Sense-Making Resource Efficiency Through "Sustainability" Reports

This paper explores the nature and antecedents of a unique sustainability reporting initiative developed within a large Australian family-run manufacturing company. In so doing, the paper responds to calls for empirical insight into how accounting can inform organisational objectives relating to sustainability. Despite known flaws in the data, the company's weekly sustainability reports had become a critical support to on-going sense-making, driven by deliberate strategies focused on resource efficiency, and understanding the business. While the contributions of these initiatives to broader global sustainability concerns were limited, the case provides insight into a well-intentioned and passionate journey towards the unknown of sustainability. The case explains how management distinguished related activities from core economic objectives. What is important here is that the CEO availed space for management to explore the moral dimensions of corporate activity. There was opportunity to now enhance that space, by encouraging engagement with a broader range of stakeholders, and a broader range of sustainability impacts.