Data vs. Action: Is corporate sustainability stuck in the numbers?
Centre for Sustainable Business
Two students from King’s Business School reflect on a thought-provoking talk by Dr Matthew Archer, exploring the challenges of corporate reporting within sustainability.
At King’s Business School (KBS), students are actively engaging with the pressing question: What is the future of sustainable business?
While this question has no single answer, one thing is clear: investing in the next generation of business leaders is a crucial part of the solution.
To support their learning, the Centre for Sustainable Business collaborated with Dr Pauline Destree, Lecturer in Business Ethics and Sustainability at KBS, to invite an author from her curriculum, Dr Matthew Archer, to give a talk to her students and wider KBS staff.
Dr Archer is Assistant Professor in the Department of Society Studies at Maastricht University. Drawing from his book ‘Unsustainable: measurement, reporting, and the limits of corporate sustainability’, Dr Archer brought academic theory to life, offering fresh perspectives on corporate sustainability, challenging conventional approaches to sustainability reporting and raising critical questions about its future.
In this article, KBS students Remy Foster and Annabelle Caroline Lee Mew Fong reflect on their key takeaways from the talk, exploring how it has shaped their understanding of sustainable business and their aspirations for the future.
Remy Foster
The limits of corporate sustainability: A critical reflection
By Remy Foster, second-year student in International Management
As an international management student, I attended Matthew Archer’s recent talk, The Limits of Corporate Sustainability, with great anticipation.
The event offered detailed insights into the challenges of embedding sustainability into corporate practices, raising questions about whether the current approaches are sufficient, but also understand if companies are really trying to tackle the climate crisis.
Archer’s core argument—that corporate sustainability today revolves excessively around data and indicators rather than meaningful action—really intrigued me.
The creation of sustainability reports, metrics, and rankings has created an industry of ‘sustainability professionals’, whose primary responsibility is to develop plans for measuring and reporting sustainability.
While one might see this as beneficial, because it shows actions corporations are taking against climate change, Archer contends that these data-driven approaches often fail to translate into tangible environmental or social outcomes.
As someone studying international management, I found this discussion especially relevant to my studies. While it is encouraging to see corporations adopting sustainability frameworks, Archer’s talk highlighted that these initiatives often fail to challenge the underlying systems that perpetuate environmental degradation and inequality.
This led me to ask the question: “Which companies are getting sustainability right?”. The response was pessimistic yet unsurprising: Archer was unable to think of a particular company, however, this followed a lively debate from members of the audience offering examples of some sustainable companies and initiatives.
"Looking ahead, the future of sustainable business is not reporting data on how the company is contributing, but it’s about taking actions with the data reported. We must move beyond viewing sustainability as a reporting exercise and embrace it as a practice rooted in ethical, ecological, and social justice principles.”
Remy Foster
Archer’s insights also made me reflect on the potential intersection between corporate sustainability and environmental law. In the Q&A, he answered that there are not enough laws in place to hold business accountable for green-washing or contributing to a more sustainable future.
Regulations that hold corporations accountable for their environmental and social impacts could incentivize genuine change. However, as Archer reminded us, even legal instruments must contend with the same challenges of commensuration and quantification that are seen as issues in corporate reporting.
Looking ahead, the future of sustainable business is not reporting data on how the company is contributing, but it’s about taking actions with the data reported. We must move beyond viewing sustainability as a reporting exercise and embrace it as a practice rooted in ethical, ecological, and social justice principles.
Archer’s talk reinforced the need for critical perspectives in corporate sustainability and inspired me to explore how management practices and legal frameworks can drive meaningful progress.
Remy Foster is a King’s student in International Management. He is passionate about sustainability and aspires to work in corporate or legal roles addressing environmental issues. He is eager to contribute to creating sustainable business practices and policies that can drive impactful change on a global scale.
Annabelle Caroline Lee Mew Fong
Progress in sustainability: Is data a distraction?
Annabelle Caroline Lee Mew Fong, second-year undergraduate student in Accounting and Finance
Dr Matthew Archer’s talk about the limits of sustainability was an eye-opening debate about the extent to which corporate sustainability is helping us achieve our sustainability goals.
The event was a superb addition to our Business Ethics and Sustainability module. Dr Archer’s talk showcased the obstacles of sustainability measurements revolving around data, the challenges of current solutions, and the dichotomy between what companies say they are doing and the reality. Through an anthropological lens, he explored the concept of achieving sustainability through a data-driven world.
Although corporate sustainability tactics used by companies is diversifying, especially in recent years, this talk highlighted how these methods might not help to achieve concrete changes–but rather diverge our focus on data collection. Dr Archer has a critical view of sustainability professionals being dissociated from instigating any change once data is collected, and he explains how the data may do more harm than good.
Prior to this talk, I had not thought about this perspective. I had believed in the importance of commensuration; it is vital to be able to quantify things for easier understanding, as well as comparisons and conclusions. The lack of contestation towards sustainability measurements further justifies the issues with current procedures.
“I particularly resonated with the point that sustainability cannot be achieved or seen as an end goal, but that growth and improvement is infinite– thus, solutions can also be infinite.”
Annabelle Caroline Lee Mew Fong
Dr Archer’s use of specific case studies, ranging from economic to sociological examples, offered a deeper understanding on other challenges within measuring sustainability, such as greenwashing and the self-correcting measures of markets. Having previously attended lectures about this content, I found his different take on this topic particularly intriguing.
Although he expressed his divergence in opinions on sustainability, I connected with his perspective of sustainability as a journey, rather than a destination. I particularly resonated with the point that sustainability cannot be achieved or seen as an end goal, but that growth and improvement is infinite– thus, solutions can also be infinite.
This enlightening talk has helped improve my knowledge on the current challenges and potential of sustainability. It is essential for people to better grasp different perspectives on the matter for continuous improvement and achievement of common goals. Matthew Archer’s book may pave the way for further dissecting of sustainability as an umbrella term.
Annabelle Caroline Lee Mew Fong is a 2nd year undergraduate student at King’s College London, studying Accounting and Finance. As an aspiring individual entering the workforce in a few years, she aims to have a well-rounded understanding of markets from several standpoints including one of sustainability. With sustainability taking a forefront aspect of business, it is crucial to remain up to date. Annabelle’s determination and thirst for learning motivates her to expand her knowledge in new evolving concepts.
Thank you to Dr Matthew Archer for joining us for this unique talk. Thank you to Dr Pauline Destree for making this opportunity happen, and special thanks to Remy, Annabelle and Demir for forming an excellent student panel at this event.
