submoves in the corpus suggests that this type

of process is effective in providing the facts that readers require to be influ-

enced by a company’s stated green ideology. The use of facts, which are

delivered by the main actor (i.e., the company) in the genre, facilitates the

process of ideological persuasion through the fulfillment of plausible or

accepted socially held beliefs. That is, if a company can show statistically

or through specific examples that it is abiding by sound environmental

practices, then the audience will more easily accept as truth the company’s

projected image. In this sense, the submoves in the genre serve as a self-

assessment and self-evaluation of a company’s commitments and goals.

By presenting facts that, in theory, can be independently verified, compa-

nies will be more effective in influencing and changing their audiences’

minds.

Discussion

In this study, we examined how the macrostructure and microstructure of

corporate environmental reports are used to direct and shape audiences’ per-

ceptions about a company within a particular ideological framework, such

as responsible environmental business practices. The first part of our anal-

ysis focused on examining the macrostructure of corporate environmental

reports and the manner in which moves are organized according to their

(hierarchical) importance in order to inform audience members and pro-

mote a green agenda. The second part of our analysis focused on applying

a transitivity analysis to the microlinguistic structure of the genre in order to

determine how language is used to inform audience members and persuade

them of a company’s green ideology.

Mason and Mason 497

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Our findings show that the companies represented in the corpus construct

their corporate environmental reports to persuade audience members that

the companies develop their business practices with a concern for environ-

mental protection. To achieve this objective, they use a hybrid discourse

genre to influence their audience at both macrostructural and microstructural

levels. Audience members do not have uniform beliefs. Some audience mem-

bers, for example, may presuppose that companies, on average, do not care

about the environmental consequences of their actions while other members

may presuppose that any environmental action the company takes reduces its

profitability and, therefore, needs to be justified. To address disparate presup-

positions of audience members, corporate environmental reports are con-

structed in a manner that follows the cognitive basis of ideological

formation—that people hold beliefs that shape their perceptions about society

and its members. The notion that the environment needs to be protected and

sustained is a belief that reflects people’s assessment of situations based on

social and culturally shared values. The manner in which corporate environ-

mental reports influence audience members’ beliefs, as this study shows, lies

in the macrostructural and microstructural features of the genre.

At a macrostructural level, corporate environmental reports consist of a

sequence of moves (in a specific hierarchical order) reflecting areas that the

company wishes to report and promote. The first move, establishing the

company’s environmental credentials, serves to promote the notion that

the company has commitments to society that shape its environmental

Table 5. Distribution of Most Frequently Used Process (Material) by Submove in Reports Without a Summary Section

Submove Material process % of

Submove % of

Corpus

Energy use/greenhouse gas emissions reduce 77 77 limit 15 15

Waste management/recycling reduce 74 67 minimize 12 11

Water conservation reduce 27 23 limit 52 45 preserve 10 9

Alliances partner 58 21 work (together) 22 8

Sustainable packaging reduce 57 17 develop 23 7

Sustainable agriculture produce 71 15

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practices and policies. These commitments may or may not be grounded in

the company’s internal corporate ethos. The second move, introducing sus-

tainability initiatives, serves to introduce the company’s environmentally

friendly actions. This move demonstrates, in more tangible terms, how the

company’s commitments are realized in factual and verifiable ways.

At a microstructural level, the discursive features of corporate environ-

mental reports serve to shape people’s evaluative beliefs about companies

and the environment. In this genre, the company is represented as an

actional entity whose efforts are supported by independent sources

(e.g., alliances) or by using metrics for effective corporate compliance

(e.g., implementing measures that surpass regulatory standards). This dis-

cursive strategy satisfies the cognitive conditions of effective ideological

persuasion and provides insight into how companies inform their audience

about their role as stewards of the environment.

In summary, understanding how corporate environmental reports are

structured and use language in this genre provides insight into how audience

members are directed to evaluate and consume corporate green ideology.

The findings of this study further contemporary analysis of environmental

corporate rhetoric. This is a fairly new field in business communication and,

as such, demands further investigation, particularly in light of the growth of

green marketing and advertising in the last decade. We propose that under-

standing the (structural) realization of corporate environmental ideology

and its effect in shaping audience members’ perspective of a corporation’s

role as a steward of the environment will enhance our current understanding

of environmental rhetoric and eco-friendly marketing practices. Future

research is necessary to establish how societal changes shape the rhetorical

devices used in corporate environmental reports. This type of research

could examine, through time, the discursive choices of corporate environ-

mental reports and society’s perceptions of companies’ role in environmen-

tal management. Future research could also address whether yearly reports

exhibit marked differences in style and content or whether they tend to

recycle all or most of the macrostructural or microstructural components.

The results of such a study would address the role of intertextuality in cor-

porate environmental reports and provide insight into the strategies compa-

nies use to communicate their green agenda.

