A Taxonomy for Social Sustainability in Corporate Communication

Abstract

Sustainability, or environmental, social, and governance (ESG), reports have become ubiquitous among major companies in recent years, often criticized as tools for greenwashing and met with significant backlash. While the environmental aspects of these reports are well-defined, social sustainability remains poorly understood. Through an analysis of narrative sections from six corporate sustainability reports narrative sections, we propose an initial taxonomy of constitutive social sustainability concepts reflected in corporate speech.