Communicating Environmental CSR-Efforts in a Non-Sustainable Industry : A Comparative Study of Patagonia's and H&M's Environmental CSR Communication Using a Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis

Sammanfattning: The fashion industry is distinguished by two types of companies: slow fashion companies, such as Patagonia, characterized by environmentally friendly business practices, and fast fashion companies, such as H&M, premised on a less environmentally sustainable business model (Fletcher 2010; Bick, Halsey & Ekenga 2018). Although Patagonia and H&M are founded on different business models, their ECSR communication is similar. Due to how H&M communicate their ECSR efforts, they appear to be more environmentally friendly than research suggests. Therefore, it is interesting to study such communication more thoroughly. Hence, the aim is to examine how Patagonia and H&M position themselves as environmentally friendly businesses through their environmental CSR communication, from a transparency perspective. The theoretical framework consists of a CCO perspective on CSR and how organizations use communication to create and sustain an image of being sustainable, in addition to theoretical ideas regarding transparency and CSR as aspirational talk. The chosen method is A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of images and written communication, which will help illustrate how each company uses images, together with written discourse, to communicate their ECSR-efforts. The main findings present that Patagonia and H&M incorporate transparency into their ECSR communication by communicating self-reflections, providing business insights, taking responsibility for their actions, and more. On surface level, both companies’ ECSR communication appears to be very similar, however, when closely examining the differences in their ECSR communication, Patagonia’s ECSR communication suggests a more environmentally friendly business, whereas H&M’s ECSR communication reflects aspirational talk and suggests a less environmentally friendly business.