Appendix—List of Fortune 1000 Companies in the Corpus

Abbott (www.abbott.com)

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Alcoa (http://www.alcoa.com)

Alliant Energy (www.alliantenergy.com)

Ameren (www.ameren.com)

American Eagle Outfitters (www.ae.com)

American Electric Power (www.aep.com)

Ann Taylor Stores (www.anntaylor.com)

Bed Bath and Beyond (www.bedbathandbeyond.com)

Best Buy (www.bestbuy.com)

Burger King Holdings (www.bk.com)

Campbell Soup (www.campbellsoupcompany.com)

Chevron (www.chevron.com)

Children’s Place Retail Stores (www.childrensplace.com)

Church & Dwight (www.churchdwight.com)

Coca Cola Enterprises (www.cokecce.com)

Colgate-Palmolive (www.colgate.com)

ConAgra Foods (www.conagrafoods.com)

ConocoPhillips (www.conocophillips.com)

Consolidated Edison (www.conedison.com)

Constellation Energy (www.constellation.com)

Costco Wholesale (www.costco.com)

CVS Caremark (www.cvscaremark.com)

Dean Foods (www.deanfoods.com)

Del Monte Foods (www.delmonte.com)

Dole Food (www.dole.com)

Dominion Resources (www.dom.com)

Dow Chemical (www.dow.com)

Duke Energy (www.duke-energy.com)

Dupont (www.dupont.com)

Dynegy (www.dynegy.com)

Eastman Chemical (www.eastman.com)

Edison International (www.edison.com)

Entergy (www.entergy.com)

Estée Lauder (www.elcompanies.com)

Exelon (www.exeloncorp.com)

Exxon Mobil (www.exxonmobil.com)

Ferrelgas Partners (www.ferrelgas.com)

FirstEnergy (www.firstenergycorp.com)

Gap (www.gapinc.com)

General Mills (www.generalmills.com)

H. J. Heinz (www.heinz.com)

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Hershey (www.thehersheycompany.com)

Hess (www.hess.com)

Hertz Global Holdings (www.hertz.com)

Home Depot (www.homedepot.com)

Hormel Foods (www.hormelfoods.com)

Integrys Energy Group (www.integrysgroup.com)

ITT (www.itt.com)

J. M. Smucker (www.smucker.com)

Kellogg (www.kelloggcompany.com)

Kimberly-Clark (www.kimberly-clark.com)

Kraft Foods Company (www.kraftfoodscompany.com)

Kroger (www.kroger.com)

Land O’Lakes (www.landolakesinc.com)

Lowe’s (www.lowes.com)

Mattel (www.mattel.com)

McDonald’s (www.mcdonalds.com)

Michael Foods (www.michaelfoods.com)

Michaels Stores (www.michaels.com)

Monsanto (www.monsanto.com)

Mosaic (www.mosaicco.com)

New Jersey Resources (www.njliving.com)

Nicor (www.nicor.com)

NiSource (www.nisource.com)

Office Depot (www.officedepot.com)

OfficeMax (www.officemax.com)

Pepco Holdings (www.pepcoholdings.com)

Pfizer (www.pfizer.com)

PG&E (www.pgecorp.com)

PPG Industries (www.ppg.com)

Praxair (www.praxair.com)

Proctor & Gamble (www.pg.com)

Public Service Enterprise Group (www.pseg.com)

Publix Super Markets (www.publix.com)

RadioShack (www.radioshackcorporation.com)

Sara Lee (www.saralee.com)

Safeway (www.safeway.com)

Scana (www.scana.com)

Sears Holdings (www.searsholdings.com)

Sempra Energy (www.sempra.com)

Shering Plough (www.shering-plough.com)

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Southwest Airlines (www.southwest.com)

Staples (www.staples.com)

Starbucks (www.starbucks.com)

Sunoco (www.sunocoinc.com)

Supervalu (www.supervalu.com)

Target (www.target.com)

Teco Energy (www.tecoenergy.com)

Tiffany & Co (www.tiffany.com)

TJX (www.tjk.com)

Tupperware Brands (www.tupperwarebrands.com)

Urban Outfitters (www.urbanoutfitters.com)

US Airways (www.usairways.com)

Valero Energy (www.valero.com)

Walmart Stores (www.walmartstores.com)

Whole Foods Market (www.wholefoods.market.com)

Williams (www.williams.com)

Williams-Sonoma (www.williams-sonomainc.com)

Yum Brands (www.yum.com)

Zale (www.zalecorp.com)

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research,

authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or pub-

lication of this article.

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Bios

Marianne Mason is a faculty member at Georgia State University. She holds a

BBA in Operations/Production Management and a PhD in linguistics. She has pub-

lished in the Journal of Pragmatics, Police Quarterly, and Pragmatics: Quarterly

Publication of the International Pragmatics Association.

Robert D. Mason is an assistant professor of economics at the School of Business,

Georgia Gwinnett College.

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