“We are on a Journey.” Corporate Communication of Climate Change Mitigation in the United States

Anthropogenic climate change is one of the most severe grand challenges facing humanity, and many corporations have recognized they have a responsibility to mitigate this complex problem. While some corporate attempts to mitigate climate change have resulted in effective strategies for decarbonization, others have resulted in symbolic environmentalism or greenwashing. We investigate four cases of major companies from the technology and retail industries to understand how companies develop and communicate their climate change mitigation strategies. We find that many companies attempt to communicate their decarbonization strategy as one reflecting uncertainty and contingency, using the analogy of a “journey” toward a net-zero goal, which aims to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) by a certain year. These journeys inherently involve temporal changes reflecting the external societal and policy environment, such as after the 2015 Paris Agreement and the 2019 climate protests, as well as considerations about the breadth of a firm’s audience for particular communications. We also find that some companies communicate regularly their milestones on the journey, but others do not, and that some companies emphasize intraorganizational practices, such as purchasing renewable energy, while others highlight interorganizational collaborations, such as forming partnerships with civil society organizations. We conclude by discussing implications for future research on organizations and climate change.