Critical theory, environmental accounting frameworks, the business case, global sustainable reporting

Andrea Brunt, Glen Lehman and andRenée Palmer

Chapter 11 in Handbook of Critical Environmental Accountability and Sustainability, 2026, pp 169-184 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter presents a convergent theme to develop a critique, suggesting that much of the realist and procedural baggage associated with conventional accounting is no longer helpful in accounting for sustainability. Using critical theory, the chapter offers a more nuanced understanding of what ‘sustainability’ is and how it can have any empirical meaning at the organisational level. Offering an auto-critique of the now dominating business case for sustainability, the analysis examines the meanings and contradictions of sustainable development. This, in turn, leads towards a suggestion for developing multiple and conditional narratives that offer a realist challenge to the hegemonic claims of business movements in the arena of sustainability and sustainable development.

Keywords: Convergence; Critical Theory; Auto-Critique; Environmental Accounting; Dialectic; Contradiction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781802201765
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