Title: Organisational resistance to ecological footprinting

Authors: Crawford Spence

Addresses: John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd West, Montreal, H3G 1M8, Canada

Abstract: This paper explores organisational resistance to more comprehensive sustainability reporting in the form of ecological footprinting. On the basis of a series of interviews with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Managers in the UK, a number of barriers were identified for ecological footprinting at the organisational level: the cost and resource constraints involved; the perceived low utility of the ecological footprint in helping to manage key organisational impacts; and a concern that the ecological footprint would not show the |right picture|. These constraints, which constitute different manifestations of a business case, provide evidence for the limits which the business case imposes on corporate responsibility and accountability.

Keywords: sustainability reporting; ecological footprinting; business case; ideology; organisational resistance; sustainable development; accountability; corporate social responsibility; CSR; UK; United Kingdom.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMCP.2009.027617

International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy, 2009 Vol.3 No.4, pp.362 - 377

Published online: 04 Aug 2009 *

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