Idag kommunicerar allt fler företag externt om sitt CSR-arbete. Då den externa kommunikationen inte samstämmer med det interna arbetet så uppstår särkoppling som kan ge kritik som greenwashing. Företaget Vattenfall har fått sådan kritik, vilket gör det intressant att studera företagets interna arbete. Syftet med uppsatsen är att beskriva och få en ökad förståelse för hur CSR används och uppfattas internt bland medarbetare genom att undersöka problem som företaget kan möta i sitt interna CSR-arbete. Vår uppsats bygger på en kvalitativ studie. Vår primärdata utgörs av åtta stycken semistrukturerade intervjuer på Vattenfall och vår sekundärdata är hämtad från artiklar, böcker och företagets uppförandekod. De anställda känner till delar av uppförandekoden och det finns vissa svårigheter med att få den integrerad. Detta kan tyda på att CSR-arbetet inte i full utsträckning får den funktion som den är ämnad för då problemen skapar svårigheter med att få det interna praktiska arbetet att spegla den externa kommunikationen.

Abstract TECO advertisements promote the use of natural gas as an energy source because it claims that natural gas is an environmentally responsible alternative to other sources of energy. However, these advertisements do not reveal the not-so-green process, namely hydraulic-fracturing, or fracking, by which natural gas is produced and the consequences that it can and does have on public health and the environment. Even though the conversation about fracking has been on the rise in recent years as certain companies and politicians have pushed for an increase in natural gas production, scholars have yet to examine the communicative strategies used by energy companies, such as TECO, to disregard the environmental dangers associated with fracking and present natural gas extraction as both environmentally friendly and safe for consumers. Although there are numerous ways of analyzing the relationship between communication and greenwashing, I chose to examine the rhetorical choices, both written and spoken, and image choices embedded in TECO's greenwashing advertisements for natural gas. The use of communicative strategies in TECO's advertisements aim to create a dominant discourse of green consumerism, which works to shape society's understanding of what it means to be a consumer who strives to be environmentally responsible. My analysis was informed by Stuart Hall's theory of Encoding and Decoding (1973) and his theory of representation (1997). I argue that TECO presents the dominant code of the green consumer and my analysis offers an oppositional reading. The use of grounded theory provided me with a viable method to analyze TECO's advertisements because I was able gather and analyze data from ten commercial advertisements, examine each individually for themes, and then discuss the ways in which TECO uses specific language, both written and spoken, and visual images, in its advertisements, in order to construct the meaning of natural gas and the identity of the natural gas consumer.

Background: Greenwashing is a constantly growing phenomenon which is known to be an issue created by deceiving marketing strategies. The field of CSR is constantly ex- panding and greenwashing is one of the relatively new and very current issue in today’s society. Therefore the awareness of the issue need to be there for the public to be able to make more informed active decisions. Purpose: This thesis aim to shed light on the current day issue that is greenwashing and its connection to some of the most successful and fastest growing multinational compa- nies within the clothing and retail industry. Method: The thesis is based on a qualitative research approach with consist multiple case study of six multinational clothing and retail companies. The data has been collect- ed through website observations, news articles, media and through a questionnaire based on greenwashing awareness, which was analysed through a interlaced case com- parison. Conclusion: The observation made of six well known clothing brands showed the ex- istence of common trend of companies using a long and complicated way to implement their codes of conduct and therefore making the issue of greenwashing existent. Obvi- ously, this problem has a huge impact on any company’s stakeholders and the actual problem and controversy of this topic is how one could make rational and aware deci- sions if the essential information is difficult to access. Until this issue is highlighted in a public matter, people will stay unaware and inactive to find the information needed to make informed decisions.

Over the past 30 years, the U.S. prison population has exploded. With only 5% of the global population, the U.S. now incarcerates more than 25% of the world’s prisoners (ACLU, 2011). This has led to increased attention towards the carceral system in the United States, and the efficacy of its methods of rehabilitation. As inmate populations rise, prisons have also become increasingly over-crowded, and this has led to a variety of environmental problems. In response to this and calls to action by the Justice Department to implement more sustainable and cost effective strategies in prisons, the United States is seeing a surge in prison sustainability programs throughout the country. While sustainability is an important challenge facing the world, researchers have argued that these changes are being made not only with environmental sustainability in mind, but with strategic aims to sustain current levels of hyper-incarceration.

