Climate change and carbon emissions are top of mind in all facets of society. This study aims to investigate what the world’s top brands are saying about carbon emissions and greenhouse gases (GHG). Through this inquiry, the authors hope to better understand what brands are saying, doing and if their actions are clear. Furthermore, the authors seek to uncover practices that may deter or enhance a brand’s effectiveness in communicating its current and future initiatives. 

Read Carbon Talk: Comparing Top Brands’ Climate Change Objectives →
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Steven Dahlquist

Kevin Lehnert

Increasingly we are faced with broad societal challenges that encourage us to rethink existing institutions. Yet many people also want to preserve institutions they cherish. This tension points to the need for change that can erode or discontinue unsustainable or problematic aspects of institutions while also maintaining what is sacred and valued. In this paper we ask how can organizations deinstitutionalize taken-for-granted practices while also preserving the institution? We answer this question by exploring how Trout Unlimited deployed visual and discursive tactics to push out unsustainable catch-and-harvest fly fishing practices and insert new catch-and-release practices. Our primary theoretical contribution is a model of repair-focused deinstitutionalization, illustrating how custodians utilize three forms of work to respond to threats—mending, caring, and restoring—all with an eye on deinstitutionalization via repair rather than disruption. Importantly, we show how the construct of repair is multipurpose, not limited to maintenance strategies, but can also be a catalyst for change. In addition, we extend research on deinstitutionalization by presenting a multimodal approach that goes beyond discourse, with particular attention to visuality and show how different modalities present different affordances in longer-term repair efforts. 

Read From Catch-and-Harvest to Catch-and-Release: Trout Unlimited and Repair-Focused Deinstitutionalization →
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Brett Crawford

Madeline Toubiana

Erica Coslor

Psychological ownership has been linked to various environmental behaviors, but extantresearch has typically examined a specific environmental element (i.e., a lake or nationalpark) instead of abstract entities as the target of this ownership. The current researchinvestigates how psychological ownership of an abstract entity, namely one's community,impacts environmental attitudes and behaviors. Intrigued by previous research showingthat consumer concern for the environment does not necessarily translate into pro‐environmental action, we examine the connection between psychological ownership,environmental concern, and environmental behaviors. We propose and find that theperception of environmental ineffectiveness moderates how these variables relate to oneanother. Counterintuitively, higher levels of perceived environmental ineffectiveness(rather than effectiveness) strengthen the relationships between these variables. We drawon the theory of ritualistic behaviors to explain this phenomenon. Results from threestudies using diverse respondents and data gathering approaches reveal a consistentpattern of relationships. Our research makes several important contributions. First, itidentifies a quasi‐endowment effect that extends from psychological ownership ofcommunity to environmental concern, which subsequently results in the protection of theenvironment through engagement in environmental behaviors. Second, this researchextends the burgeoning psychological literature on rituals to the domain of environmentalbehaviors. Finally, using the conceptualization of environmental behavior as a ritual, this isthe first study to illustrate how perceived consumer ineffectiveness moderates the effect of psychological ownership on environmental behaviors through environmental concern.

Read Ritual and Environmental Ineffectiveness: How Psychological Ownership of Community Drives Environmental Behavior →
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Yihui (Elina) Tang

Reto Felix

 Christian Hinsch