Hållbarhetsredovisningen har utvecklats allt mer de senaste åren. Allt fler företag hållbarhetsredovisar och många länder väljer att reglera hållbarhetsredovisningen genom lag. Den mest använda standarden ges ut av Global Reporting Initiative, GRI. Deras senaste standard, G4, kom 2013 och dess utveckling går mot att företagens intressenter ska bli allt mer involverade och att hållbarhetsrapporten bör granskas av tredje part. Allt för att öka trovärdigheten på rapporten samt för att minska grönmålningen, aktiviteter där företagen framställer sig som mer hållbara än vad de är. Teorin lyfter fram ökad reglering, ökad involvering av intressenter samt granskning av hållbarhetsrapporten som aktiviteter för att minska grönmålningen och öka trovärdigheten hos ens intressenter.   Vi har i denna studie försökt visa på skillnader i balansen på positiva och negativa nyheter utifrån vilken redovisningsstandard företagen använder, G3 eller G4 samt utifrån om hållbarhetsrapporten granskats eller ej. Genom en innehållsanalys har vi kodat nyheterna i hållbarhetsredovisningarna som positiva eller negativa, som text, tabell eller diagram samt som hård eller mjuk. Vi har sedan gjort t-tester på vårt material för att se om eventuella skillnader finns. De skillnader vi finner påvisar ökad grönmålning i rapporter uppställda enligt G4, samt i granskade rapporter, varför vi ifrågasätter deras förmåga att hindra företag från att grönmåla. Tidigare forskning kring hållbarhetsredovisning har visat att de rapporterande företagens storlek har stor inverkan på deras rapportering, varför vi också valde att testa denna aspekt. Resultatet vi fick av dessa tester tyder på att större företag i högre grad grönmålar sina hållbarhetsrapporter jämfört med mindre företag. / Corporate Social Responsibility reporting has developed further over the past years. More and more companies publish CSR reports and several countries have passed regulations enforcing CSR reporting. The most commonly used reporting standard is published by the Global Reporting Initative, GRI. Their latest standard, G4, was released in 2013 and it is more focused on the involvement of stakeholders in the reporting process. It also encourages external assurance of reports. This is to increase credibility for the reports and to counter greenwashing, activities that companies use to seem more sustainable than they really are. Previous research has put forward increased regulation, increased involvement of stakeholders, and external assurance of CSR reports as activities capable of mitigating greenwashing and increasing credibility.   In this study we have sought to proove differences in balance between positive and negative news based on the reporting standard companies are using, G3 or G4, as well as based on wheather the report has been externally assured or not. We have conducted a content analysis of CSR reports and coded their contents based on value, type, attribution, and wheather the information is hard or soft. We then ran t-tests on our material to discover differences. The differences we found point to an increase in greenwashing for reports made according to G4, as well as for reports that are externally assured, which makes us question their ability to counter greenwashing. Previous research have proved that the size of the reporting company has a big effect on their reporting behaviour, something we also tested. The results from these tests show that larger companies tend to greenwash their CSR reports more than smaller companies.

Rapportens syfte är att undersöka hur visuell kommunikationanvänds för att kommunicera fast fashion. Urvalet som analyserades är en del av Na-kd:s webshop. Studiens resultat visar att Na-kd på flera sätt, genom visuell kommunikation, uppmuntrar konsumenten att agera.

8 June 2020 Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, 15 cr School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Fanar Soror Francis Henrik Aronsson Jonathan Fesahaye (95/11/30) (95/10/29) (94/03/01) How is consumer-based brand equity affected by sustainability marketing? Daniel Tolstoy Brand equity, sustainable marketing, purchase intent, attitudes, consumer-based brand equity How is a company's consumer-based brand equity affected by the company's use of sustainability advertising? How does this in turn affect the purchase intent with consumers? The purpose of this study is to show how and to what extent a company's consumer-based brand equity is affected by their sustainability marketing. Quantitative method The authors conclude that sustainability advertising has a negative effect on consumer-based brand equity in the industries selected for this quantitative study. But where the airline industry is reasonably spared from the criticism.

Hållbarhetsfrågan har blivit allt viktigare. Intresset för hållbarhet ökar och får större inverkan på människors val (Ottosson &Parment, 2016, s. 13). Dessvärre förekommer det att företag utnyttjar detta genom användning av vilseledande grön kommunikation,vilket äventyrar hållbarhetsrörelsens kraft på marknaden (TerraChoice, 2009). Den här rapporten lyfter begreppen hållbarhet ochgreenwashing. Syftet är att undersöka den visuella kommunikationen för veganska produkter och hur det budskapet speglar ett urvaldokumenterade miljöstörningar. Detta i och med att allt fler svenskar väljer en vegansk kost av miljömässiga skäl (Novus, 2018).Rapporten fokuserar på att undersöka livsmedelsföretaget Oatly som utvecklar, producerar och marknadsför bland annathavrebaserade drycker. Oatly har under 2018 haft en total tillväxt på 65 %, samtidigt som företaget fått kritik gällande gällande derasfaktiska klimatnytta (Sörbring, 2019). Rapporten undersöker Oatlys visuella kommunikation och dokumenterade miljöstörningar föratt kartlägga differensen mellan dessa. För att besvara frågeställningarna gjordes semiotiska bildanalyser på delar av Oatlyskommunikation, samt en kvalitativ textanalys på deras hållbarhetsrapport från 2018.Resultatet i rapporten visar att Oatly genomgående kommunicerar hållbarhet, men att deras faktiska hållbarhetsarbete är bristandebåde ekonomiskt, miljömässigt och socialt. Vidare framhåller företagets kommunikation noga sin avhållsamhet från djurriket, vilketfaktiskt är kritiskt ur ett hållbarhetsperspektiv då det krockar med miljömålet om biologisk mångfald (Extrakt, 2019; Rundgrens,2019). Slutsatsen är att det förekommer en viss grad av greenwashing i Oatlys visuella kommunikation.

The following study aims to examine how influencer marketing contribute to an increased consumption in today’s society through their communication on social media, as well as how this communication can be seen as an expression of greenwashing. A multimodal critical discourse analysis has been conducted to look into and analyze the relation between how influencers encourage people to buy the products they are advertising and how they use their power to spread awareness about a sustainable lifestyle. The relevance of the study lies in the background of the climate changes and the study will therefore examine how encouragement for consumption becomes contradictory in the context of the study object, Therése Lindgren's, environmentally conscious everyday life and how this becomes an expression of greenwashing.    The result of the study shows that Therése Lindgren’s way of portraying the products she is advertising has a persuasive approach. In the posts that are environmental focused, Lindgren uses statistics and facts to strengthen her opinion to increase credibility and persuade her followers to live a more sustainable life. Furthermore, it can be assumed that Therése Lindgren's communication can give expression to greenwashing and that her posts can be a contributing factor to the increased consumption in today's society.

Background: The emergence and growth of the green economy has prompted companies to take more steps towards becoming environmentally conscious, but this is not always done in an honest way, from which cases of greenwashing has emerged. Cases of greenwashing can be recognized in all areas of business, and most of the research at the moment only recognizes the effect of a greenwashing case on consumer behavior, missing the link of consumer perceptions. The existing case study research also focuses on the attitudes after the fact, not investigating how a consumer reacts to the information during the revelation of a company’s misconduct.   Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the connection between the concept of greenwashing and consumer perceptions, and thus the decisions consumers take based on the level of information they possess.   Method: The research is conducted as an interpretivist qualitative case study based on a single imaginary case, where the data is gathered through triangulation of previous existing literature and observations from semi-structured interviews, analyzed through abductive reasoning.   Conclusion: The research found that when a consumer is presented with information about a company and their initiatives, the perceptions that the consumer has change accordingly. The perceptions are dependent on the level of interest the consumer has in sustainability issues. Some findings that were not expected considered the partial effect of the sustainability initiatives, showing that consumers are only interested in green initiatives up to their personal constraints or preferences. The consumers largely see the motivations of a company to be attributed to profits, however, some more optimistic consumers seem to be less affected by greenwashing.